The Sidekick Podcast

As a ministry professional, you deal with seasonal changes every year. Each season provides different opportunities for you and your ministry. But in additional to the seasons that change, your personal life has seasons that also change. You go from a young leader to a married leader to a married with children leader to an older leader.

Each season in your personal life brings changes to how you do ministry. That is why Dan Istvanik is on the podcast today. Dan is a Student Ministry Veteran of over 23 years and, just like me, he has been through a variety of personal seasons in his ministry career.

So, today, Dan and I talk about the different personal seasons you go through and how to navigate through each of them.

ACTION STEPS:

* Share your thoughts! What personal season of ministry are you in? How are you navigating that season? Share your thoughts and insights below or on social media using the hashtag #ymsidekick.

* Connect with Dan. If you want to connect with Dan, check him out on Facebook. You can also check out his website as well. He has a ton of writings and resources on that page so check it out.

* Facebook Group! Join the Digital Bootcamp Facebook Group to learn how to be more effective using digital tools for your ministry join the group. This is for ALL Ministers, not just Church Communicators or Social Media Managers.

* Make sure you goto iTunes and subscribe to the podcast and see what cool things we do each and every week!  And make sure you rate the show, especially if you like it.

Marketing and Ministry. While most ministers are not marketers, there is an element of marketing you do for your ministry. So how do you effectively market your ministry? What do you do? What strategies to you implement?

To talk about this, I invited Adam McLaughlin to join the podcast and talk about what the different marketing strategies are out there to help you reach more people for Christ. Adam is a Church Communicator who worked in a Church for a number of years but is now back to working with Churches all over helping them improve the communication to their community.

ACTION STEPS:

* Share your thoughts! What kind of marketing strategies do you do to market your ministry? Share what you do.

* If you want to connect with Adam you can read his blog here and gets some great FREE ebooks here. You can also find him on Twitter. He is very active on social media so definitely hit him up if you have a question.

* Facebook Group! Join the Digital Bootcamp Facebook Group to learn how to be more effective using digital tools for your ministry join the group. This is for ALL Ministers, not just Church Communicators or Social Media Managers.

* Make sure you goto iTunes and subscribe to the podcast and see what cool things we do each and every week!  And make sure you rate the show, especially if you like it.

Every year in the spring comes the Orange Conference. As I have said countless times it is the ONE conference I make a priority at attend. While I have only missed once in the past 8 years, it is the ONE conference that blows my mind and gives me a ton to process and think about.

While I process and debrief, there is no better person for me to do this with than Cory Sullivan.

That is why Cory Sullivan is back on the podcast. Today we talk about being creative, how that helps your ministry and where you can get creative inspiration so that

ACTION STEPS:

* What about you? What did you learn from the Orange Conference 2019? What challenged or inspired you? Share them with us on social media using the hashtag #ymsidekick to share. 

* Cory is a great resource and you can find him blogging here.  You can also follow him on Twitter here. He’s a great resource so hit him up and pick his brain.

* Join the Digital Bootcamp Facebook Group to learn how to be more effective using digital tools for your ministry join the group. This is for ALL Ministers, not just Church Communicators or Social Media Managers.

* Make sure you goto iTunes and subscribe to the podcast and see what cool things we do each and every week!  And make sure you rate the show, especially if you like it.

The 2019 Orange Conference has begun! Yesterday was a great start to the conference with some YouLead Labs and the Opening Session. Cory Sullivan and I share our highlights from Day 1 which consisted of the YouLead Labs sessions we went to as well as the Opening Session of the conference.

ACTION STEPS:

* What did you think of Day 1 of the Orange Conference? What did you learn? Share with us on Twitter using hashtag #ymsidekick when you share. 

* You can read Cory’s notes from his individual session on his blog, Rally Youth. Cory is a great resource and you can also follow him on his Instagram account. 

* My notes can be found at YMSidekick which highlights leading Volunteers and leading a self-centered generation.

* Digital Bootcamp Facebook Group: Join the Facebook group for ALL  ministers (paid or volunteer) where you learn digital tools to help expand your reach in ministry.

* Make sure you goto iTunes and subscribe to the podcast and see what cool things we do each and every week!

* Also, sign up for the Sidekick Scoop to get content from all over the ministry world (especially online and student ministry topics).

If you are not able to attend in person, have no fear, you can still watch the live stream of all the main sessions here.

How about you? What are you learning from the Orange Conference after day 1? What is your “recap”?  Share your thoughts below or on social media using #ymsidekick so we can all learn from each other.

When we talk about using digital tools to expand your reach, it can often be misconstrued that you reach more and more people all over the world. While that is possible, it is not always the intention. In fact, if you are a physical Church in a community, local impact and reach should be the primary focus.

That is why Joe Radosevich from Belgium Community Church in Belgium, Wisconsin joins me on the podcast today. Joe is the Lead Pastor at BCC and today we talk about how he is using Waze, Google My Business, Facebook and the Church’s webpage to reach people in his local community. All four of these ways are very useful with some costing very little to do and some costing no money at all. Find out how you can use them in your local community.

ACTION STEPS:

* What do you think? What are some digital tools you are using to reach your local community? Share your thoughts on social media using the hashtag #ymsidekick to share. 

* If you want to connect with Joe, you can always connect with him on Facebook.

* Make sure you goto iTunes and subscribe to the podcast and see what cool things we do each and every week!  And make sure you rate the show, especially if you like it.

Student ministers are often stereotyped as many things. Of all the stereotypes out there, very rarely will it be as a professional, hard working young person. While this is unfortunate as I’ve spent over 20 years in student ministry and I know the professionalism needed to be successful long term, this is pretty accurate as often times Student ministers often shoot themselves in the foot by what they do or don’t do.

Joining me to talk about this is another veteran student minister, Christopher Wesley. Christopher and I talk about a recent blog post he wrote, “Is Your Youth Ministry a Joke?” and discuss what student ministers must do to be taken seriously in their Church and ministry.

ACTION STEPS:

* What do you think? How have you taken your ministry seriously while also demonstrate a level of professionalism? Share your thoughts on social media using the hashtag #ymsidekick to share. 

* If you want to connect with Chris, you can a few different ways.  He’s on Twitter, has an awesome blog with tons of great insights each week.

* Webinar – Join Chris’ webinar on 7 Steps To Overcome Your Fear Of Failing coming this May!

* Make sure you goto iTunes and subscribe to the podcast and see what cool things we do each and every week!  And make sure you rate the show, especially if you like it.

No matter what ministry you are in, if you are head leader, you are going to need to run meetings. That is part of your job. However, there is a big difference between running a meeting and running a meeting effectively. That is why Cory Sullivan is back on the podcast with me today.

In this episode we talk about how to run meeting effectively in two different student ministry contexts. One is how to lead student centered meetings such as Youth Group or Home Group gatherings. And the other is how to run leader meetings effectively.

ACTION STEPS:

* What about you? What are some tips and tricks you’ve gathered over the years that have helped you lead these two meetings effectively? Share your experiences on social media using the hashtag #ymsidekick to share. 

* Cory is a great resource and you can find him blogging here.  You can also follow him on Twitter here. He’s a great resource so hit him up and pick his brain.

* Join the Digital Bootcamp Facebook Group to learn how to be more effective using digital tools for your ministry join the group. This is for ALL Ministers, not just Church Communicators or Social Media Managers.

* Make sure you goto iTunes and subscribe to the podcast and see what cool things we do each and every week!  And make sure you rate the show, especially if you like it.

“All hands on deck!” Have you ever heard that phrase before at your Church or ministry? That usually means everyone is needed for a big event such as Christmas or Easter time activities at your Church.

The problem with these events is that there are so many leaders involved in these “all hands on deck” gatherings that no one actually knows who is the main person in charge. Thus, it can be very frustrating for a lot of people.

However, as Seth Muse shares, you don’t have to wait to be told what to do. You can can lead and be proactive even when you aren’t in charge.

In today’s podcast Seth and I talk about how you can be self aware and lead when you aren’t technically the leader.

ACTION STEPS:

* Share your thoughts and experiences! How do you lead when you aren’t the leader? Share below or on Twitter using #ymsidekick when you post.

* Seth is a great resource in communications and would be happy to connect with you. You can check in on him on Twitter click here. Also, check out his his blog and podcast and as well as his Facebook page.

* Join the Digital Bootcamp Facebook Group to learn how to be more effective using digital tools for your ministry join the group. This is for ALL Ministers, not just Church Communicators or Social Media Managers.

* Make sure you goto iTunes and subscribe to the podcast and see what cool things we do each and every week!  And make sure you rate the show, especially if you like it.

Recently there have been stats that have come out that Generation Z is the loneliness generation. Why is that? It is in part because of social media.

Jeff Reed recently did a blog post about this and this post was the basis of a conversation Jeanette Yates and I had. We both have teens and work in Churches. So we process Jeff’s post and Jeanette shares 5 tips to help Students deal with social media – the cons of it and also ways to use it as an evangelism tool.

ACTION STEPS:

* Share your thoughts! What are you noticing about Generation Z’s social media use and the positive and negative effects of it? Share below or on Twitter using #ymsidekick when you post.

* If you want to connect with Jeanette you can listen to her podcast here or you can find her on Twitter. She is very active on social media, especially on Twitter so get in touch with her.

* Facebook Group! Join the Digital Bootcamp Facebook Group to learn how to be more effective using digital tools for your ministry join the group. This is for ALL Ministers, not just Church Communicators or Social Media Managers.

* Make sure you goto iTunes and subscribe to the podcast and see what cool things we do each and every week!  And make sure you rate the show, especially if you like it.

Every student minister wants to engage students in healthy conversation about life and faith. How do you do that where students will feel the freedom to share honestly? And, how can you, as a student minister participate in these discussions by humbly sharing the truth as you balance a variety of different options.

That is why Ben Kerns is back on the podcast. Recently Ben and I have been watching a lot of documentaries (“Behind the Curve” about Flat Earthers on Netflix and “The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley” about Elizabeth Holmes and Theranos on HBO and two primary ones). Out of those documentaries we discuss how you can have healthy discussions with students and the wide variety of opinions and truths that come out today.

How can you create those environments and what does it look like? Find out how.

ACTION STEPS:

* Share your thoughts! How do you encourage and enable healthy discussions with students? Share your thoughts and insights below or on social media using the hashtag #ymsidekick.

* Connect with Ben: Ben is a great friend and a tremendous ministry resource. If you would like to connect with Ben, you can a few different ways.  He’s on Twitter as well as his blogs – Average Youth Ministry (more student ministry focused) and Benjamin Kerns (more leadership focused) with tons of great insights each week.

* Make sure you goto iTunes and subscribe to the podcast and see what cool things we do each and every week!  And make sure you rate the show, especially if you like it.