October 2, 2025 • 22 mins
Now is the time to grow a healthy, thriving youth ministry...if you'd like to work with us, check out GrowYourYouthMinistry.com *** Youth group just ended....now what? Go home? No! Here are 5 things you should do immediately after your youth ministry program night is over. These tips are deceptively simple but are huge in preventing morning fires, strengthening parent trust, and building a resilient team culture.
If you lead student ministry, these moves require zero budget and deliver compound results: faster follow-up, fewer surprises, cleaner spaces, and a tighter volunteer community. Try one tonight...Then tell us what you’d add to make the system even better. If this was helpful, follow the show, share it with a fellow leader, and leave a quick review so more youth pastors can find it.
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You may also enjoy these episodes:
(#204) 4 Things I Started Doing Before Youth Group that Changed Everything!
(#213) 3 Things I Stopped Doing Before Youth Group (and Why YOU Should Too!)
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_00 (00:00):
And that's what's gonna cause this low level of
(00:02):
frustration toward you, cost youchips in the bank with people,
whether it's the next ministrycoming in or your staff or
whatever people will start tolook down on you because you
just aren't responsible with thefacility that is shared between
all these ministries.
Today we're talking about fivethings to do after youth group
(00:23):
is over.
SPEAKER_01 (00:36):
Welcome to the Ministry Coach Podcast, where we
give you weekly tips and tacticsto help you fast track the
growth and health of your youthministry.
My name is Jeff Lascola, andthis is Kristen Lascola.
SPEAKER_00 (00:46):
And today we're gonna talk about five things
that I do all the time, everytime after youth group.
SPEAKER_01 (00:54):
100% of the time, 80% of the time.
SPEAKER_00 (00:56):
Yes.
Every Tuesday night when youthgroup is over, you know, you're
tired, you think the night isover, it's like, all right, the
last kid got picked up.
And do you just get in your carand go home?
No, there's still a few things,obviously, none of us can do
that that need to be done.
So these are the five that Imake sure I always do.
And if you have some to add toyour to the our comment section,
(01:18):
especially if you're watching onYouTube, go ahead.
I would love, like, oh yeah, alittle tip.
I never thought I should dothat.
But some of these I learned thehard way.
Some of these just, you know,seem routine for me.
But the first one, one that Ikind of learned the hard way, is
at the end of the night, Ialways go back and check my
email.
So the reason for that issometimes something happened and
(01:43):
I didn't know or see, or likesome situation between students
that I was unaware of and a momor a parent, you know, who's not
doesn't have my cell phonenumber.
Maybe they're kind of new, butthey have gotten my emails, they
will often reach out.
Sometimes it's something assimple as this happens to us all
(02:05):
the time.
I don't know if this happens toyou guys.
My kid left their backpack thereand they have school tomorrow.
When's the earliest someone'sgonna be at the church?
We need to come get it.
Or are you guys still there?
Can we come back and pick it up?
And as a parent, you would belike, Oh my gosh, your backpack,
you like can't sleep on that.
We need to go and get it.
So little things like that.
(02:25):
But then I've had actually somemore significant emails where,
hey, I don't know if you'reaware, but like there was a
situation with a kid and someonetook their phone and then they
were being bullied and it allwent on, and I had no idea, but
my security guy was still there.
So we went back and checked thefootage of we have cameras
everywhere, you know, which hascome in really handy, especially
(02:48):
for junior hires, because loveyou guys, but you lie a lot.
Junior liars, junior liars.
I love that.
Why have I never thought ofthat?
SPEAKER_01 (02:58):
And I feel like they're not really junior liars,
though.
They're very experienced.
Junior liars.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (03:02):
Professional liars.
So sometimes getting to thebottom of like a situation that
happened between students, like,I'll say, Hey, did you take his
phone and then throw it and thenthis and that?
No.
Oh, okay.
Bye.
Have a nice day.
So then I can go back and lookand be like, Yes, you did.
(03:24):
There you are.
That's oh, well, now what?
So little things like that.
Like I've had parents reach outand say, Hey, my kid came home
really upset.
This particular thing happened.
And I like knowing as soon aspossible so that I can ask any
leaders that are still there,like, hey, did you guys see
something?
Instead of having to send out atext or a Discord or an email, I
(03:45):
can start investigating rightthen and there.
So I feel like there's alwaysjust some kind of random little
thing that I need to make sure.
Did something slip through thecracks?
Did something happen under mynose or behind my back that I
didn't see?
Or simply does someone needhelp?
I need to pick up a backpack, orwe left something, our guitar
(04:08):
there, or whatever, and then Ican be of help almost
immediately.
So I learned that because then Ididn't used to check my email,
and then the next morning it'sWednesday, and I'm like, all
right, 9 a.m.
getting in my email, and all ofa sudden, like, oh my gosh,
what?
And then, you know, I just liketo know, like go to bed that
night knowing, well, I've takencare of everything that happened
(04:31):
tonight and or at least made adent in it.
SPEAKER_01 (04:34):
So when whenabouts, whenabouts?
Is that a phrase?
Whenabouts do you do that?
SPEAKER_00 (04:40):
Like, like right after the last kid leaves, or
yeah, I would say like around 845, 8 50, which would be 15-20
minutes after our youth groupends.
I go out and do pickup, and thenwhen I come in from pickup, I
just do a quick check because atthat point they're probably home
or whatever.
SPEAKER_01 (04:59):
But that's not like the last thing you do before you
leave.
SPEAKER_00 (05:02):
No, it's you usually, yeah, like that 15-20
to half hour after youth groupof like speak now, everyone, or
forever hold your peace.
No, just kidding.
They can email the next day.
But yeah, I just and sometimes Idon't know if our listeners are
kind of thinking, well, what'sthe point?
There's not much I could do thatnight, but sometimes it is.
It is a thing you could solveright then and there.
SPEAKER_01 (05:24):
And sorry, not to interrupt you, but if it is
something like a parent, ifthere was an issue with another
student, if you can get back tothem that night, it's so much
nicer to be able to know it youwere heard and that action is
being taken.
Yeah, like we're working onthat.
If you go to bed, you know, likeI don't know, you just kind of
get that feeling like, do youeven care?
I woke up the next day, I wasmad last night, I woke up and
(05:46):
now I'm mad again and no one'swritten back, or you know, and
maybe they probably know, like,okay, they've probably already
left uh for the night, you know.
But I think being you have thatthat interaction and knowing,
like, oh, they're they'relooking into it means a lot.
Yeah, especially you can kind ofgo to bed at peace, at least
knowing that something ishappening.
SPEAKER_00 (06:05):
Totally.
Especially like you said, ifit's something where they're
kind of upset, at least justsaying, Oh my goodness, so
sorry.
You know, I'll look into thismore in the morning, I'll be in
touch, ASAP or something, justso they know, yeah.
And even if they don't see itthat night, that's the first
thing they'll see in themorning.
Yeah, exactly.
(06:25):
Okay, so kind of along the samelines, but number two is notify
your leadership of any incidentsthey need to be aware of.
So at North Coast Church where Iwork, we have a policy and it's
called no surprises.
So if anything happens ofsignificance, like I'm not gonna
(06:47):
tell our campus pastor of everytiny little like a kid said a
bad word.
It's like, well, that was abummer, but I'm not gonna tell
like not that kind of stuff.
It's like, hey, this happenedrecently.
This is a true story.
You know how junior hires alwayshave to jump and hit the top of
the door when they walk into aplace.
(07:08):
So we had a kid do that.
He jumped, hit it, and on hisway down, tripped like it looked
like over nothing.
I went back and watched thefootage because I wanted to see
did someone push you?
Like what happened?
And he fell on his arm like itwas bent and fell on his arm to
like break his fall and brokehis arm like severely.
(07:31):
Luckily, my security guy is alsomy medic guy, and he has some
other people kind of step in andhelp.
We ended up calling the dad, andthe dad came and picked him up
early.
They had to take him to thehospital.
So anytime someone leaves earlyto go to the hospital, um, I
think that should be, you know,you should tell your leadership
(07:52):
that.
And the reason for that is acouple of things.
Like they want to be able toprotect you.
So, for example, if that dad whocame and picked up his son were
to call the office and be like,nobody was looking out for my
son, blah, blah, blah.
And if our campus pastor answersthe phone, like, wait, who are
you and what happened?
(08:14):
It's just we don't look likewe've been in communication, we
don't have our stuff together,we look very caught off guard,
and that's not a good look,right?
But if he knows, like, hey,here's exactly what happened.
I watched the footage, here'swho was involved, here's what we
did for him, here's when wecalled the dad.
Then when he answers the phone,if this dad gets upset for some
(08:36):
reasons, like, well, you know, Italked to Kristen about it last
night.
So right then and there, it'slike, wow, we took this
seriously enough that we had aconversation.
You know, she said so-and-so didthis, so-and-so did that.
And he can vouch for us a littlebit more.
And it's just good for them toknow in general, so that who
(08:57):
knows?
Like, there's so many thingsthat can come up out of nowhere,
even down the line, andincluding higher leadership in
things.
If you have to send a kid home,or there's an injury, or
there's, you know, a leadershipissue or a safety issue, uh,
maybe an issue with thebuilding.
Like we've had our fire alarm gooff randomly for no reason.
(09:20):
And, you know, the companycalled, and so we're on the
phone with them.
No, everything's fine, but itwon't go off.
Like he should know those kindsof things.
Yeah.
So yeah, and this is not likesomething every single week.
I know that's kind of like thedirection that this episode is.
Like, here's your routine.
And so there isn't a phone callto him every single week.
But sometimes, you know, I thinklike, okay, is there anything
(09:44):
here he should know about thatdeserves a phone call?
Right.
And maybe I don't know, sixtimes out of the whole year
there is.
But you just need to be thinkingalong those lines of is this
something that requires someoneabove my pay grade to at least
be in the loop on?
(10:04):
And then if you ever have like aconcerning conversation with a
student too, I think that wouldfall in that category.
Like, hey, I had this oddconversation with a student and
they mentioned some stuff abouttheir home life that was a
little concerning to me.
Just wanted you to be in theloop about that.
I think for your uh bestinterest and for their wisdom on
(10:27):
the topic, too, of just like,hey, well, here's what we need
to do in this kind of situation,you know.
Anything that feels like, ooh,like this could be something
serious, bring them in on it.
Um, okay, number three things todo after youth group is this is
one I do actually on the wayhome, is I pray and thank God
(10:49):
for the night.
Specifically, I thank him forall of my leaders because
they're just they blow me away.
And I'm so thankful.
Like, I feel like I have beengifted like a treasure box, you
know, full of like all theserare, I always call them Pokemon
cards, even though I've neverplayed Pokemon in my life, but I
(11:10):
know some cards are rare, Ithink.
Um, and so I'll be like, How didI get this one?
Like, look at this card.
Like, this is the Andy card orthe Heidi or the JP, you know,
and I'm like, dang, I'm solucky.
And I think it's so easy as ayouth pastor to like pray at the
beginning of the night and like,please let everything go well.
I remember when we were reallysmall, I would just pray that
(11:33):
kids would show up.
Like I was like, please just letthere be kids here tonight.
Please, God, please.
And I would like beg on thefront end for things to go well.
And then when things go well,we're just like, oh, that was
awesome.
Let's go home.
But not forgetting to thank Godeach night, like when things do
go well, or you have greatleaders, or everyone was safe,
(11:54):
or a kid, you know, had somekind of social spiritual
breakthrough, like just thinkingthrough the night, start to
finish.
And if there was nothing to sayto your senior pastor, like
because everything went well,thank God for that.
If every kid went home in a car,not an ambulance, thank God for
(12:14):
that.
If, you know, all the leadersshowed up and got along and had
great relationships withstudents and your game went well
and your message went well andworship, like, just thank God.
And a lot of times I just thankhim like thank you, A, that I
have a job, and B, that I lovemy job and that I get paid to
preach the gospel and create anenvironment that points people
(12:38):
toward a relationship withJesus.
So just I think that's just areally good settling practice of
just like that drive home at theend of the night, like looking
for all the bright spots.
And I think for you as thepastor, because sometimes that
one kid really got under yourskin, or that one leader, or I
(13:00):
mean, not for me, my my leadersare all great, but there will be
just maybe that conversationwith a parent that just you keep
looping in your head and it's onrepeat, you know, and never the
positive ones either.
I know.
And so you just stop and think,okay, what went really well
tonight?
Thank you, God.
And I'll just run through mysmall group rooms and I think of
(13:24):
every leader that's in there,and I'm like, oh my gosh, thank
you for them, thank you forthem, thank you for them.
And so instead of kind of beingin the like, well, this didn't
go well, or a game got rainedout, or we were gonna do this,
or someone forgot to put outthat, just like, wow, what went
really well tonight, andthanking God for that.
And then number four is kind ofmore like logistical.
(13:45):
I used to have this goal, and itwas not to get an email
Wednesday morning from our likeadmin that our campus admin that
things broken.
Yes, because she was kind ofwhite gloving the place.
Nothing wrong with that.
(14:05):
She had a very high standard ofperfection and excellence and
cleanliness.
And so I would think at the endof the night, wow, like let's
just put the dodgeballs away,put the folders away, we're
done, right?
She'd find something and I wouldget an email bright, and that
would be like the first thingI'd wake up to.
Like, again, on the email, um,you guys left this, this, and
(14:29):
this out last night.
Please make sure that gets putaway.
And there was nothing wrong withthat.
I'm not blaming her.
We needed to be heldaccountable, but I felt like,
dang it, like, fail, you know,and then that's why youth
ministries get a bad reputationbecause, you know, the church
doesn't always feel like we playwell in the sandbox with
(14:49):
everyone, that we use and abusethe facilities and the kids are
so messy.
And I sometimes get mad at thestudents.
I'm like, guys, guess who getsin trouble when you kick a hole
in the wall or when you leavepizza in the patio furniture
wedged in between the cushions?
You don't get in trouble becausewe don't know who you are.
SPEAKER_01 (15:08):
That's where they stop listening.
I know.
Oh, I don't.
Okay, never mind.
SPEAKER_00 (15:11):
Then I said, I get in trouble, guys.
Please help me.
So my goal was always like,don't get an email from her
about the facilities.
So again, this one I kind oflearned the hard way is doing a
very thorough walkthrough at theend of the night.
So any place that students were,look in those areas could
(15:32):
potentially have been.
Crawl through the airconditioning ducts once in a
while.
Okay.
Get on the roof.
Nothing is off limits for them.
Yeah, I mean, there's somethings they the we're these are
professionals, is what I'mtrying to say.
So you're never gonna catcheverything.
It's a professional job, andit's very, very hard to.
(15:53):
I always give the example ofthey would eat Starburst and
then roll up the wrappers andstuff them into the succulent
pots.
I'm like, I'm not checking thesucculent pots on the way out,
like you people.
But then next day I'd see thislittle pink piece of paper.
I'm like, Starburst wrappers,like what?
(16:13):
How did these get here?
So, anyways, I try to do awalkthrough of every place the
students would have been, or ohmy gosh, we forgot to clean this
up.
Like just about a month ago, wegot another email because we
left some how do you leave icecream out?
Well, we did.
We left ice cream and sodabecause we did root beer floats
(16:34):
and someone put it in thekitchen, but never actually put
it away.
And the thing with you being theyouth pastor or the lead our
lead youth leader, whatever youare, listening to this podcast,
it doesn't matter who left itout, it's your fault.
SPEAKER_01 (16:49):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (16:50):
So, you know, you write back and it's like, oh
well, Johnny was supposed to putthat away.
Well, who's in charge of Johnny?
You are so I I'm not perfect atthis, clearly, because I should
have caught the root beer floatstuff.
I had to apologize for it, butit's like if it happened on your
(17:10):
watch, it's your fault and youneed to make sure everything was
put away.
Game supplies.
And then if there's somethingthat sometimes we rinse out
coolers, but they're so wet weleave them out to dry.
So just we leave a little notelike, hey, we are gonna let this
get out to dry, we will put itaway in the morning or something
like that, because there's alittle instances instances where
(17:32):
you can't put every singlelittle thing away.
But I've noticed youth pastorsare really bad at leaving stuff.
So it's like they say they'regonna go back for the cooler and
then never do.
And that's what's gonna causethis low level of frustration
toward you, cost you chips inthe bank with people, whether
it's the next ministry coming inor your staff or whatever people
(17:57):
will start to look down on youbecause you just aren't
responsible with the facilitythat is shared between all these
ministries, which totally makessense.
And the last one is just hangingout after and having
conversations.
I feel like in the heat of thenight, it's so hard for me to
(18:17):
like catch up with the leaders.
We're in the middle of program,like it's go, go, go.
So I try to stay after and like,hey, how was your small group?
How are things going?
Like, do you need any help?
Or, you know, just catching upwith as much life as possible
and try sometimes they staylonger than I can.
I want to be the last person toleave, but I also have to get up
(18:41):
super early because some some ofthem don't have kids.
So it's like school starts, Igotta be up.
And so I hate leaving when Istill have leaders there, but I
try to stay as long as possibleto hang out or socialize or, you
know, eat snacks and just besilly together and have a good
time.
I kind of feel again like that'sthat decompression time.
(19:04):
And I always want to takeadvantage of as much time with
my leaders as possible.
So yeah, just that hangout.
Like don't be in a hurry to getout the door if people are still
kind of lingering and hangingout, or if you want to create
the environment like that whereyou want to have people that
just kind of linger and meanderfor a bit, like have some
(19:27):
dessert out and you know, musicor like we used to have a dance
party every Tuesday nightafterwards, and it was so much
fun.
Our facility is different now,so people aren't really in the
auditorium where the music isanymore.
But little things like that,just having some fun 15-20
minutes doesn't have to be allnight, but kind of debriefing
(19:49):
the night and just people know,like you don't have to make it
so official, but just getting ina routine of people know, people
hang out after, and we're gonnabe here and we're gonna stick
around for it.
So those are my five.
There's probably more.
And like I said, if you havesome ideas of like those routine
things, this is what I have todo every night after youth
(20:11):
group, put it in the commentsbecause I think everyone would
learn from that.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (20:17):
Um, you can also, if your staff is small enough or
maybe willing to, and you haveuh restaurants nearby that are
open late, you can either like aonce a month or you know,
whatever.
Everyone, hey, we're all goingto work.
SPEAKER_00 (20:28):
Yeah, our high school leaders.
Okay, oh, I love that youbrought that up.
I forgot about that era of mylife.
So when I was really young, Ithink I was still an intern at
our other campus.
We would all go to In N Out, theone in Vista after youth group,
every single Tuesday night.
Everyone would head over and allthe leaders would hang out late.
(20:50):
I was in college, so I didn'tcare.
It was so fun.
And then our high schoolministry, I think they the
leaders would go to Denny'safter Wednesday night and all
just hang out there for a while.
I mean, I think being a parenthas made me a better youth
pastor in most ways, but hangingout late on a school night now
(21:11):
is just a lot harder becausethat 6:30 alarm clock clock
comes very quickly.
SPEAKER_01 (21:19):
I always joke with you because when you come home
late, I'm always like, well,things either went really well
or really bad.
SPEAKER_00 (21:25):
Yeah, you always say that.
Really well.
Like we were having so much funhanging out and had great
conversation, or there was a bigissue I had to deal with.
SPEAKER_01 (21:33):
I had to talk to the police for a few hours
afterwards and figure out whatwent down.
Yeah.
Now make sure you put in thecomment section below something
that you feel is a goodpractical thing or maybe fun
that you guys do after youthgroup is over.
All right, this is the communitycomment of the day.
This comes from Mr.
Michael Torres, who says, suchan awesome video.
Thank you very much.
I literally have a meeting nextweek to start planning a night
(21:55):
of worship for our local churchyouth groups.
This video was amazingly timely.
Thank you.
SPEAKER_00 (22:01):
It's amazing how many people say that.
I know.
SPEAKER_01 (22:02):
This was um for the how to plan a worship night um
episode that we did.
Cool.
So thank you for the time.
SPEAKER_00 (22:07):
Ours is coming up in a four week, in a in a
four-week.
SPEAKER_01 (22:10):
Four night, fortnight and uh with a
four-score and seven years fromnow we're having a worship
night.
SPEAKER_00 (22:16):
Well, Michael Torres, if you're listening,
please comment and tell us howyour worship night went.
Uh, because we have ours comingup on October 26th.
So yeah, I want to hear if youhad any twists that you made to
it that made it better or whatyou learned.
SPEAKER_01 (22:32):
So all right, thank you guys for watching and
listening, and we'll see younext time.
SPEAKER_00 (22:36):
Today we're talking about five ways to inject more
energy in your today.
And that's what's gonna cause this low level of
(00:02):
frustration toward you, cost youchips in the bank with people,
whether it's the next ministrycoming in or your staff or
whatever people will start tolook down on you because you
just aren't responsible with thefacility that is shared between
all these ministries.
Today we're talking about fivethings to do after youth group
(00:23):
is over.
SPEAKER_01 (00:36):
Welcome to the Ministry Coach Podcast, where we
give you weekly tips and tacticsto help you fast track the
growth and health of your youthministry.
My name is Jeff Lascola, andthis is Kristen Lascola.
SPEAKER_00 (00:46):
And today we're gonna talk about five things
that I do all the time, everytime after youth group.
SPEAKER_01 (00:54):
100% of the time, 80% of the time.
SPEAKER_00 (00:56):
Yes.
Every Tuesday night when youthgroup is over, you know, you're
tired, you think the night isover, it's like, all right, the
last kid got picked up.
And do you just get in your carand go home?
No, there's still a few things,obviously, none of us can do
that that need to be done.
So these are the five that Imake sure I always do.
And if you have some to add toyour to the our comment section,
(01:18):
especially if you're watching onYouTube, go ahead.
I would love, like, oh yeah, alittle tip.
I never thought I should dothat.
But some of these I learned thehard way.
Some of these just, you know,seem routine for me.
But the first one, one that Ikind of learned the hard way, is
at the end of the night, Ialways go back and check my
email.
So the reason for that issometimes something happened and
(01:43):
I didn't know or see, or likesome situation between students
that I was unaware of and a momor a parent, you know, who's not
doesn't have my cell phonenumber.
Maybe they're kind of new, butthey have gotten my emails, they
will often reach out.
Sometimes it's something assimple as this happens to us all
(02:05):
the time.
I don't know if this happens toyou guys.
My kid left their backpack thereand they have school tomorrow.
When's the earliest someone'sgonna be at the church?
We need to come get it.
Or are you guys still there?
Can we come back and pick it up?
And as a parent, you would belike, Oh my gosh, your backpack,
you like can't sleep on that.
We need to go and get it.
So little things like that.
(02:25):
But then I've had actually somemore significant emails where,
hey, I don't know if you'reaware, but like there was a
situation with a kid and someonetook their phone and then they
were being bullied and it allwent on, and I had no idea, but
my security guy was still there.
So we went back and checked thefootage of we have cameras
everywhere, you know, which hascome in really handy, especially
(02:48):
for junior hires, because loveyou guys, but you lie a lot.
Junior liars, junior liars.
I love that.
Why have I never thought ofthat?
SPEAKER_01 (02:58):
And I feel like they're not really junior liars,
though.
They're very experienced.
Junior liars.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (03:02):
Professional liars.
So sometimes getting to thebottom of like a situation that
happened between students, like,I'll say, Hey, did you take his
phone and then throw it and thenthis and that?
No.
Oh, okay.
Bye.
Have a nice day.
So then I can go back and lookand be like, Yes, you did.
(03:24):
There you are.
That's oh, well, now what?
So little things like that.
Like I've had parents reach outand say, Hey, my kid came home
really upset.
This particular thing happened.
And I like knowing as soon aspossible so that I can ask any
leaders that are still there,like, hey, did you guys see
something?
Instead of having to send out atext or a Discord or an email, I
(03:45):
can start investigating rightthen and there.
So I feel like there's alwaysjust some kind of random little
thing that I need to make sure.
Did something slip through thecracks?
Did something happen under mynose or behind my back that I
didn't see?
Or simply does someone needhelp?
I need to pick up a backpack, orwe left something, our guitar
(04:08):
there, or whatever, and then Ican be of help almost
immediately.
So I learned that because then Ididn't used to check my email,
and then the next morning it'sWednesday, and I'm like, all
right, 9 a.m.
getting in my email, and all ofa sudden, like, oh my gosh,
what?
And then, you know, I just liketo know, like go to bed that
night knowing, well, I've takencare of everything that happened
(04:31):
tonight and or at least made adent in it.
SPEAKER_01 (04:34):
So when whenabouts, whenabouts?
Is that a phrase?
Whenabouts do you do that?
SPEAKER_00 (04:40):
Like, like right after the last kid leaves, or
yeah, I would say like around 845, 8 50, which would be 15-20
minutes after our youth groupends.
I go out and do pickup, and thenwhen I come in from pickup, I
just do a quick check because atthat point they're probably home
or whatever.
SPEAKER_01 (04:59):
But that's not like the last thing you do before you
leave.
SPEAKER_00 (05:02):
No, it's you usually, yeah, like that 15-20
to half hour after youth groupof like speak now, everyone, or
forever hold your peace.
No, just kidding.
They can email the next day.
But yeah, I just and sometimes Idon't know if our listeners are
kind of thinking, well, what'sthe point?
There's not much I could do thatnight, but sometimes it is.
It is a thing you could solveright then and there.
SPEAKER_01 (05:24):
And sorry, not to interrupt you, but if it is
something like a parent, ifthere was an issue with another
student, if you can get back tothem that night, it's so much
nicer to be able to know it youwere heard and that action is
being taken.
Yeah, like we're working onthat.
If you go to bed, you know, likeI don't know, you just kind of
get that feeling like, do youeven care?
I woke up the next day, I wasmad last night, I woke up and
(05:46):
now I'm mad again and no one'swritten back, or you know, and
maybe they probably know, like,okay, they've probably already
left uh for the night, you know.
But I think being you have thatthat interaction and knowing,
like, oh, they're they'relooking into it means a lot.
Yeah, especially you can kind ofgo to bed at peace, at least
knowing that something ishappening.
SPEAKER_00 (06:05):
Totally.
Especially like you said, ifit's something where they're
kind of upset, at least justsaying, Oh my goodness, so
sorry.
You know, I'll look into thismore in the morning, I'll be in
touch, ASAP or something, justso they know, yeah.
And even if they don't see itthat night, that's the first
thing they'll see in themorning.
Yeah, exactly.
(06:25):
Okay, so kind of along the samelines, but number two is notify
your leadership of any incidentsthey need to be aware of.
So at North Coast Church where Iwork, we have a policy and it's
called no surprises.
So if anything happens ofsignificance, like I'm not gonna
(06:47):
tell our campus pastor of everytiny little like a kid said a
bad word.
It's like, well, that was abummer, but I'm not gonna tell
like not that kind of stuff.
It's like, hey, this happenedrecently.
This is a true story.
You know how junior hires alwayshave to jump and hit the top of
the door when they walk into aplace.
(07:08):
So we had a kid do that.
He jumped, hit it, and on hisway down, tripped like it looked
like over nothing.
I went back and watched thefootage because I wanted to see
did someone push you?
Like what happened?
And he fell on his arm like itwas bent and fell on his arm to
like break his fall and brokehis arm like severely.
(07:31):
Luckily, my security guy is alsomy medic guy, and he has some
other people kind of step in andhelp.
We ended up calling the dad, andthe dad came and picked him up
early.
They had to take him to thehospital.
So anytime someone leaves earlyto go to the hospital, um, I
think that should be, you know,you should tell your leadership
(07:52):
that.
And the reason for that is acouple of things.
Like they want to be able toprotect you.
So, for example, if that dad whocame and picked up his son were
to call the office and be like,nobody was looking out for my
son, blah, blah, blah.
And if our campus pastor answersthe phone, like, wait, who are
you and what happened?
(08:14):
It's just we don't look likewe've been in communication, we
don't have our stuff together,we look very caught off guard,
and that's not a good look,right?
But if he knows, like, hey,here's exactly what happened.
I watched the footage, here'swho was involved, here's what we
did for him, here's when wecalled the dad.
Then when he answers the phone,if this dad gets upset for some
(08:36):
reasons, like, well, you know, Italked to Kristen about it last
night.
So right then and there, it'slike, wow, we took this
seriously enough that we had aconversation.
You know, she said so-and-so didthis, so-and-so did that.
And he can vouch for us a littlebit more.
And it's just good for them toknow in general, so that who
(08:57):
knows?
Like, there's so many thingsthat can come up out of nowhere,
even down the line, andincluding higher leadership in
things.
If you have to send a kid home,or there's an injury, or
there's, you know, a leadershipissue or a safety issue, uh,
maybe an issue with thebuilding.
Like we've had our fire alarm gooff randomly for no reason.
(09:20):
And, you know, the companycalled, and so we're on the
phone with them.
No, everything's fine, but itwon't go off.
Like he should know those kindsof things.
Yeah.
So yeah, and this is not likesomething every single week.
I know that's kind of like thedirection that this episode is.
Like, here's your routine.
And so there isn't a phone callto him every single week.
But sometimes, you know, I thinklike, okay, is there anything
(09:44):
here he should know about thatdeserves a phone call?
Right.
And maybe I don't know, sixtimes out of the whole year
there is.
But you just need to be thinkingalong those lines of is this
something that requires someoneabove my pay grade to at least
be in the loop on?
(10:04):
And then if you ever have like aconcerning conversation with a
student too, I think that wouldfall in that category.
Like, hey, I had this oddconversation with a student and
they mentioned some stuff abouttheir home life that was a
little concerning to me.
Just wanted you to be in theloop about that.
I think for your uh bestinterest and for their wisdom on
(10:27):
the topic, too, of just like,hey, well, here's what we need
to do in this kind of situation,you know.
Anything that feels like, ooh,like this could be something
serious, bring them in on it.
Um, okay, number three things todo after youth group is this is
one I do actually on the wayhome, is I pray and thank God
(10:49):
for the night.
Specifically, I thank him forall of my leaders because
they're just they blow me away.
And I'm so thankful.
Like, I feel like I have beengifted like a treasure box, you
know, full of like all theserare, I always call them Pokemon
cards, even though I've neverplayed Pokemon in my life, but I
(11:10):
know some cards are rare, Ithink.
Um, and so I'll be like, How didI get this one?
Like, look at this card.
Like, this is the Andy card orthe Heidi or the JP, you know,
and I'm like, dang, I'm solucky.
And I think it's so easy as ayouth pastor to like pray at the
beginning of the night and like,please let everything go well.
I remember when we were reallysmall, I would just pray that
(11:33):
kids would show up.
Like I was like, please just letthere be kids here tonight.
Please, God, please.
And I would like beg on thefront end for things to go well.
And then when things go well,we're just like, oh, that was
awesome.
Let's go home.
But not forgetting to thank Godeach night, like when things do
go well, or you have greatleaders, or everyone was safe,
(11:54):
or a kid, you know, had somekind of social spiritual
breakthrough, like just thinkingthrough the night, start to
finish.
And if there was nothing to sayto your senior pastor, like
because everything went well,thank God for that.
If every kid went home in a car,not an ambulance, thank God for
(12:14):
that.
If, you know, all the leadersshowed up and got along and had
great relationships withstudents and your game went well
and your message went well andworship, like, just thank God.
And a lot of times I just thankhim like thank you, A, that I
have a job, and B, that I lovemy job and that I get paid to
preach the gospel and create anenvironment that points people
(12:38):
toward a relationship withJesus.
So just I think that's just areally good settling practice of
just like that drive home at theend of the night, like looking
for all the bright spots.
And I think for you as thepastor, because sometimes that
one kid really got under yourskin, or that one leader, or I
(13:00):
mean, not for me, my my leadersare all great, but there will be
just maybe that conversationwith a parent that just you keep
looping in your head and it's onrepeat, you know, and never the
positive ones either.
I know.
And so you just stop and think,okay, what went really well
tonight?
Thank you, God.
And I'll just run through mysmall group rooms and I think of
(13:24):
every leader that's in there,and I'm like, oh my gosh, thank
you for them, thank you forthem, thank you for them.
And so instead of kind of beingin the like, well, this didn't
go well, or a game got rainedout, or we were gonna do this,
or someone forgot to put outthat, just like, wow, what went
really well tonight, andthanking God for that.
And then number four is kind ofmore like logistical.
(13:45):
I used to have this goal, and itwas not to get an email
Wednesday morning from our likeadmin that our campus admin that
things broken.
Yes, because she was kind ofwhite gloving the place.
Nothing wrong with that.
(14:05):
She had a very high standard ofperfection and excellence and
cleanliness.
And so I would think at the endof the night, wow, like let's
just put the dodgeballs away,put the folders away, we're
done, right?
She'd find something and I wouldget an email bright, and that
would be like the first thingI'd wake up to.
Like, again, on the email, um,you guys left this, this, and
(14:29):
this out last night.
Please make sure that gets putaway.
And there was nothing wrong withthat.
I'm not blaming her.
We needed to be heldaccountable, but I felt like,
dang it, like, fail, you know,and then that's why youth
ministries get a bad reputationbecause, you know, the church
doesn't always feel like we playwell in the sandbox with
(14:49):
everyone, that we use and abusethe facilities and the kids are
so messy.
And I sometimes get mad at thestudents.
I'm like, guys, guess who getsin trouble when you kick a hole
in the wall or when you leavepizza in the patio furniture
wedged in between the cushions?
You don't get in trouble becausewe don't know who you are.
SPEAKER_01 (15:08):
That's where they stop listening.
I know.
Oh, I don't.
Okay, never mind.
SPEAKER_00 (15:11):
Then I said, I get in trouble, guys.
Please help me.
So my goal was always like,don't get an email from her
about the facilities.
So again, this one I kind oflearned the hard way is doing a
very thorough walkthrough at theend of the night.
So any place that students were,look in those areas could
(15:32):
potentially have been.
Crawl through the airconditioning ducts once in a
while.
Okay.
Get on the roof.
Nothing is off limits for them.
Yeah, I mean, there's somethings they the we're these are
professionals, is what I'mtrying to say.
So you're never gonna catcheverything.
It's a professional job, andit's very, very hard to.
(15:53):
I always give the example ofthey would eat Starburst and
then roll up the wrappers andstuff them into the succulent
pots.
I'm like, I'm not checking thesucculent pots on the way out,
like you people.
But then next day I'd see thislittle pink piece of paper.
I'm like, Starburst wrappers,like what?
(16:13):
How did these get here?
So, anyways, I try to do awalkthrough of every place the
students would have been, or ohmy gosh, we forgot to clean this
up.
Like just about a month ago, wegot another email because we
left some how do you leave icecream out?
Well, we did.
We left ice cream and sodabecause we did root beer floats
(16:34):
and someone put it in thekitchen, but never actually put
it away.
And the thing with you being theyouth pastor or the lead our
lead youth leader, whatever youare, listening to this podcast,
it doesn't matter who left itout, it's your fault.
SPEAKER_01 (16:49):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (16:50):
So, you know, you write back and it's like, oh
well, Johnny was supposed to putthat away.
Well, who's in charge of Johnny?
You are so I I'm not perfect atthis, clearly, because I should
have caught the root beer floatstuff.
I had to apologize for it, butit's like if it happened on your
(17:10):
watch, it's your fault and youneed to make sure everything was
put away.
Game supplies.
And then if there's somethingthat sometimes we rinse out
coolers, but they're so wet weleave them out to dry.
So just we leave a little notelike, hey, we are gonna let this
get out to dry, we will put itaway in the morning or something
like that, because there's alittle instances instances where
(17:32):
you can't put every singlelittle thing away.
But I've noticed youth pastorsare really bad at leaving stuff.
So it's like they say they'regonna go back for the cooler and
then never do.
And that's what's gonna causethis low level of frustration
toward you, cost you chips inthe bank with people, whether
it's the next ministry coming inor your staff or whatever people
(17:57):
will start to look down on youbecause you just aren't
responsible with the facilitythat is shared between all these
ministries, which totally makessense.
And the last one is just hangingout after and having
conversations.
I feel like in the heat of thenight, it's so hard for me to
(18:17):
like catch up with the leaders.
We're in the middle of program,like it's go, go, go.
So I try to stay after and like,hey, how was your small group?
How are things going?
Like, do you need any help?
Or, you know, just catching upwith as much life as possible
and try sometimes they staylonger than I can.
I want to be the last person toleave, but I also have to get up
(18:41):
super early because some some ofthem don't have kids.
So it's like school starts, Igotta be up.
And so I hate leaving when Istill have leaders there, but I
try to stay as long as possibleto hang out or socialize or, you
know, eat snacks and just besilly together and have a good
time.
I kind of feel again like that'sthat decompression time.
(19:04):
And I always want to takeadvantage of as much time with
my leaders as possible.
So yeah, just that hangout.
Like don't be in a hurry to getout the door if people are still
kind of lingering and hangingout, or if you want to create
the environment like that whereyou want to have people that
just kind of linger and meanderfor a bit, like have some
(19:27):
dessert out and you know, musicor like we used to have a dance
party every Tuesday nightafterwards, and it was so much
fun.
Our facility is different now,so people aren't really in the
auditorium where the music isanymore.
But little things like that,just having some fun 15-20
minutes doesn't have to be allnight, but kind of debriefing
(19:49):
the night and just people know,like you don't have to make it
so official, but just getting ina routine of people know, people
hang out after, and we're gonnabe here and we're gonna stick
around for it.
So those are my five.
There's probably more.
And like I said, if you havesome ideas of like those routine
things, this is what I have todo every night after youth
(20:11):
group, put it in the commentsbecause I think everyone would
learn from that.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (20:17):
Um, you can also, if your staff is small enough or
maybe willing to, and you haveuh restaurants nearby that are
open late, you can either like aonce a month or you know,
whatever.
Everyone, hey, we're all goingto work.
SPEAKER_00 (20:28):
Yeah, our high school leaders.
Okay, oh, I love that youbrought that up.
I forgot about that era of mylife.
So when I was really young, Ithink I was still an intern at
our other campus.
We would all go to In N Out, theone in Vista after youth group,
every single Tuesday night.
Everyone would head over and allthe leaders would hang out late.
(20:50):
I was in college, so I didn'tcare.
It was so fun.
And then our high schoolministry, I think they the
leaders would go to Denny'safter Wednesday night and all
just hang out there for a while.
I mean, I think being a parenthas made me a better youth
pastor in most ways, but hangingout late on a school night now
(21:11):
is just a lot harder becausethat 6:30 alarm clock clock
comes very quickly.
SPEAKER_01 (21:19):
I always joke with you because when you come home
late, I'm always like, well,things either went really well
or really bad.
SPEAKER_00 (21:25):
Yeah, you always say that.
Really well.
Like we were having so much funhanging out and had great
conversation, or there was a bigissue I had to deal with.
SPEAKER_01 (21:33):
I had to talk to the police for a few hours
afterwards and figure out whatwent down.
Yeah.
Now make sure you put in thecomment section below something
that you feel is a goodpractical thing or maybe fun
that you guys do after youthgroup is over.
All right, this is the communitycomment of the day.
This comes from Mr.
Michael Torres, who says, suchan awesome video.
Thank you very much.
I literally have a meeting nextweek to start planning a night
(21:55):
of worship for our local churchyouth groups.
This video was amazingly timely.
Thank you.
SPEAKER_00 (22:01):
It's amazing how many people say that.
I know.
SPEAKER_01 (22:02):
This was um for the how to plan a worship night um
episode that we did.
Cool.
So thank you for the time.
SPEAKER_00 (22:07):
Ours is coming up in a four week, in a in a
four-week.
SPEAKER_01 (22:10):
Four night, fortnight and uh with a
four-score and seven years fromnow we're having a worship
night.
SPEAKER_00 (22:16):
Well, Michael Torres, if you're listening,
please comment and tell us howyour worship night went.
Uh, because we have ours comingup on October 26th.
So yeah, I want to hear if youhad any twists that you made to
it that made it better or whatyou learned.
SPEAKER_01 (22:32):
So all right, thank you guys for watching and
listening, and we'll see younext time.
SPEAKER_00 (22:36):
Today we're talking about five ways to inject more
energy in your today.
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