The Sidekick Podcast

Life groups are very effective ways for churches create community and disciple people. However, what do you do with Online attenders? What if they can’t attend a physical life group in someone’s house? What do you do? And, is it possible to do life groups online?

That is why Tom has Sly King on the podcast today. Sly is in charge of Social Media and the Online Church at the Worship Center Christian Church. Sly runs Online Life Groups at his church and uses online methods to train leaders as well. Today, Tom and Sly talk about:

* What Sly has been up to lately

* Different types of Online Life Groups

* Benefits of Online Life Groups

* How he trains Online Life Group Leaders (hint: Zoom and TrainedUp)

To connect with Sly, check him out on Twitter (twitter.com/sly_king48).

What about you? What has been your experiences with online life groups? How are you doing them effectively? Share your experiences below or on social media using #ymsidekick so we can all learn from each other.

To email Tom some ideas on future episodes email him here.

Make sure you goto iTunes and subscribe (http://ht.ly/QdLHJ) 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.

Images are so important to social media engagement these days. And the great news is that you don’t need to be an expert in Photoshop to be good at making them. In fact, there are so many different apps and websites that you can go to create amazing images that will encourage and inspire people you are ministering to.

In today’s episode Meghan Howard joins the podcast to talk about a recent blog post she did highlighting some sites you can go to that can help you create amazing images (click here for her post).

So, in this episode Tom and Cory talk about:

* What does Meghan does and her background

* A breakdown of some of the sites you can use to make images.

Meghan is a fantastic resource for digital communication so make sure you follow her on ChurchMag and on Twitter (https://twitter.com/revhoward18). Check out her posts and chat with her on Twitter.

If you are looking for someone to coach you in Student or Online ministry, email Tom ([email protected]) to set it up.

What about you? What sites do you use to create the images you do? Share the sites below or on social media using #ymsidekick so we can all learn from each other.

To email Tom some ideas on future episodes email him here.

Make sure you goto iTunes and subscribe (http://ht.ly/QdLHJ) 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.

Jay Kranda is one of the most respected and recognized innovators of Online Church. As the Online Pastor at Saddleback Community Church in California he is constantly looking for ways to help people discover God online.  But Jay isn’t just content on keeping people online, he constantly looks to find ways to take people from online attendance into offline communities where people can grow in their faith.

Jay has a ton of knowledge and is always great to talk to him.  So today, Tom and Jay talk about some tips to help grow your Online Church:

* Update on Jay and what’s been happening at Saddleback, the Social Media Church Podcast and how TVApp.church can help your Church get on devices like AppleTV and Roku

* Facebook Groups and uU=sing Facebook Live in those Groups

* Email Clients (Blue Hornet and MailChimp) and Jay uses his email for his ministry.

* Social Media interactions tips both personally and from a Church

If you want to connect with Jay you can read his blog here, find him at Social Media Church you can find him on Twitter (twitter.com/jaykranda). He is very active on social media so definitely hit him up if you have a question.

What do you think? What is trending in Online Ministry? What are you doing right now that is working? Share your thoughts below or on social media using #ymsidekick. 

To email Tom some ideas on future episodes email him here.

Make sure you goto iTunes and subscribe (http://ht.ly/QdLHJ) 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.

This week is Orange Blogger Week. But, in addition to talking about Orange, Nick Blevins, Children & Student Team Leader at Community Christian Church in Baltimore, MD is on the podcast to talk about a children, student and family ministry survey he did that consisted of over 600 churches. It’s a fascinating survey that Tom and Nick break down the results of what are good staff to volunteer to kids ratios.

So, in this episode, tom and Nick talk about:

* What Nick has been up to lately (hint: a lot of writing)

* What Tom and Nick enjoy about the Orange Conference coming up in April

* The Breakdown of the survey Nick did.

To get the results of Nick’s survey, click here.

To connect with Nick you can catch him at his blog, on the Orange Leaders blog or on Twitter (twitter.com/nickblevins).

To sign up for the Sidekick Scoop goto: http://ht.ly/TVyKF

To email Tom some ideas on future episodes email him here.

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

What are you doing right now to transition students from children to student ministry? And/Or what are you doing to unite your Family Ministry team? Join the conversation by sharing below or on social media using the hashtag #ymsidekick.

There are a lot of Facebook community pages out there for ministers. Some for student ministers, some for church communicators while others for social media directors. However, one area that there any community groups for are Campus Pastors and Ministry leads.

Enter Stan Rodda, Linton Hall Campus Pastor at New Life Christian Church in Northern VA, blogger and podcaster. He and Tom joined forces to create a NEW Facebook Group called Lead From Second.

What is Lead from Second and how does it help Campus Pastors? Find out in this whole new interview with Tom and Stan. In today’s episode, Tom and Stan talk about:

* Ministry backgrounds for Stan and Tom

* Why did they start Lead from Second

* 2 great prizes at the end of the week when you join Lead from Second.

If you want to connect with Stan you can read his blog here or you can find him on Twitter (twitter.com/stanrodda). He is very active on social media so definitely hit him up if you have a question.

What do you think? How do you engage your community as a minister?  Share your experiences and stories below or on social media using #ymsidekick so we can all learn from each other.

To email Tom some ideas on future episodes email him here.

Make sure you goto iTunes and subscribe (http://ht.ly/QdLHJ) 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.

Learning. We all want to learn to get better at what we do. That is a very important area that we can invest in regularly. But continuing to learn doesn’t just end with your current position. There is also another area to continue to learn in and that is in your next job.

Now, before you turn it off and wonder why you would want to learn for your future job, hear Tom and Cory Sullivan talk about the value of learning in these 2 areas. So, in this episode Tom and Cory talk about:

* All about his rebranding into Misfits blog

* Learn to get better at your current role

* What it means to learn so you can set yourself up for your next step

If you are looking for someone to coach you in Student or Online ministry, email Tom ([email protected]) to set it up.

Cory is a great resource and you can find him here.  You can also follow him on Twitter here (https://twitter.com/big_sully55). He’s a great resource so hit him up and pick his brain.

What about you? How have you seen the value of being coached and coaching someone else in your life? Share your experiences below or on social media using #ymsidekick so we can all learn from each other.

To email Tom some ideas on future episodes email him here.

Make sure you goto iTunes and subscribe (http://ht.ly/QdLHJ) 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.

Chatbots!?! What’s a Chatbot!?! And, more importantly, can they be used for ministry purposes at all? And why isn’t my organic reach increasing lately? How come in order to get noticed on Facebook these days do I have to do paid content? And how much money should I be dishing out

If you have asked any of these questions before, then today’s episode is just for you! As Social Media and digital communication is ever changing and evolving

Katie is a Web Content Manager at Brentwood Baptist Church and runs the very successful Church Communications Facebook page. She is a social media guru and really invested in learning how to do digital communication better…not just for her and her church but to be a resource for everyone else as well.

So, in today’s episode, Tom and Katie talk about:

* What she has been doing lately…including what is going on with the Church Communications Facebook page

* What are Chatbots and how can Churches utilize them for ministry

* What is up with Facebook paid content. Why is paid content here to stay and how would one do that

Katie is a great resource and you can find her here.  You can also follow her on Twitter here (https://twitter.com/katiejallred). She’s a great resource so hit her up and pick her brain.

What about you? What communication and social media trends are you seeing that churches should be aware of. Share your thoughts below or on social media using #ymsidekick so we can all learn from each other.

To email Tom some ideas on future episodes email him here.

Make sure you goto iTunes and subscribe (http://ht.ly/QdLHJ) 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.

Andre Agassi, the very popular tennis player in the 90s, used to do a commercial for Canon cameras where he would say, “Image is everything“. In the same way, image is everything when it comes to a student minister as well. How student ministers present themselves to others is very important.

That is why Christopher Wesley is back on the podcast. He joins Tom to discuss a recent blog post he did entitled, “How To Be Taken Seriously As A Youth Minister“.  In today’s podcast Tom and Chris talk about…

* What Chris has been working on lately.

* 3 of the 5 points Chris makes about being taken seriously as a Youth Minister

* What is happening with Marathon Youth Ministry.

You can connect with Chris a few different ways.  He’s on Twitter (twitter.com/chrisrwesley), has an awesome blog (http://www.christopherwesley.org) with tons of great insights each week and he also blogs at both YM360.com or DownloadYM.com

So what do you think? How have you see image as a student minister to be important?  Join the conversation by sharing your thoughts and insights below or on social media using the hashtag #ymsidekick. 

Also, Tom would love to hear from you about what you’d like a future topic to be. To email Tom some ideas email him here.

Make sure you goto iTunes and subscribe (http://ht.ly/QdLHJ) 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.

Church communications is not a new idea. It’s been happening for centuries. However, digital communications has been very new in the past few years. The issue with digital communication is that it is ever changing and growing all the time. What was new 6 months ago is already old. So how do you know where to spend your time and what to do? More importantly, what are the tools you need in your tool belt to be successful in it?

Enter Adam McLaughlin. He has been involved in digital church communications for years and published a post on his blog, Church Marketing Ideas a while back entitled “11 Free Tools for Church Communications Teams“.  So, in today’s episode, Tom and Adam talk about:

* Adam’s background and where he is from originally (hint, it’s not a warm area)

* Some essential FREE tools that Adam shares about

If you want to connect with Adam you can read his blog here and listen to his podcast here. You can also find him on Twitter (twitter.com/adam_mclaughlin). He is very active on social media so definitely hit him up if you have a question.

What do you think? What are the tools you use in your tool belt to be effective in church communications?  Share your experiences and stories below or on social media using #ymsidekick so we can all learn from each other.

To email Tom some ideas on future episodes email him here. He’s always looking for great content ideas.

Make sure you goto iTunes and subscribe (http://ht.ly/QdLHJ) 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.

It’s 2017 is here. And that means that this is another year for the 6 to seek out! Last year on the podcast I did my 1st ever 6 to seek out for the year. Those 6 were people or groups that I felt were really impactful to me and helped me grow as a leader and minister. To check out the 2016 list, feel free to because every single one of those 6 are still providing tons of great content regularly.

But with a  new year, comes a new list of people and/or groups that really inspired me. So, in NO particular order, here are the top 6 to seek out in 2017:

Orange Leaders – Every week day Orange Leaders pumps out great insights and encouragement for family, children and student ministry leaders. And what I love most about Orange Leaders is that they offer these insights from a variety of ministry leaders. It isn’t just 1 or 2 of them, there are plenty of writes contributing to the Orange Leaders blog so you get a variety of different opinions and thoughts.

ChurchMag  – ChurchMag is a digital community with the expressed mission to resource the Church with timely, relevant, practical, and exceptionally awesome content focused on technology and creativity. They have a variety of different bloggers writing about church tech and digital issues and do a weekly podcasts as well.

Jen Bradbury – Jen is someone I discovered just this year but it makes me wonder why it took me until now to reading her stuff. Why? Because she is everywhere! Her primary blog is YMJen.com, but you can see her writing in a variety of youth  ministry sites such as Download Youth Ministry. What I love about her writing is that speaks from the heart and her passion behind her writing is very evident. And, she came on the podcast once before (and hopefully more). She’s got a ton of wisdom and experience and I love reading what she writes.

Rachel Blom – Another lady that can be found on a variety of different sites. ChurchMag and Download Youth Ministry seem to be 2 of her primary ones other than her own personal blog post, Youth Leaders Academy. What I appreciate about her is that she has wonderful writing and she tends to write about things we all think about but no one else writes about haha. I really enjoy reading her posts wherever she turns up.

Stan Rodda – Stan has been a personal friend of mine and a Campus Pastor at New Life. He’s also appeared on my podcast multiple times. What I really enjoy about Stan and his blogs and podcast is that he speaks of them from first hand experience. He is in the trenches with tons of experience and loads of stories. He is passionate about people coming to know Christ and equipping leaders to be more effective. His focus is on leadership and one you should check out.

Time Management Ninja – As part of the 6, I always like to include a non-ministry specific one. Time Management Ninja shares a few times a week about time management strategies and I like reading from him because, let’s be honest, ministers aren’t exactly known for their time management skills. So these tips and strategies can come in very handy.

What do you think of the 6? Are there “go-to” blogs or podcasts you seek out regularly? Share below or on social media using the hashtag #ymsidekick so we can search them out in 2017.