July 10, 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 *** Whether your youth ministry meets during the summer or you take a break, it's imperative that you get your youth ministry ready for the new school year! In this episode, we have 5 things you must do to prepare for the beginning of school to help your student ministry start the right way!
It doesn't matter if you're a seasoned youth pastor or just starting out, these practical strategies will help you make a smooth transition from summer mode to school year youth ministry with purpose and momentum. Set your student ministry up for success this school year!
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We love hearing from you all and we do our best to provide powerful and insightful youth ministry content on a weekly basis to be that coach and mentor you may not have, but desperately need.
If you have an episode idea, please E-Mail us at MinistryCoachPodcast@gmail.com!
If you have it on your heart to support this ministry, please consider going to our Patreon page at: www.patreon.com/ministrycoach
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You may also enjoy these episodes:
(#040) How to Start a Student Leadership Team in Youth Ministry
(#203) Create a Student Leadership Team that your Youth Group WANTS to Be a Part of!
(#110) Ultimate Guide for Fall Kickoff Events for Youth Ministry - 20 EVENT IDEAS!!
(#064) What's the BIG DEAL About SMALL GROUPS in Youth Ministry?
(#052) Small Group Leader Training for Youth Ministry
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Today we're talking about five ways to get your
youth group ready for the schoolyear.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Welcome to the Ministry Coach Podcast, where we
give you weekly tips andtactics to help you fast track
the growth and health of youryouth ministry.
If this is the first time we'remeeting, my name is Jeff
Laskola and this is.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
Kristen Laskola.
Way to get through the intro onthe first take, Jeff One try,
nailed it.
You guys don't know this,because obviously he edits it.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
but you do know it, because I usually put all the
screw ups in the end, though.
We don't always get throughthat intro seamlessly, and now
we did Most of the time, wedon't, hey?
This is our 249th episode,which means two things.
Number one, it means the nextepisode is 250, and number two,
it means we're going to be doingsomething really special, so
make sure you tune in I don'teven know what the special thing
(00:57):
is, you?
Speaker 1 (00:58):
absolutely know what the next thing is oh that, oh
that, oh wink, wink.
I promise I forgot.
Yeah, you'll love it.
You'll love it.
Promise, promise.
But today we are not doing that, but hopefully you still love
it.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
Let's get right into it.
This is all about what you needto be doing for your youth
ministry before school starts,correct?
Speaker 1 (01:20):
Yeah, yep.
So how to get your youthministry ready for the school
year?
I know that's a bad word rightnow and don't tell your students
you're listening to this.
They don't.
They're in denial.
School's never starting again.
They don't want to hear aboutit.
But as we're what about halfwaythrough summer right now, it's
(01:41):
a great time to start thinkingof.
All right, summer shall come toan end, there will be fall and
these work.
Whether or not we're going totalk about five today, and
whether or not you meet duringthe summer or not, they apply
and they're super helpful.
Side note, just my opinion.
(02:01):
If you don't meet during thesummer, maybe reconsider that
for next year.
I think you guys have heard mesay that before.
Even though numbers dip just bepresent with who's there.
Don't lose your momentum.
I hate the stop start, stop,start.
You know.
But just my opinion, you're incharge.
Do whatever you want.
Number one this used to sneak upon me every single time until I
(02:27):
finally just had to startwriting into my calendar around
Christmas time launch yourstudent leadership or student
discipleship whatever you callit team.
Oh, I would be like, oh my gosh, it's going to be September.
I haven't even put out anapplication yet.
So if you are going to do astudent leadership or
(02:49):
discipleship team, I think it'sa great idea to have it kind of
follow the school year and thentake a break for the summer.
That can go on a break for thesummer just to give new students
a chance to start on a freshteam.
And you know it gives just youa break because it is an extra
commitment and I don't thinkit's really necessary during the
(03:10):
summer to have studentleadership.
You can do different types ofBible study or discipleship
models that are just kind of asummer thing.
I still have students who willdo their jobs because they just
like to or want to or they'rejust in the habit, and some are
like heck, yeah, I need a break,I'm done like running tech or
(03:30):
whatever.
So I think the best thing to dois the first weekend service
that you have in August youshould do your student
leadership or discipleshippresentation.
So this is I have like aPowerPoint pro presenter kind of
thing where I talk about.
(03:50):
Ours is called SOS stands forstudents of service.
What is SOS?
Who can sign up for SOS?
Why would you want to sign upfor SOS?
What are we doing in SOS?
And I kind of pitch it to themlike this is an extra thing,
that's optional, but if you'relooking for an extra way to kind
of go to the core of this youthministry, not just be like a
face in the crowd, but you wantto be like wait, why is that kid
(04:13):
up on stage doing hand motions?
Or why does that kid get to dotech?
Or why is that kid you knowsinging in the worship band?
Well, those are all SOS kidsand you could do that too.
And so you teach them how tosign up and then you give them
about a month to turn in theirapplications and I have mine due
the last week of August, andthen our first meeting is in
(04:35):
September, and so that givesthem time to think about it,
talk to their parents about it.
I require a reference form, youknow.
So they get their reference formto a neighbor, a teacher, a
coach, a family friend,whoever's going to be filling it
out more than enough time to doall more than enough time,
which is why you know if you'veever watched the episodes on
student leadership before Idon't accept any late
(04:57):
applications, so it's not justlike I don't know, I just all of
a sudden decide I want to do it.
It's like, ah well, your firstsignal to me, theoretically, is
that you turn this in on time,and you know, we kind of make
that the gateway to get in.
And then we have our meetingsthe first Friday of every month,
(05:18):
september through May, andSeptember where we are is still
super warm, probably the warmestof all the months.
So we do a pool party to launchit and kind of like that
beginning of school, end ofsummer fun thing.
To launch it and kind of likethat beginning of school, end of
summer fun thing.
But just don't sleep on that,because I feel like that is
something that you might nothave in your rhythm, that all of
(05:38):
a sudden summer is ending andyou're like, oh shoot, we need a
student leadership team, and atthe time of this recording it
is July 6th and so it's reallynot that long that we have to
make sure we have our PowerPointpresentation, make sure we have
the applications printed andstapled in packets and email the
(05:59):
parents, let them know hey,here's an opportunity I'm going
to be talking to your kids about.
You know, if you're interested,make sure they pick up a packet
.
You know that whole thing, andthe parents have to sign off on
it as well, and you just needtime to do all of that and you
could be in summer mode andtotally forget, which I did for
years and years and years.
So sometimes I'd forget so hardthat we wouldn't be able to
(06:21):
start SOS until October, becauseit was like I was just summer
loving.
And all of a sudden it was likewhoops.
So start your studentleadership team.
Number two things to do to getyour youth group ready for this
school year is do some sort ofsmall group kickoff event.
Now, this is super applicableif you're one of those youth
(06:43):
groups that take a break duringthe summer.
But even if you've been meetingall summer like me we still
have small groups throughout thesummer.
But this is more applicable ifmaybe've been meeting all summer
, like me.
We still have small groupsthroughout the summer.
But this is more applicable ifmaybe you were meeting but you
weren't necessarily doingregular small groups.
Maybe you're just kind ofgetting to know people, or maybe
your incoming class doesn'tpromote till the end of summer.
(07:05):
I know a lot of churches thatdo that.
We promote the first weekend inJune.
I feel like a lot of churchesdon't promote.
We promote the first weekend inJune.
I feel like a lot of churchesdon't promote till the end of
summer, and so then you would bestarting these fresh small
groups.
But even if you're like me andyou've been meeting all summer
and doing small groups allsummer, it's still kind of fun.
You could just pitch it as likea fall kickoff or something
(07:26):
like that.
But if you're doing a smallgroup kickoff one thing we've
done that's been fun in the pastkickoff what does that remind
you of football, fall football,whatever.
So it's a football themed thing.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
Big kiss boring the best time of the year,
apparently, people like football, so whatever.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
So people would wear their favorite team jerseys and
then we would play like ultimatefootball.
Have some stadium food, likespecial stuff, like nachos or
cotton candy or snow cones orsomething like that hot dogs and
then, or you could do smallgroup competition.
you could make sure they'remeeting in their small group
that night, some kind of likesmall group bonding activity or
(08:07):
just simply getting to know eachother.
If this is the first time it'slaunching, I think the end of
summer, beginning of fall, is aperfect time to launch small
groups if you haven't done themalready.
And I think at our church wesay that small groups are the
hub of our ministry.
You know, we say things at ourchurch like church happens in
(08:28):
circles, not rows, meaning youjust don't like you're not
really doing church if you justgo and you're sitting next to
someone, but it's done incircles, like Bible studies,
fellowship, knowing each other,discussing things, and that's
how the church actually happens.
It's not just receivinginformation.
And so we make a big deal aboutsmall groups.
(08:51):
So we want to frame that andlet the students know like it's
not just like all right, here'syour small group assignment.
Listen up, sixth grade boys aregoing with Johnny.
You know it's like if it's soimportant and if it's our
discipleship model and if it'sthe hub of our ministry, let's
make a big darn deal about it.
You know, and make a wholeparty and make it exciting.
(09:13):
And as small groups are comingand we want students to know
this is the model that ourchurch believes in for how to
like, how your faith develops.
It's a tool of like you're notjust going to be a spectator
here, you're going to knowpeople, You're going to be known
, you're going to talk aboutstuff, you're going to ask
(09:33):
questions, you're going tograpple with things.
You have to participate.
You don't just get to sit,receive and leave.
You know, like the church ismeant to be more than that, and
so you build the excitementaround that so they know this is
a big deal.
So small group kickoff is itcould be like I said if you're
already doing small groups, justmake it your fall kickoff and
(09:55):
then find opportunities thatnight to make it like a small
group bonding experience.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (10:01):
So small group competition.
You know, the teams forultimate football could be small
groups, whatever.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
And we actually did a whole entire episode, if you
want to check it out, of 20event ideas for fall kickoffs.
So if you want to check thatout, it's down in the
description.
Speaker 1 (10:14):
Yeah, it was a couple years ago.
It was awesome.
I don't remember it.
I think I need to listen.
Yeah, so if you want to checkthat out, some ideas, it's in
the description below.
Speaker 2 (10:23):
If you're watching on youtube, it probably will come
up as a clickable link over oruh well, right about here where?
Um yeah, so check that outnumber three publish your fall
calendar.
Speaker 1 (10:38):
So you should have already done this, like at
christmas time, so hopefullyit'll just be a bing bang
publish your fall calendar atchristmas time.
Like you should have writtenyour fall calendar at christmas
time for this year and now it'sjust a matter of going over it
again, making sure everything'scorrect and pushing print or
(10:58):
uploading it to your website orsending the link to parents,
however you're going to chooseto get that out.
But the fall calendar.
So at the end of summer forSeptember, october, november,
you should have something inparents' hands so that they know
exactly how to get involvedthis fall.
Don't spend so much timethinking about summer that
you're neglecting the nextseason coming up.
(11:19):
So, for example, september ourevent is our all-overnighter.
Traditionally, that's when wego out and we do a bunch of
events and then we come back tothe church and go to sleep and
have pizza or watch a movie orsomething like that, because
Kristen doesn't want to do allall-nighters anymore.
So we go out for a little bit,in for a little bit.
(11:41):
Four hours of sleep, we're goodto go.
Then, no, october is the battleand that's our competition
series.
We get in three teams.
It's super hype, super Epic,the students.
The team that wins wins a tripto six flags, magic mountain,
and the whole point is anevangelistic outreach.
(12:01):
They're supposed to invitetheir unsafe friends.
We share the gospel, we seekids get saved and then bring
their families.
Families are getting baptized.
I don't know Like it just wasworking.
So that's October and thenNovember we do our leader
retreat.
That's our event where we'vebeen working hard all summer.
Then we've done all theseevents into the fall and the
(12:21):
leaders just go up to themountains and the crisp fall air
, eat pie, hike and play gamesand that kind of is like our
reward at the end of the year,because December is so busy for
everyone, like with Christmasand family events and Christmas
programming.
So we've just found thatNovember is a really great time
to do a retreat.
If you're looking for warmerweather, obviously you would
(12:44):
want to do it a different timeof year, but we kind of look at
it as an end of year celebration.
It's like wow, like let's lookback on this year of, like all
the cool things we did.
And we just feel this almostrelief of like oh we did it guys
, like what a year, let's do itagain next year, you know, kind
of thing.
So it's up to you.
(13:04):
But that's kind of what my falllooks like, just to give you an
example.
And it's so helpful to startgetting that information out and
then number these all say onethat always happens to me.
I need to fix that for numberfour Okay, I've done this a
couple of years.
It's gotten harder for me to dolately because now I actually
(13:26):
have children that have a firstday of school when.
I didn't have kids that have afirst day of school, when I
didn't have kids that had afirst day of school.
This was easy and epic for me todo One of the best things I
ever did and this was so simple.
We live in a smaller town thatonly has a couple junior high
schools, so we painted thesesigns that said happy first day,
(13:47):
love chaos that's the name ofour youth group and a couple of
us would go out to the streetcorner.
We weren't on school property,but we were at the turn where
you go from the main road intothe school and we would be
holding up the signs and likewaving and all of that.
(14:07):
And it was such a coolexperience for these kids on
their first day of school to seemy youth leaders are here early
in the morning greeting me as Igo to school, and again, we
didn't even have to getpermission to go on campus or
anything like that.
Cars were honking, Parents weretaking pictures out their car
window, posting it on theirFacebooks and Instagrams, and it
(14:29):
was like I think it gaveeveryone the warm fuzzies like,
oh my gosh chaos is here, youknow, and then kids who didn't
know it was kind of a cool thingCause then they would ask, like
who are those people?
Speaker 2 (14:41):
out there, you know who are those weirdos.
Speaker 1 (14:44):
And it was so cool.
If you draw, if your youthgroup draws from multiple
schools, divide and conquer,like you and I, I think it's
weird to go by yourself, likealways, like one other person
with you, and kind of canstation yourselves around or
just pick where you have themost kids, um, and you know if
(15:04):
you, if you can only make it toone.
So you'll just have to figurethat out, but it was or
alternate years.
Speaker 2 (15:10):
You don't do which one you go to yeah, exactly,
that's a great idea.
Speaker 1 (15:14):
So just standing out there, it was just such a cool
thing to like go to wherethey're at.
You know we're always, as youthpastors, looking for
opportunities.
How can I like show supportwhere they live, breathe and,
you know, not always having tocome to us?
It was like you should haveseen their faces like, and I
(15:34):
think you should keep it as asurprise.
Speaker 2 (15:36):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (15:37):
I don't think your students listen to this podcast,
so don't worry, cat's not outof the bag but it was just like
the surprise of like what areyou doing here?
You're like the last person Iexpected to see, so I would like
to start it again.
If you're a parent who hasschool age children, it's
probably going to be tough foryou because you are kind of
seeing them off on their firstday and walking them to the gate
(15:58):
and doing all the pictures andall that.
But if you are a 21 year oldyouth pastor, don't have kids
yet.
This has your name on it.
So number five super youthgroup.
So I think that is a super funway to kind of wrap up the
summer as well.
It's the only opportunity thatyou have to do an extended hour.
(16:19):
So during the school year, youknow, youth group can get kind
of late, especially if you havesixth graders, like an 11 year
old, being out till nine orthat's late, you know, on a
school night.
Speaker 2 (16:31):
So, and sometimes going the other way if you just
started an hour early, parentsprobably aren't off work yet and
may not be able to get there,or sports and dinner and all
that.
Speaker 1 (16:39):
So our students always have two requests we want
chaos to go longer.
Why does it end at 830?
And can it meet multiple days aweek?
And I'm like, well, no, but Ican do, I can, I can do this for
you.
Let's make a deal during thesummer, when you guys don't have
school, let's go one extra hour.
(16:59):
We call it super chaos.
They wear uh, we're going towear superhero costumes.
We're going to do normal youthgroup, just like how we do it on
a regular Tuesday night.
But then at 830, when theywould be dismissed to go out to
pick up, they come back into theauditorium, our main area, and
we will spend the next hour LikeI always love to kick it off
(17:22):
with, like a just dance to geteveryone hype.
Then we will play a game, thenmaybe we reopen the snack shack
or have some special treat likeroot beer floats or snow cones,
cotton candy, whatever you wantto do, and then we play another
game and then go to pickup andit's crazy how fast that third
hour really does go.
It's like in a blink of an eye.
(17:42):
But it's just kind of this funbonus extra night before we go
back to school, like we had onelast summer hurrah, because we
can't do this during the schoolyear.
Hey friend, I just wanted tointerrupt this episode for a
second to let you know about anawesome opportunity for you and
your youth ministry.
So last year we launched ourcourse and coaching program
(18:04):
called youth ministry growthaccelerator and the response has
been amazing.
So we've helped tons of youthpastors grow the size and health
of their youth ministry and wewant to invite you to be a part
of that as well, because maybeyou're just sort of feeling
stuck in a rut, maybe you don'tknow what to do next, maybe you
just have a vague plan in yourmind of what you're doing and
(18:25):
you want some real help to getyou from where you are to where
you want to go.
So if that sounds likesomething you've been looking
for, go togrowyouryouthministrycom and
check it out for more details.
All right, let's get back tothe episode and then you know,
just to kind of wrap up thesummer, I think one thing I've
found is doing an end of theseason like end of summer
(18:49):
slideshow, kind of like a mix ofvideo pictures of all the cool
things you guys did, to kind oflike close, wrap it up and above
, like what a fun summer here'ssome things we did.
And then another tip this isn'tkind of one of the five, but you
know, especially if you're theyouth group that has stopped for
the summer, really make sureyou're staying on top of
(19:11):
communication with parentsbecause you are not in their
routine anymore and so when youstart back up it could be a very
abrupt start like oh shoot,we're not used to going, you
know, to church on Wednesdaysand this is, we've got to
reinstate this into our routineand so it's not like on if your
(19:31):
youth groups on Wednesday, it'snot like Monday morning, you say
guess what?
We're starting, see you guys intwo days.
You know you give them kind ofthe warm up of like, hey, here's
what you can expect coming upin September or end of August or
whatever you're going to start.
Give them lots of weeks aheadof time.
I would start communicating atfour weeks before your start
(19:52):
date.
I would start sending acalendar of what's going on or a
link to your website andkeeping them in the loop and
sending a weekly email leadingup to that so that they can get
that on their calendar.
If you need to do a parentorientation meeting at the end
of summer because you're a latepromoter or something like that.
You know, just, you need tokind of like that back to school
(20:14):
night vibe.
You know you need to startgetting people reacclimated to
having youth group back in theirroutine.
So, communication,communication, posting on your
social media, if you have one,sending that email, if you're
using a text service, whateveryou use to communicate to
parents it's time to kind oflike rev that communication up
(20:36):
yeah, and it's you know.
Speaker 2 (20:37):
Sometimes we struggle to get kids to come to certain
events.
If they don't know about them,they can't plan for them, and so
being on their radar as soon aspossible is good, so they can
plan around the events you knowlike you always get your summer
camp dates out?
Wait, I mean, I know we'rejumping ahead here for next
summer, but you get your datesout way in advance like a year
because you don't want them tobe like oh well, we already have
(21:00):
a family vacation they'll planaround that so all yeah, all the
more reason to get your stuffout and communicate as soon as
possible and as often aspossible.
Um, we mentioned the 20 eventidea episode.
Make sure you check that out.
And also we did one on how tostart a student leadership team,
so make sure, if you don'talready have one, you check that
episode out as well.
All right, we have a communitycomment of the day.
(21:20):
This comes from Kelly Kramer,who says you guys are so awesome
as a new youth director.
I thank you guys so much forthis.
Speaker 1 (21:29):
You're welcome.
Speaker 2 (21:30):
Welcome.
Speaker 1 (21:31):
Kelly Kramer.
Thank you so much for reachingout.
Speaker 2 (21:34):
Hey, make sure you guys check out our episode next
week.
250 episodes Over five yearswe've been doing this.
That's crazy.
Thank you guys, so much forwatching and listening and we'll
see you next time.
For every week we give youactionable and practical tips to
help you with the growth ofyour youth ministries.
All of them Today.
Or not today?
(21:56):
That is the question.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
I like that.
Speaker 2 (22:01):
It's another game episode.
Speaker 1 (22:03):
It's another game episode.
Today we're talking about five ways to get your
youth group ready for the schoolyear.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Welcome to the Ministry Coach Podcast, where we
give you weekly tips andtactics to help you fast track
the growth and health of youryouth ministry.
If this is the first time we'remeeting, my name is Jeff
Laskola and this is.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
Kristen Laskola.
Way to get through the intro onthe first take, Jeff One try,
nailed it.
You guys don't know this,because obviously he edits it.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
but you do know it, because I usually put all the
screw ups in the end, though.
We don't always get throughthat intro seamlessly, and now
we did Most of the time, wedon't, hey?
This is our 249th episode,which means two things.
Number one, it means the nextepisode is 250, and number two,
it means we're going to be doingsomething really special, so
make sure you tune in I don'teven know what the special thing
(00:57):
is, you?
Speaker 1 (00:58):
absolutely know what the next thing is oh that, oh
that, oh wink, wink.
I promise I forgot.
Yeah, you'll love it.
You'll love it.
Promise, promise.
But today we are not doing that, but hopefully you still love
it.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
Let's get right into it.
This is all about what you needto be doing for your youth
ministry before school starts,correct?
Speaker 1 (01:20):
Yeah, yep.
So how to get your youthministry ready for the school
year?
I know that's a bad word rightnow and don't tell your students
you're listening to this.
They don't.
They're in denial.
School's never starting again.
They don't want to hear aboutit.
But as we're what about halfwaythrough summer right now, it's
(01:41):
a great time to start thinkingof.
All right, summer shall come toan end, there will be fall and
these work.
Whether or not we're going totalk about five today, and
whether or not you meet duringthe summer or not, they apply
and they're super helpful.
Side note, just my opinion.
(02:01):
If you don't meet during thesummer, maybe reconsider that
for next year.
I think you guys have heard mesay that before.
Even though numbers dip just bepresent with who's there.
Don't lose your momentum.
I hate the stop start, stop,start.
You know.
But just my opinion, you're incharge.
Do whatever you want.
Number one this used to sneak upon me every single time until I
(02:27):
finally just had to startwriting into my calendar around
Christmas time launch yourstudent leadership or student
discipleship whatever you callit team.
Oh, I would be like, oh my gosh, it's going to be September.
I haven't even put out anapplication yet.
So if you are going to do astudent leadership or
(02:49):
discipleship team, I think it'sa great idea to have it kind of
follow the school year and thentake a break for the summer.
That can go on a break for thesummer just to give new students
a chance to start on a freshteam.
And you know it gives just youa break because it is an extra
commitment and I don't thinkit's really necessary during the
(03:10):
summer to have studentleadership.
You can do different types ofBible study or discipleship
models that are just kind of asummer thing.
I still have students who willdo their jobs because they just
like to or want to or they'rejust in the habit, and some are
like heck, yeah, I need a break,I'm done like running tech or
(03:30):
whatever.
So I think the best thing to dois the first weekend service
that you have in August youshould do your student
leadership or discipleshippresentation.
So this is I have like aPowerPoint pro presenter kind of
thing where I talk about.
(03:50):
Ours is called SOS stands forstudents of service.
What is SOS?
Who can sign up for SOS?
Why would you want to sign upfor SOS?
What are we doing in SOS?
And I kind of pitch it to themlike this is an extra thing,
that's optional, but if you'relooking for an extra way to kind
of go to the core of this youthministry, not just be like a
face in the crowd, but you wantto be like wait, why is that kid
(04:13):
up on stage doing hand motions?
Or why does that kid get to dotech?
Or why is that kid you knowsinging in the worship band?
Well, those are all SOS kidsand you could do that too.
And so you teach them how tosign up and then you give them
about a month to turn in theirapplications and I have mine due
the last week of August, andthen our first meeting is in
(04:35):
September, and so that givesthem time to think about it,
talk to their parents about it.
I require a reference form, youknow.
So they get their reference formto a neighbor, a teacher, a
coach, a family friend,whoever's going to be filling it
out more than enough time to doall more than enough time,
which is why you know if you'veever watched the episodes on
student leadership before Idon't accept any late
(04:57):
applications, so it's not justlike I don't know, I just all of
a sudden decide I want to do it.
It's like, ah well, your firstsignal to me, theoretically, is
that you turn this in on time,and you know, we kind of make
that the gateway to get in.
And then we have our meetingsthe first Friday of every month,
(05:18):
september through May, andSeptember where we are is still
super warm, probably the warmestof all the months.
So we do a pool party to launchit and kind of like that
beginning of school, end ofsummer fun thing.
To launch it and kind of likethat beginning of school, end of
summer fun thing.
But just don't sleep on that,because I feel like that is
something that you might nothave in your rhythm, that all of
(05:38):
a sudden summer is ending andyou're like, oh shoot, we need a
student leadership team, and atthe time of this recording it
is July 6th and so it's reallynot that long that we have to
make sure we have our PowerPointpresentation, make sure we have
the applications printed andstapled in packets and email the
(05:59):
parents, let them know hey,here's an opportunity I'm going
to be talking to your kids about.
You know, if you're interested,make sure they pick up a packet
.
You know that whole thing, andthe parents have to sign off on
it as well, and you just needtime to do all of that and you
could be in summer mode andtotally forget, which I did for
years and years and years.
So sometimes I'd forget so hardthat we wouldn't be able to
(06:21):
start SOS until October, becauseit was like I was just summer
loving.
And all of a sudden it was likewhoops.
So start your studentleadership team.
Number two things to do to getyour youth group ready for this
school year is do some sort ofsmall group kickoff event.
Now, this is super applicableif you're one of those youth
(06:43):
groups that take a break duringthe summer.
But even if you've been meetingall summer like me we still
have small groups throughout thesummer.
But this is more applicable ifmaybe've been meeting all summer
, like me.
We still have small groupsthroughout the summer.
But this is more applicable ifmaybe you were meeting but you
weren't necessarily doingregular small groups.
Maybe you're just kind ofgetting to know people, or maybe
your incoming class doesn'tpromote till the end of summer.
(07:05):
I know a lot of churches thatdo that.
We promote the first weekend inJune.
I feel like a lot of churchesdon't promote.
We promote the first weekend inJune.
I feel like a lot of churchesdon't promote till the end of
summer, and so then you would bestarting these fresh small
groups.
But even if you're like me andyou've been meeting all summer
and doing small groups allsummer, it's still kind of fun.
You could just pitch it as likea fall kickoff or something
(07:26):
like that.
But if you're doing a smallgroup kickoff one thing we've
done that's been fun in the pastkickoff what does that remind
you of football, fall football,whatever.
So it's a football themed thing.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
Big kiss boring the best time of the year,
apparently, people like football, so whatever.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
So people would wear their favorite team jerseys and
then we would play like ultimatefootball.
Have some stadium food, likespecial stuff, like nachos or
cotton candy or snow cones orsomething like that hot dogs and
then, or you could do smallgroup competition.
you could make sure they'remeeting in their small group
that night, some kind of likesmall group bonding activity or
(08:07):
just simply getting to know eachother.
If this is the first time it'slaunching, I think the end of
summer, beginning of fall, is aperfect time to launch small
groups if you haven't done themalready.
And I think at our church wesay that small groups are the
hub of our ministry.
You know, we say things at ourchurch like church happens in
(08:28):
circles, not rows, meaning youjust don't like you're not
really doing church if you justgo and you're sitting next to
someone, but it's done incircles, like Bible studies,
fellowship, knowing each other,discussing things, and that's
how the church actually happens.
It's not just receivinginformation.
And so we make a big deal aboutsmall groups.
(08:51):
So we want to frame that andlet the students know like it's
not just like all right, here'syour small group assignment.
Listen up, sixth grade boys aregoing with Johnny.
You know it's like if it's soimportant and if it's our
discipleship model and if it'sthe hub of our ministry, let's
make a big darn deal about it.
You know, and make a wholeparty and make it exciting.
(09:13):
And as small groups are comingand we want students to know
this is the model that ourchurch believes in for how to
like, how your faith develops.
It's a tool of like you're notjust going to be a spectator
here, you're going to knowpeople, You're going to be known
, you're going to talk aboutstuff, you're going to ask
(09:33):
questions, you're going tograpple with things.
You have to participate.
You don't just get to sit,receive and leave.
You know, like the church ismeant to be more than that, and
so you build the excitementaround that so they know this is
a big deal.
So small group kickoff is itcould be like I said if you're
already doing small groups, justmake it your fall kickoff and
(09:55):
then find opportunities thatnight to make it like a small
group bonding experience.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (10:01):
So small group competition.
You know, the teams forultimate football could be small
groups, whatever.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
And we actually did a whole entire episode, if you
want to check it out, of 20event ideas for fall kickoffs.
So if you want to check thatout, it's down in the
description.
Speaker 1 (10:14):
Yeah, it was a couple years ago.
It was awesome.
I don't remember it.
I think I need to listen.
Yeah, so if you want to checkthat out, some ideas, it's in
the description below.
Speaker 2 (10:23):
If you're watching on youtube, it probably will come
up as a clickable link over oruh well, right about here where?
Um yeah, so check that outnumber three publish your fall
calendar.
Speaker 1 (10:38):
So you should have already done this, like at
christmas time, so hopefullyit'll just be a bing bang
publish your fall calendar atchristmas time.
Like you should have writtenyour fall calendar at christmas
time for this year and now it'sjust a matter of going over it
again, making sure everything'scorrect and pushing print or
(10:58):
uploading it to your website orsending the link to parents,
however you're going to chooseto get that out.
But the fall calendar.
So at the end of summer forSeptember, october, november,
you should have something inparents' hands so that they know
exactly how to get involvedthis fall.
Don't spend so much timethinking about summer that
you're neglecting the nextseason coming up.
(11:19):
So, for example, september ourevent is our all-overnighter.
Traditionally, that's when wego out and we do a bunch of
events and then we come back tothe church and go to sleep and
have pizza or watch a movie orsomething like that, because
Kristen doesn't want to do allall-nighters anymore.
So we go out for a little bit,in for a little bit.
(11:41):
Four hours of sleep, we're goodto go.
Then, no, october is the battleand that's our competition
series.
We get in three teams.
It's super hype, super Epic,the students.
The team that wins wins a tripto six flags, magic mountain,
and the whole point is anevangelistic outreach.
(12:01):
They're supposed to invitetheir unsafe friends.
We share the gospel, we seekids get saved and then bring
their families.
Families are getting baptized.
I don't know Like it just wasworking.
So that's October and thenNovember we do our leader
retreat.
That's our event where we'vebeen working hard all summer.
Then we've done all theseevents into the fall and the
(12:21):
leaders just go up to themountains and the crisp fall air
, eat pie, hike and play gamesand that kind of is like our
reward at the end of the year,because December is so busy for
everyone, like with Christmasand family events and Christmas
programming.
So we've just found thatNovember is a really great time
to do a retreat.
If you're looking for warmerweather, obviously you would
(12:44):
want to do it a different timeof year, but we kind of look at
it as an end of year celebration.
It's like wow, like let's lookback on this year of, like all
the cool things we did.
And we just feel this almostrelief of like oh we did it guys
, like what a year, let's do itagain next year, you know, kind
of thing.
So it's up to you.
(13:04):
But that's kind of what my falllooks like, just to give you an
example.
And it's so helpful to startgetting that information out and
then number these all say onethat always happens to me.
I need to fix that for numberfour Okay, I've done this a
couple of years.
It's gotten harder for me to dolately because now I actually
(13:26):
have children that have a firstday of school when.
I didn't have kids that have afirst day of school, when I
didn't have kids that had afirst day of school.
This was easy and epic for me todo One of the best things I
ever did and this was so simple.
We live in a smaller town thatonly has a couple junior high
schools, so we painted thesesigns that said happy first day,
(13:47):
love chaos that's the name ofour youth group and a couple of
us would go out to the streetcorner.
We weren't on school property,but we were at the turn where
you go from the main road intothe school and we would be
holding up the signs and likewaving and all of that.
(14:07):
And it was such a coolexperience for these kids on
their first day of school to seemy youth leaders are here early
in the morning greeting me as Igo to school, and again, we
didn't even have to getpermission to go on campus or
anything like that.
Cars were honking, Parents weretaking pictures out their car
window, posting it on theirFacebooks and Instagrams, and it
(14:29):
was like I think it gaveeveryone the warm fuzzies like,
oh my gosh chaos is here, youknow, and then kids who didn't
know it was kind of a cool thingCause then they would ask, like
who are those people?
Speaker 2 (14:41):
out there, you know who are those weirdos.
Speaker 1 (14:44):
And it was so cool.
If you draw, if your youthgroup draws from multiple
schools, divide and conquer,like you and I, I think it's
weird to go by yourself, likealways, like one other person
with you, and kind of canstation yourselves around or
just pick where you have themost kids, um, and you know if
(15:04):
you, if you can only make it toone.
So you'll just have to figurethat out, but it was or
alternate years.
Speaker 2 (15:10):
You don't do which one you go to yeah, exactly,
that's a great idea.
Speaker 1 (15:14):
So just standing out there, it was just such a cool
thing to like go to wherethey're at.
You know we're always, as youthpastors, looking for
opportunities.
How can I like show supportwhere they live, breathe and,
you know, not always having tocome to us?
It was like you should haveseen their faces like, and I
(15:34):
think you should keep it as asurprise.
Speaker 2 (15:36):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (15:37):
I don't think your students listen to this podcast,
so don't worry, cat's not outof the bag but it was just like
the surprise of like what areyou doing here?
You're like the last person Iexpected to see, so I would like
to start it again.
If you're a parent who hasschool age children, it's
probably going to be tough foryou because you are kind of
seeing them off on their firstday and walking them to the gate
(15:58):
and doing all the pictures andall that.
But if you are a 21 year oldyouth pastor, don't have kids
yet.
This has your name on it.
So number five super youthgroup.
So I think that is a super funway to kind of wrap up the
summer as well.
It's the only opportunity thatyou have to do an extended hour.
(16:19):
So during the school year, youknow, youth group can get kind
of late, especially if you havesixth graders, like an 11 year
old, being out till nine orthat's late, you know, on a
school night.
Speaker 2 (16:31):
So, and sometimes going the other way if you just
started an hour early, parentsprobably aren't off work yet and
may not be able to get there,or sports and dinner and all
that.
Speaker 1 (16:39):
So our students always have two requests we want
chaos to go longer.
Why does it end at 830?
And can it meet multiple days aweek?
And I'm like, well, no, but Ican do, I can, I can do this for
you.
Let's make a deal during thesummer, when you guys don't have
school, let's go one extra hour.
(16:59):
We call it super chaos.
They wear uh, we're going towear superhero costumes.
We're going to do normal youthgroup, just like how we do it on
a regular Tuesday night.
But then at 830, when theywould be dismissed to go out to
pick up, they come back into theauditorium, our main area, and
we will spend the next hour LikeI always love to kick it off
(17:22):
with, like a just dance to geteveryone hype.
Then we will play a game, thenmaybe we reopen the snack shack
or have some special treat likeroot beer floats or snow cones,
cotton candy, whatever you wantto do, and then we play another
game and then go to pickup andit's crazy how fast that third
hour really does go.
It's like in a blink of an eye.
(17:42):
But it's just kind of this funbonus extra night before we go
back to school, like we had onelast summer hurrah, because we
can't do this during the schoolyear.
Hey friend, I just wanted tointerrupt this episode for a
second to let you know about anawesome opportunity for you and
your youth ministry.
So last year we launched ourcourse and coaching program
(18:04):
called youth ministry growthaccelerator and the response has
been amazing.
So we've helped tons of youthpastors grow the size and health
of their youth ministry and wewant to invite you to be a part
of that as well, because maybeyou're just sort of feeling
stuck in a rut, maybe you don'tknow what to do next, maybe you
just have a vague plan in yourmind of what you're doing and
(18:25):
you want some real help to getyou from where you are to where
you want to go.
So if that sounds likesomething you've been looking
for, go togrowyouryouthministrycom and
check it out for more details.
All right, let's get back tothe episode and then you know,
just to kind of wrap up thesummer, I think one thing I've
found is doing an end of theseason like end of summer
(18:49):
slideshow, kind of like a mix ofvideo pictures of all the cool
things you guys did, to kind oflike close, wrap it up and above
, like what a fun summer here'ssome things we did.
And then another tip this isn'tkind of one of the five, but you
know, especially if you're theyouth group that has stopped for
the summer, really make sureyou're staying on top of
(19:11):
communication with parentsbecause you are not in their
routine anymore and so when youstart back up it could be a very
abrupt start like oh shoot,we're not used to going, you
know, to church on Wednesdaysand this is, we've got to
reinstate this into our routineand so it's not like on if your
(19:31):
youth groups on Wednesday, it'snot like Monday morning, you say
guess what?
We're starting, see you guys intwo days.
You know you give them kind ofthe warm up of like, hey, here's
what you can expect coming upin September or end of August or
whatever you're going to start.
Give them lots of weeks aheadof time.
I would start communicating atfour weeks before your start
(19:52):
date.
I would start sending acalendar of what's going on or a
link to your website andkeeping them in the loop and
sending a weekly email leadingup to that so that they can get
that on their calendar.
If you need to do a parentorientation meeting at the end
of summer because you're a latepromoter or something like that.
You know, just, you need tokind of like that back to school
(20:14):
night vibe.
You know you need to startgetting people reacclimated to
having youth group back in theirroutine.
So, communication,communication, posting on your
social media, if you have one,sending that email, if you're
using a text service, whateveryou use to communicate to
parents it's time to kind oflike rev that communication up
(20:36):
yeah, and it's you know.
Speaker 2 (20:37):
Sometimes we struggle to get kids to come to certain
events.
If they don't know about them,they can't plan for them, and so
being on their radar as soon aspossible is good, so they can
plan around the events you knowlike you always get your summer
camp dates out?
Wait, I mean, I know we'rejumping ahead here for next
summer, but you get your datesout way in advance like a year
because you don't want them tobe like oh well, we already have
(21:00):
a family vacation they'll planaround that so all yeah, all the
more reason to get your stuffout and communicate as soon as
possible and as often aspossible.
Um, we mentioned the 20 eventidea episode.
Make sure you check that out.
And also we did one on how tostart a student leadership team,
so make sure, if you don'talready have one, you check that
episode out as well.
All right, we have a communitycomment of the day.
(21:20):
This comes from Kelly Kramer,who says you guys are so awesome
as a new youth director.
I thank you guys so much forthis.
Speaker 1 (21:29):
You're welcome.
Speaker 2 (21:30):
Welcome.
Speaker 1 (21:31):
Kelly Kramer.
Thank you so much for reachingout.
Speaker 2 (21:34):
Hey, make sure you guys check out our episode next
week.
250 episodes Over five yearswe've been doing this.
That's crazy.
Thank you guys, so much forwatching and listening and we'll
see you next time.
For every week we give youactionable and practical tips to
help you with the growth ofyour youth ministries.
All of them Today.
Or not today?
(21:56):
That is the question.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
I like that.
Speaker 2 (22:01):
It's another game episode.
Speaker 1 (22:03):
It's another game episode.
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