October 23, 2025 • 37 mins
Start the New Year strong and grow a healthy, thriving youth ministry...if you'd like to work with us, check out GrowYourYouthMinistry.com *** Winter camps don’t plan themselves, and waiting until the last minute is how budgets break and leaders burn out. We’re opening our full playbook for planning a youth ministry winter retreat that can be cost effective, high-energy, and spiritually impactful! In this episode, we discuss three proven models and show how to pick the one that fits your size, budget, and resources. Then we get practical...how to plan your student ministry winter camp from start to finish! You’ll learn the true cost breakdown, a repeatable planning rhythm that works great and finally a step by step schedule you can plug in for your next youth group winter camp.
Finally, stick around until the end where we give you a free game that can be played ANY time of year!
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If this playbook helps, subscribe, share with a fellow youth pastor or youth worker, and leave a quick review so more youth ministries can run better retreats this winter!
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(#050) Games for Youth Groups at Church - Up Front Games!
(#221) Youth Ministry Winter Olympic Games - Indoor Youth Group Games!
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_00 (00:00):
Today, we're giving you the ultimate guide for
(00:02):
hosting a winter retreat foryour youth ministry.
And stick around to the endbecause I'm going to give you an
easy free game that you can playwith your youth group anytime.
SPEAKER_01 (00:23):
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.
If this is the first time we'remeeting, my name is Jeff
Lascola, and this is KristenLascola.
SPEAKER_00 (00:36):
And this is the perfect time of year to talk
about winter camp, winterretreats.
SPEAKER_01 (00:41):
And we're in October, just in case you didn't
know.
SPEAKER_00 (00:44):
Yeah.
So today is the ultimate guideto hosting a successful youth
retreat.
Parentheses, winter camp.
That was the idea.
What's happening, right?
That's the idea you sent me inour email in my email verbatim.
SPEAKER_01 (00:59):
Is that the tone you read it in when I sent it to
you?
unknown (01:02):
Apparently.
SPEAKER_00 (01:03):
Apparently.
I've never been on live podcastsbefore.
Um, so we're gonna talk aboutbecause here's the thing it's
October.
My winter camp is in February,and I already have one
preliminary meeting under mybelt, and we have our next one
scheduled for next week, Ithink.
So I'm gonna take you throughlike three planning phases of
(01:27):
your winter retreat because thisis the perfect time of year to
be thinking about that.
And if you are like, oh no, whatI should be thinking about a
winter camp, yeah, find findsomewhere.
No, just kidding.
There's two different ways youcan do winter camp.
Well, three actually, that Ihave done two out of the three.
So one of them I can't reallyspeak to.
SPEAKER_01 (01:50):
Some of our So for you people, I will just tell you
what it is.
SPEAKER_00 (01:55):
I'm not gonna help you with it.
But um, yeah.
Some of our campuses do like abest weekend ever kind of camp
where they start and end at thechurch, they sleep there.
The church is the camp kind ofthing.
They usually start on a Fridaynight and do something fun at
(02:16):
the church, like a lock-in.
I said fun and lock-in in thesame sentence.
How could I?
And then the next day they maybewill go to some different
venues, like near our where welive, there's like um Mission
Bay, there's like the rollercoaster and the arcade, it's
right by the beach, and youknow, there's all that to do.
(02:36):
You know, I've heard of peoplegoing to like an actual theme
park, you know, rolling thatinto the cost, and they just hop
around and do all this fun,different stuff.
Then they'd come back to thechurch and there'd be like a
speaker in the evening, maybesome small groups and worship,
and then they kind of end withchurch on Sunday.
They're there anyways.
You wake up and like someone'sunlocking the door, and church
(02:59):
starts.
And so that's probably prettycost effective because you have
to pay for transportation to thevenues, but you're not paying
for the venue itself.
And you could get creative withfood, having like a life, an
adult life group, growth group,small group, whatever you call
them, bring in meals for thekids, depending on how big it
(03:20):
is.
You could, I did like in and outfor my leadership team the other
day, and it actually only endedup being six bucks a kid.
It was really cheap.
Obviously, you could do classiclittle Caesars pizza or
something, Costco pizza.
So meals are pretty easy, youknow, cereal bar for breakfast.
I haven't even done it.
Look at me.
I am full of ideas.
(03:42):
You can do a glow night.
I don't know.
There's so many things.
The only thing I don't likeabout that one, just about which
one?
SPEAKER_01 (03:51):
Glow night?
SPEAKER_00 (03:52):
No, about staying at the church.
SPEAKER_01 (03:53):
Oh, okay.
SPEAKER_00 (03:54):
Is there's nowhere to shower.
And I know it's only two nights,but I can go one night without a
shower.
Two would be tough for me.
So I would maybe run home andthen come back or something.
Um, so I don't love that.
And junior hires two nights, noshowers.
SPEAKER_01 (04:11):
They're arriving with two showers, not taken the
two days prior to that.
Yes.
SPEAKER_00 (04:16):
So it's always their socks are awful.
As soon as they take their shoesoff, it's over.
Like you're done.
So then the other option for awinter camp would be you go to a
pre-packaged camp, which I didfor years and years and years.
If you're in SouthernCalifornia, you probably have
heard of Forest Home.
You used to go with me to thatone.
It was a blast because basicallyyou just show up and the staff
(04:40):
takes care of everything andyou're just there and you enjoy
it.
We don't do that anymore onlybecause of costs.
We just got kind of priced out,but it's a beautiful camp and I
wish I could still go.
So, what we landed on isactually we rent a conference
center, and I get together withthree or four of our other
(05:01):
campuses, and so that we havethis critical mass to rent the
whole camp out to ourselves.
If you are not at a multi-sitechurch, then you could talk to a
few other camp or churches inyour area, say, do you want to
collaborate on renting out afacility?
So you have some critical mass,some people, so you can have the
whole thing to yourselves.
(05:22):
I some of our youth pastors atour church even have found some
really cool like Airbnbs orVRBOs, where it's like a bunch
of different houses on the sameproperty.
And so, like they'll do it forhigh school, like junior girls
and senior girls in this house,senior boys and junior boys in
this house, freshmen in thishouse.
(05:42):
And it's like all in this onearea.
And then one of the houses willhave some really cool backyard
or common area.
And they it like in Indio,there's like a lot of those
kinds of places.
It's weird.
So, or out in the mountains, youknow.
Um, so yeah, based on your size,look around and see what would
work best for you.
Like I said, we do a conferencecenter and it is a camp, but we
(06:08):
basically put the whole programon ourselves.
SPEAKER_01 (06:11):
So it they they provide the meals though,
correct?
SPEAKER_00 (06:13):
They do.
So there's like a dining roomwith a full kitchen staff and me
pre-scheduled meal times thatyou show up for, but we do
everything else, you know, andthat obviously they have the
cabins and everything, but weput on the program and all of
that.
So if you're gonna do that typeof camp, that's what I'm gonna
describe of how to plan it.
(06:34):
Hopefully, no matter what winterretreat you're planning, some of
these principles will maybespark some creativity for you or
be useful as you plan it.
So your first planning phasewould obviously be renting the
space out.
Make sure you have that bookedalready.
But we always like to find ourspeaker first.
(06:56):
So we sit down, we brainstormsome names, and then we start
getting to work because peoplehave busy schedules.
So you don't want to be lastminute and have no camp speaker.
I would recommend as the youthpastor, probably not being the
camp speaker because you will bebusy enough uh without having to
engage like on a different levelwith your message.
(07:16):
And there's always fires to putout, always kids who need help,
always someone who's sick orhurt or in a fight or something
like that.
So find a speaker and find aworship leader.
SPEAKER_01 (07:28):
So do you have your date set prior to this?
Yes.
Okay.
SPEAKER_00 (07:31):
Yeah.
So the place has been booked,the dates have been sent out to
parents.
I'm glad you brought that upbecause as soon as you know the
dates, send that out to yourfamilies, the parents.
And I always keep it like as thestaple at the bottom of my
emails.
So every week, you know, when Icopy and paste a new parent
email, they're seeing wintercamp 2026 dates, you know, all
(07:53):
the time.
So yeah, the dates have goneout, the place has been booked,
then you find your speaker andyou start looking for a worship
leader or, you know, someone whocould kind of put together a
band would be even coolerbecause I feel like camp worship
has just potential to be prettyepic.
I think kids' walls are reallydown, they're really ready.
So finding the right person forthat.
(08:15):
And then we like to come up witha theme.
So if you do high schoolministry, I don't think this is
as important, but with juniorhigh, we always have an element
of competition in every singlething we do.
It keeps them engaged, it keepsthem excited, and it gives them
something to kind of rallyaround and be there for.
(08:38):
So last year we did, I mean, andour themes are really just funny
and weird.
We did the cereal bowl, and itwas Captain Crunch versus Lucky
Charms versus Frosted Flakes,and they got into it, you know,
um, because the costumes wereactually really cool.
So once you kind of have yourtheme, you don't need to go any
(08:58):
further with that.
Just know what it is, and thenthis is super important.
And my least favorite part ofphase one planning is calculate
your cost because two reasons Ihate it.
Every year it seems to go upbecause everything's more
expensive every year.
And now I'm a parent of a middleschooler, so I pay to go to my
(09:19):
own camp.
I'm like, I'm here, and I paidfor a camper to come, which I
hate.
So, some things to remember whenyou're calculating your costs.
What is the cost per camperaccording to the facility that
you're using?
Because they usually will havetheir own cost.
Yeah.
Transportation.
If you're taking buses,obviously that's the cost.
(09:41):
If you're taking privatevehicles, I would just say you
need to pay for the gas forthose.
And it's gonna be a lot lessthan buses, which is nice.
Then your leader cost.
So sometimes camps will give youa discount for adults and
sometimes they won't.
So you need to figure out howmuch it is gonna cost for me to
bring adult leaders with me andsee if the camp discounts them,
(10:04):
and you need to figure out howto roll that into the cost of
the student because the lastthing you want to do is ask, hey
Jeff, come to winter camp withus.
Oh, it'll only be$285.
You're like, then no.
So we always will take, okay,I'm gonna take 10 liters.
Each liter is gonna cost me$200.
(10:26):
So that's$2,000.
Wow, good job.
unknown (10:30):
Yes.
SPEAKER_00 (10:31):
And then you divide that by your projected cost of
campers, and then you roll thatinto each kid.
So usually it's pretty low.
It ends up being like$12 a kidor something.
Obviously, the more kids, themore leaders you need, but it
will kind of balance itself out.
And we'll talk about that in asecond.
Then you want to pay yourspeaker.
So add in the speaker fee.
(10:52):
I don't know what if you if yougo in-house, meaning like if you
ask someone from your own churchto come up and speak, maybe it's
a different youth pastor or uhan executive pastor or your
campus pastor.
I don't know, someone who's agood speaker on your team or
whatever, I think the in-houserate is definitely cheaper than
(11:14):
the some guy outhouse rate.
Outhouse rate.
Yeah, it's just so keep that inmind.
And then you want to putsomething together for a margin
for game supplies.
And we're gonna talk aboutprogram in a second.
But yeah, you might need to buysome things for the weekend,
whether it's decor, whether it'sgame supplies, stuff like that.
(11:36):
And then one really sneaky,sneaky cost.
If you do online signups, youget charged a credit card
percentage fee that if you don'troll that into the cost of the
camper, uh, you will lose money.
Now the 3%.
SPEAKER_01 (11:51):
Yeah, it's like Which never seems like a lot
when you're making one purchase,but yeah, if you adds up with
all those kids.
SPEAKER_00 (11:57):
And here's the bummer like we just prefer
everyone pay online becauseotherwise you're like, well, I
paid 3%, but I gave you a check.
And how does that work?
And you can't, oh, okay, well,then the cost for you is only
279.
Like it just is easier.
Everyone sign up online, use acredit card, we roll in the 3%.
(12:20):
But I feel like that has beenone of the most common areas
that our youth pastors havefallen short or been in the red
because they forgot about the 3%credit card thing.
So, anyways, once you'vecalculated your cost, you know
what you're gonna chargestudents, make sure your camp
contracts are done.
Don't just assume like you havesome verbal agreement or
(12:43):
handshake or something.
Make sure you have something inwriting with the dates and your
projected attendance on therefor who whatever you're booking
through.
And then book yourtransportation.
So if it's a bus, obviously bookthat.
If it's private individuals,make sure you have cleared it
with them.
I would always have a backup forprivate individuals because so,
(13:06):
so often people mean well, butthey commit and back out last
minute.
It happens literally all thetime.
So if you are like tight andit's like, this is only gonna
work if every single persondoesn't get sick, doesn't have a
family emergency, remembers,wants to.
It's like very easy to saysomething like yes to something
(13:29):
in October.
Yeah.
And then February rolls around.
It's like, I can't do that.
You know, it happens literallyall the time.
SPEAKER_01 (13:35):
Or like you were saying, there's the family
emergency, someone got sick,just can't make it, can't do it.
SPEAKER_00 (13:39):
It's not always their fault.
Sometimes it's their fault, butsometimes it's not.
Okay, so that's phase one.
Do you have any questions?
SPEAKER_01 (13:46):
No, I do not.
Because I explained it so well.
Okay, 100%.
SPEAKER_00 (13:50):
Or because you don't care.
A little bit of both.
Okay.
SPEAKER_01 (13:53):
A little bit of both.
SPEAKER_00 (13:54):
Second planning phase, engage.
All right.
This one's very important.
Find someone to set up and runyour tech if you are doing your
own camp.
So the camp we go to, yes, it'sa facility and they have a
soundboard, but it's like theyaren't providing anybody to run
it.
So we really actually bring upall of our own sound equipment,
(14:15):
all of our own worshipequipment, because ours is
better than theirs.
And it just like I don't thinkthey're listening.
Well, if they are, just so youknow, our equipment's better.
Um so there.
Yeah.
And someone to set it up and runit.
So what we usually do is havethat tech person go up earlier
(14:35):
in the day and they bring atrailer full of all of the mics
for worship, the amps, thesoundboards, the lights that
we're gonna be using, thelaptop, everything that we're
going to need, they bring up andstart setting up.
And it's so great to havesomeone who's just in charge of
that.
So when you get up there, you'vegot a hot mic ready to go, and
(14:57):
everything's been tested and upand running.
If you're more remote, then wedo this at a campsite and we
just bring generators and we dothe whole shebang.
We have power, lights,everything that we run off of a
generator.
Just make sure you turn it offduring the day or it will run
out of gas.
That's happened to us before.
Um, and then start planning yourprogram.
(15:20):
So, what are the program islike, I feel like sometimes
that's what takes up the mosttime.
What are we gonna do?
So we kind of follow a formula,and I'll share that quickly with
you now.
But, you know, Friday, they getto the church, they check in, we
load all their luggage on thebottom of the bus.
Luckily, and then we might bringanother truck or trailer if we
(15:41):
need to.
Once we make sure we haveeveryone's permission, slips,
money, we head up the mountain,we get there, and then the cabin
assignments are already on thedoors.
Students go put their stuff intheir cabins and then meet us
for dinner.
After dinner, we do our firstprogram of the night.
And the programs follow aformula, and they're usually
always the same.
(16:01):
So it starts with, you know, acouple of us MCing, getting
everyone hyped and excited, andthen we do a group game, like
game, uh, like uh sorry, teamcompetition.
You know, like I was telling youabout the cereal bowls.
So it'd be like the teamscompeting and then worship and
then the message, and then theygo back to their cabins for
(16:24):
small group.
After that, we invite them tocome back into the main room and
we do late night fun options.
So we bring our gaga pit up.
We bring last year we had like acereal bar and like they could
come and get any one of thoseflavors of cereal.
We had glow in the dark ninesquare going, castle sports
straps are already glow, so it'sperfect.
(16:45):
We had like a video game stationset up.
SPEAKER_01 (16:49):
Some sorry, some castle sports straps are glow.
Okay, not all of them.
I think it's the yellow andgreen, anyway, the like kind of
floresy ones.
True.
Total side note, but justletting it be known.
SPEAKER_00 (17:02):
Thank you, Jeff.
Okay, and then the best part oflate night options is the snack
shack.
So the kids are ready to snack.
So we set up a snack shack.
We go to like Costco, Smart andFinal, whatever, and buy tons of
candy, soda, only a few chipsbecause we noticed they mostly
(17:24):
wanted just candy and soda,mostly Arizona iced teas, too.
They would drink all of them.
And it's just like this fun.
We're selling stuff for like adollar or two dollars, whatever
it is, and we let them hang outtill about 11 o'clock, and then
they go back to their cabin andgo to bed wake now.
No matter how much we try to do,lights out, the boys take their
(17:47):
mattresses off the beds andwrestle until two in the
morning, and it's a tradition.
I don't know.
There's no way around it.
So then the next morning we Ihate this, but they used to want
to do like a leader meetingbefore breakfast.
And I'm like, this is horrible.
Our leaders just got no sleep.
Yeah, and now we're asking themmeet us here at 7 a.m.
(18:10):
So we moved our leader meetingto after breakfast, which is so
much better.
So we have breakfast and thenthe students come in for the
morning program, and it'sbasically the same thing, it's
just different people leading itnow, a different game.
Speaker does message number two.
We know we do worship, all ofthat.
(18:32):
And then they go and do solotime.
So that's a difference.
They don't do small groups, wewrite small our solo time for
them to engage with the Bible ontheir own.
So they're supposed to go tolike a quiet spot on their own.
We give them about 30 minutesand we give them a sh, like they
get a booklet the first nightwhere it has like the camp
(18:54):
schedule and the solo timequestions in it.
So if they have their booklet,the questions are there, and
they get some time just to prayand process on their own.
And then we might do somethingfun before free time, like a
color war or something likethat.
And then field competition.
(19:15):
So that's when all three teamscome together and we play games
down on the field likedodgeball, like I said, color
war, some earth ball type games,flag tag, kajabi can can
anything like that.
SPEAKER_01 (19:27):
It is worth pointing out at this point in this
episode that we live in SouthernCalifornia and the chances of
snow.
SPEAKER_00 (19:35):
Oh, yeah, sorry.
SPEAKER_01 (19:36):
Pretty low.
SPEAKER_00 (19:37):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (19:38):
I I mean, maybe one out of six or seven.
Did I really just walk rightinto that?
Six or seven camps.
Oh my gosh, Jeff.
What a fool.
Um that's about that's about howoften you guys actually get
snow.
And if you do, it's usually likea light dusting.
Yeah.
So this is gonna be different,probably depending on where
you're at.
SPEAKER_00 (19:58):
You're gonna have a flooding competition, a tubing
competition, you know, somethinglike that.
SPEAKER_01 (20:03):
Yeah, you guys did do the color powder war one time
when there was snow.
SPEAKER_00 (20:06):
Yeah.
Um, but it was beautiful becauseit was like this white
background with all these likebright colors.
It was beautiful.
Yeah, play snow games.
I don't know.
SPEAKER_01 (20:18):
Whatever snow people do.
SPEAKER_00 (20:21):
Snow people.
They'll have a snowman contest,obviously.
Actually, actually, soundsreally fun.
So then we go to free time, andthat's when there's a bunch of
different options availablethrough the camp.
So they have like a zipline,they have archery, they have
paintball, um, stuff like that.
So the kids get to do that allafternoon up until dinner.
(20:44):
Then we have dinner, and thenit's the same kind of thing
program, some kind of hype teamcompetition in our auditorium,
chapel area, then worship, thenthe message, then small groups,
then late night options again.
We could change it up a littlebit and do like a fun.
It even though it is SouthernCalifornia, the it does get cold
(21:05):
at night up there.
So we've tried to do someoutdoor late night games and it
was just getting too cold.
So you could just do a repeat ofthe night before.
Maybe you add in something alittle extra special, like the
first night we didn't havecereal, the second night we did,
you know, something like that.
Um, or I I've just noticed withstudents sometimes watching a
(21:26):
movie just turns into likepopcorn throwing all over the
place.
We did that one year and it wasthe worst.
I was in that auditorium tillthe wee hours of the morning
cleaning up popcorn.
It was awful.
And then the next morning, um,yeah, the next morning we
basically just have breakfastand then our last program
(21:48):
announced the winner, and wehave some kind of prize for the
winner, like a sticker, acommemorative sticker, you know,
winter camp 2026 with the likeone year we did it was holidays
were the teams, so it was likeSanta Claus wearing a Santa
Claus.
Santa Claus.
(22:09):
What did I say?
SPEAKER_01 (22:10):
Santa Claus.
SPEAKER_00 (22:13):
Santa Claus.
Uh and he was wearing like anAmerican flag outfit because
that was for 4th of July, and hewas riding on a shark.
I don't know why the shark.
And then he had like ForNational Shark Day.
There's something about like aleprechaun in there, and like
they got a sticker of that, likethis just silly made up thing.
And then we do church debrief,meaning, like, since we've all
(22:38):
been together all weekend, webreak up into our specific
campuses, we talk to just ourstudents, let them kind of share
as a large group, like, hey,what did you guys learn?
You know, how was camp?
What did you like?
And this was a time for them tospeak up of like how God moved,
maybe their favorite memory ofthe weekend.
Then we load up on the bus andgo home.
So that's kind of it in anutshell.
(23:00):
And the other thing you want tomake sure in this phase of
planning that you're thinkingthrough who is going to capture
this weekend for you.
So at that point, we would startthinking about do we have a
photographer?
Do we have someone taking video?
Because it's really cool to havesome footage for promotion for
the following year.
If parents are like, where doyou guys go?
(23:21):
What does it look like?
You know, we just put it onYouTube, send them the link, and
having pictures available on ourwebsite and Instagram for
parents to see, you know, stufflike that.
So yeah, that's sort of phasetwo.
One more thing in phase two.
Um, you want to start thinkingabout graphics as well and
flyers.
So if you're going to haveflyers in your room for students
(23:44):
to take, I would highlyrecommend that because when a
new family comes in, you cansay, Oh yeah, and we're going to
a winter camp.
And you can hand them a flyer,preferably with a QR code for
them to sign up through QR,which is really nice.
If if you can't do QR, then atleast like the name of the
website where they can sign upand you know, your information
(24:05):
in case they get stuck or havequestions.
And then if you want to createor have someone create a logo
for the weekend, you know, wedid the cereal bowl and it was
obviously a bowl of cereal, andit was really cute.
And it served as our banner foronline signups.
It was some images that we coulduse on Instagram, images that we
(24:27):
could use on our announcementslides when we're doing it live,
and images that we could put onthe flyers that we have hard
copies of in the room to give topeople, which is really nice
because then they can give it tofriends as well if their friends
want to go.
That's phase two.
SPEAKER_01 (24:42):
Okay, now phase three.
SPEAKER_00 (24:46):
Good, Jeff.
You're really paying attention.
SPEAKER_01 (24:48):
I picked up on that.
I was like one, two, and thenI'm like, phase three.
SPEAKER_00 (24:53):
Three.
Good.
All right.
Okay, so here we go.
Now we're getting really close.
So you'd want to start thinkingof who I can send up early, not
you.
Because you need to stay withyour group.
What if there's an emergency?
So a group you can send up earlyto start setting up things.
We already talked about settingup tech early, but what about
(25:14):
setting up decor early?
So last year we had, you know,all the logos for frosted flakes
and lucky charms and you know,serial stuff and pictures and
banners, you know, because wewere trying to make the place
kind of festive and fun.
So when the students come in,they're already excited
visually.
You know, it's not just like,oh, chairs in a room with a
(25:35):
screen, you know, like put alittle money in your budget to
kind of make the place themedand hype for the weekend.
And that it's amazing how muchenergy that can produce.
So it's gonna be tough to dothat yourself.
Send someone up ahead of time uhto get that done if you're doing
this kind of uh camp.
(25:55):
You wanna make sure.
So that's like just making sureyou have that, and then begin
your signups.
So get you know your onlinesignups going or whichever
method you want to do that, makesure you're getting the word out
to promote that your signups arelive, whether that's live
announcements, putting that inyour parent email, putting it on
(26:18):
Instagram.
If you're smaller, why not evendo a mailer?
If you're only sending it to 30kids or something like or less,
great, put it in the mail.
And then another really hardthing, divide your teams if you
are doing the team competition.
So you look at all your signupsand you start putting people on
teams.
You have your team captains,which would be leaders.
(26:41):
So one of our leaders dressed uplike as Captain Crunch last
year, we had Lucky and we hadthe tiger from Frosted Flakes,
and then we had other leaders onthe team as well.
So you want to make sure whenplanning for leaders that you
have correct ratios.
So ratios for students toadults.
So in California, actually,legally it's one to 10, but you
(27:06):
want to check with the camp orthe facility that you're using
and see if they have a differentrequirement.
And it's funny because it reallydoes vary state to state.
Like, for example, in Texas, thelegal ratio is one to 25.
I'm like, wow, Texas kids aremore well behaved, probably.
Because that seems like way toomany like adult or kids per
(27:31):
kids, you'd have four leaders.
It would be mutiny.
SPEAKER_01 (27:34):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (27:34):
Like, I don't know.
So whatever you're comfortablewith, I'm just saying there is a
legal parameter.
However, you do whatever'scomfortable for you.
Just make sure, you know, youcan pay for all the leaders.
Sometimes we get way too manyleaders.
It's like, oh shoot, now wedidn't charge the kids enough,
you know.
So then you want to do yourcabin assignments or room
(27:56):
assignments.
It's just very helpful that itnot be a free-for-all, that you
put people where they belong,obviously by gender, but also
it's like small group.
Like we try to put small groupstogether as much as possible.
And that's why it's great tohave a two-leader system because
if the room doesn't houseeveryone in that small group,
(28:17):
then you can take that leaderand they can another leader,
they can go into another room.
Yeah.
And they can do come into theother room and do things
together.
But at least it's not like, oh,I'm just with this random group
of girls I don't know at all.
So, and then again, confirm yourtransportation.
That's very important because,like I said, things change over
(28:39):
the months.
Even if you're going with aprofessional company, make sure
I've been let down byprofessional companies and by,
you know, private individuals.
So make sure you're confirmingtransportation all the time.
And then you want to make sureyou've written your content for
your small groups and solo time.
So, like I said, on Friday andSaturday night when your
(29:03):
students go to small group time,and then on Saturday morning
when they have solo time, makesure that's all in their booklet
for them.
And in that booklet, like thisis such a great thing to just
hand out.
You want to just maybe put thecamp rules, the camp schedule,
solo time, and then some blankpages for notes.
And then you can put the camplogo on the front and hand it to
(29:25):
students.
Always keep tons of extras.
Why?
Because they lose them all thetime.
Um, and you know, I've seencamps do like points, you know,
for that.
If you bring your Bible in yourbooklet, you know, you get a
point for that or something togive incentive.
Force home used to do that alot, um, which makes a ton of
sense.
And so when it's that's phasethree, but then some more tips
(29:48):
for when it's actually go time.
Um, you want to prep yourleaders and your staff that are
going, like cast the vision forthe weekend, have a leader
meeting prior to camp on theschedule.
on the procedures, on thevision, on your expectations for
what is a leader supposed to doat this camp.
And then I some years I haven'tbeen perfect at this every year,
(30:12):
but I do like to bring littlegifts for all the leaders that
do go and leave it on their bedlike on Friday night or
something, kind of sneak intheir room and like put it like
just a treat, an encouragingnote, maybe a pair of cozy socks
or Tylenol or something on theirbed just to say, I see you.
(30:35):
Thanks so much for coming, allof that.
And yeah, those elements usuallymake for a really good weekend.
Obviously obviously thingshappen that are outside of our
control, but that is sort of ifI could bottle winter camp
planning and give it to you as alittle free item, that's what I
(30:57):
would do.
SPEAKER_01 (30:57):
Yeah, I think winter camp is not quite as popular in
most places as summer camp, butput in the comment section below
if winter camp is something thatyou do in the area you're in and
actually put the area you're inbecause it'd be interesting to
know how many of you who are incolder winter climates actually
will do a winter camp.
SPEAKER_00 (31:13):
Because I think that weather can really change a lot
of planning and aspects well andour our campuses that would go,
because it's just because we'reat such a low elevation,
California gets a ton of snow.
Right.
So our high school ministry, youknow, they go up to Big Bear or
something like that.
It's all snow.
So what they would do is theyand I went to a college winter
(31:34):
retreat with a ton of snow.
So you could choose to get lifttickets to go snowboarding or
skiing or like if you weren'tdoing that there was another
group that would go to the tuberuns, you know, and that was
free time.
And then but all the programelements can stay the same.
It was just sort of like thatfree time and team competition
(31:56):
what does that look like?
So that's where you would haveto adjust.
But yeah if you're in a snowyclimate lift tickets you know
people can buy those on theirown and you would just have to
coordinate the transportationfor that.
But that was really fun.
Yeah.
Hey friend I just wanted tointerrupt this episode for a
second to let you know about anawesome opportunity for you and
(32:17):
your youth ministry.
So last year we launched ourcourse and coaching program
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.
(32:40):
Maybe you just have a vague planin your mind of what you're
doing and you want some realhelp to get you from where you
are to where you want to go.
So if that sounds like somethingyou've been looking for go to
growyouryoutministry dot com andcheck it out for more details.
All right let's get back to theepisode.
SPEAKER_01 (32:57):
If you guys are looking for some games for
indoor like some upfront gameswe have an episode all about
that so make sure you guys checkthat out.
All right let's can I give thema game real quick?
Sure.
If I what if I said no I'm likecan you imagine that I'm like no
moving on.
SPEAKER_00 (33:11):
Guys okay it's almost Halloween I can't do a
whole episode on just this gamebecause it would be too short.
But we played it this morning Iplay it every year and it's so
fun.
Okay.
So easy barely any prep it'scalled Ghost Cup Stack
Tournament.
So we have these white coffeecups that we just draw like
(33:32):
spooky little eyes on andthey're like the cardboard kind
of like to go mug things.
SPEAKER_01 (33:37):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (33:37):
Cups um not mugs.
They don't have handles cupsyeah so you bring a table up on
the stage like one of those justregular pop-out six foot plastic
tables and you bring two peopleup and you give them each ten
ghost cups and they have to yousay three two one ghost nice
(34:02):
have fun playing that you guysno wait I'm not done and then
they stack you know four thenthree then two then one and then
they have to let their hand goto show it stands just for a
second and then they put it allback together in one nice neat
stack.
(34:23):
If you win you stay and you geta piece of candy per round that
you stay if you lose you leaveand we get a new challenger.
So it's just head to headthere's not like multiple people
playing at once yeah it's justhead to head and everyone's
watching and it was so coolbecause they were always trying
to beat each other's like howmany rounds they could win and
(34:46):
so Saturday night service likethe top one was three.
Sunday first service this girlwon 14 rounds that's and that
just shows you how many kids youget to play because the it's
such a quick game and so she won14 pieces of candy and she even
beat the leaders it was so funand then we played kind of fun
(35:07):
Halloween music like thrillerand this is a winter camp
episode though.
Yeah but it's in October and Iwas thinking today oh my gosh
just make it Christmas treestack.
There you go it could work foranything yeah so anyways enjoy
that game it was so fun and Ithought icebreaker look at all
this with just 20 cups and atable the kids are going crazy
(35:31):
and they didn't want to stop andthey were like trying to get on
the stage and they were likejust I mean they were rioting
because they wanted anotherchance you know to try again oh
it was it was high energy sofun.
SPEAKER_01 (35:44):
That's a freebie freebie okay this is a community
comment of the day this comesfrom SPL youth who says oh and
this is from the episode we didon the full tour of the youth
group night um around the churchsays I really appreciate seeing
your space and some of the tipsand tricks that you use for
youth group I especiallyappreciate your welcome table
that includes mailbox forpayment drops as I am always
(36:05):
having kids hand items to meduring events and trying not to
lose them.
SPEAKER_00 (36:10):
And that is exactly how that was born I was like
they just keep handing me.
There you go there's that andI'm like wait I have to be on
stage in like 30 seconds wheredo I put this and then I would
set it down and then the momwould be like well we turned on
it we turned it in and I'm likeof course you did but where did
I put it so now I never take itout of a kid's hand I just say
(36:31):
put in the mailbox put it in themailbox put it in the mailbox
you say it twice or three timesprobably eight kind of like a
parrot.
SPEAKER_01 (36:41):
Anyways I thought that was funny uh thank you SPL
youth we appreciate that andthank you guys for watching and
listening hope you got a lot ofgood tips for this winter camp
special episode and we'll seeyou next time today we're gonna
give you the ultimate guide forhosting a winter retreat plus
(37:01):
stick around for the end for aspecial free today we're talking
today we're giving you theultimate guide for leading this
is the number one reason why youthus why can't you do it?
Today, we're giving you the ultimate guide for
(00:02):
hosting a winter retreat foryour youth ministry.
And stick around to the endbecause I'm going to give you an
easy free game that you can playwith your youth group anytime.
SPEAKER_01 (00:23):
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.
If this is the first time we'remeeting, my name is Jeff
Lascola, and this is KristenLascola.
SPEAKER_00 (00:36):
And this is the perfect time of year to talk
about winter camp, winterretreats.
SPEAKER_01 (00:41):
And we're in October, just in case you didn't
know.
SPEAKER_00 (00:44):
Yeah.
So today is the ultimate guideto hosting a successful youth
retreat.
Parentheses, winter camp.
That was the idea.
What's happening, right?
That's the idea you sent me inour email in my email verbatim.
SPEAKER_01 (00:59):
Is that the tone you read it in when I sent it to
you?
unknown (01:02):
Apparently.
SPEAKER_00 (01:03):
Apparently.
I've never been on live podcastsbefore.
Um, so we're gonna talk aboutbecause here's the thing it's
October.
My winter camp is in February,and I already have one
preliminary meeting under mybelt, and we have our next one
scheduled for next week, Ithink.
So I'm gonna take you throughlike three planning phases of
(01:27):
your winter retreat because thisis the perfect time of year to
be thinking about that.
And if you are like, oh no, whatI should be thinking about a
winter camp, yeah, find findsomewhere.
No, just kidding.
There's two different ways youcan do winter camp.
Well, three actually, that Ihave done two out of the three.
So one of them I can't reallyspeak to.
SPEAKER_01 (01:50):
Some of our So for you people, I will just tell you
what it is.
SPEAKER_00 (01:55):
I'm not gonna help you with it.
But um, yeah.
Some of our campuses do like abest weekend ever kind of camp
where they start and end at thechurch, they sleep there.
The church is the camp kind ofthing.
They usually start on a Fridaynight and do something fun at
(02:16):
the church, like a lock-in.
I said fun and lock-in in thesame sentence.
How could I?
And then the next day they maybewill go to some different
venues, like near our where welive, there's like um Mission
Bay, there's like the rollercoaster and the arcade, it's
right by the beach, and youknow, there's all that to do.
(02:36):
You know, I've heard of peoplegoing to like an actual theme
park, you know, rolling thatinto the cost, and they just hop
around and do all this fun,different stuff.
Then they'd come back to thechurch and there'd be like a
speaker in the evening, maybesome small groups and worship,
and then they kind of end withchurch on Sunday.
They're there anyways.
You wake up and like someone'sunlocking the door, and church
(02:59):
starts.
And so that's probably prettycost effective because you have
to pay for transportation to thevenues, but you're not paying
for the venue itself.
And you could get creative withfood, having like a life, an
adult life group, growth group,small group, whatever you call
them, bring in meals for thekids, depending on how big it
(03:20):
is.
You could, I did like in and outfor my leadership team the other
day, and it actually only endedup being six bucks a kid.
It was really cheap.
Obviously, you could do classiclittle Caesars pizza or
something, Costco pizza.
So meals are pretty easy, youknow, cereal bar for breakfast.
I haven't even done it.
Look at me.
I am full of ideas.
(03:42):
You can do a glow night.
I don't know.
There's so many things.
The only thing I don't likeabout that one, just about which
one?
SPEAKER_01 (03:51):
Glow night?
SPEAKER_00 (03:52):
No, about staying at the church.
SPEAKER_01 (03:53):
Oh, okay.
SPEAKER_00 (03:54):
Is there's nowhere to shower.
And I know it's only two nights,but I can go one night without a
shower.
Two would be tough for me.
So I would maybe run home andthen come back or something.
Um, so I don't love that.
And junior hires two nights, noshowers.
SPEAKER_01 (04:11):
They're arriving with two showers, not taken the
two days prior to that.
Yes.
SPEAKER_00 (04:16):
So it's always their socks are awful.
As soon as they take their shoesoff, it's over.
Like you're done.
So then the other option for awinter camp would be you go to a
pre-packaged camp, which I didfor years and years and years.
If you're in SouthernCalifornia, you probably have
heard of Forest Home.
You used to go with me to thatone.
It was a blast because basicallyyou just show up and the staff
(04:40):
takes care of everything andyou're just there and you enjoy
it.
We don't do that anymore onlybecause of costs.
We just got kind of priced out,but it's a beautiful camp and I
wish I could still go.
So, what we landed on isactually we rent a conference
center, and I get together withthree or four of our other
(05:01):
campuses, and so that we havethis critical mass to rent the
whole camp out to ourselves.
If you are not at a multi-sitechurch, then you could talk to a
few other camp or churches inyour area, say, do you want to
collaborate on renting out afacility?
So you have some critical mass,some people, so you can have the
whole thing to yourselves.
(05:22):
I some of our youth pastors atour church even have found some
really cool like Airbnbs orVRBOs, where it's like a bunch
of different houses on the sameproperty.
And so, like they'll do it forhigh school, like junior girls
and senior girls in this house,senior boys and junior boys in
this house, freshmen in thishouse.
(05:42):
And it's like all in this onearea.
And then one of the houses willhave some really cool backyard
or common area.
And they it like in Indio,there's like a lot of those
kinds of places.
It's weird.
So, or out in the mountains, youknow.
Um, so yeah, based on your size,look around and see what would
work best for you.
Like I said, we do a conferencecenter and it is a camp, but we
(06:08):
basically put the whole programon ourselves.
SPEAKER_01 (06:11):
So it they they provide the meals though,
correct?
SPEAKER_00 (06:13):
They do.
So there's like a dining roomwith a full kitchen staff and me
pre-scheduled meal times thatyou show up for, but we do
everything else, you know, andthat obviously they have the
cabins and everything, but weput on the program and all of
that.
So if you're gonna do that typeof camp, that's what I'm gonna
describe of how to plan it.
(06:34):
Hopefully, no matter what winterretreat you're planning, some of
these principles will maybespark some creativity for you or
be useful as you plan it.
So your first planning phasewould obviously be renting the
space out.
Make sure you have that bookedalready.
But we always like to find ourspeaker first.
(06:56):
So we sit down, we brainstormsome names, and then we start
getting to work because peoplehave busy schedules.
So you don't want to be lastminute and have no camp speaker.
I would recommend as the youthpastor, probably not being the
camp speaker because you will bebusy enough uh without having to
engage like on a different levelwith your message.
(07:16):
And there's always fires to putout, always kids who need help,
always someone who's sick orhurt or in a fight or something
like that.
So find a speaker and find aworship leader.
SPEAKER_01 (07:28):
So do you have your date set prior to this?
Yes.
Okay.
SPEAKER_00 (07:31):
Yeah.
So the place has been booked,the dates have been sent out to
parents.
I'm glad you brought that upbecause as soon as you know the
dates, send that out to yourfamilies, the parents.
And I always keep it like as thestaple at the bottom of my
emails.
So every week, you know, when Icopy and paste a new parent
email, they're seeing wintercamp 2026 dates, you know, all
(07:53):
the time.
So yeah, the dates have goneout, the place has been booked,
then you find your speaker andyou start looking for a worship
leader or, you know, someone whocould kind of put together a
band would be even coolerbecause I feel like camp worship
has just potential to be prettyepic.
I think kids' walls are reallydown, they're really ready.
So finding the right person forthat.
(08:15):
And then we like to come up witha theme.
So if you do high schoolministry, I don't think this is
as important, but with juniorhigh, we always have an element
of competition in every singlething we do.
It keeps them engaged, it keepsthem excited, and it gives them
something to kind of rallyaround and be there for.
(08:38):
So last year we did, I mean, andour themes are really just funny
and weird.
We did the cereal bowl, and itwas Captain Crunch versus Lucky
Charms versus Frosted Flakes,and they got into it, you know,
um, because the costumes wereactually really cool.
So once you kind of have yourtheme, you don't need to go any
(08:58):
further with that.
Just know what it is, and thenthis is super important.
And my least favorite part ofphase one planning is calculate
your cost because two reasons Ihate it.
Every year it seems to go upbecause everything's more
expensive every year.
And now I'm a parent of a middleschooler, so I pay to go to my
(09:19):
own camp.
I'm like, I'm here, and I paidfor a camper to come, which I
hate.
So, some things to remember whenyou're calculating your costs.
What is the cost per camperaccording to the facility that
you're using?
Because they usually will havetheir own cost.
Yeah.
Transportation.
If you're taking buses,obviously that's the cost.
(09:41):
If you're taking privatevehicles, I would just say you
need to pay for the gas forthose.
And it's gonna be a lot lessthan buses, which is nice.
Then your leader cost.
So sometimes camps will give youa discount for adults and
sometimes they won't.
So you need to figure out howmuch it is gonna cost for me to
bring adult leaders with me andsee if the camp discounts them,
(10:04):
and you need to figure out howto roll that into the cost of
the student because the lastthing you want to do is ask, hey
Jeff, come to winter camp withus.
Oh, it'll only be$285.
You're like, then no.
So we always will take, okay,I'm gonna take 10 liters.
Each liter is gonna cost me$200.
(10:26):
So that's$2,000.
Wow, good job.
unknown (10:30):
Yes.
SPEAKER_00 (10:31):
And then you divide that by your projected cost of
campers, and then you roll thatinto each kid.
So usually it's pretty low.
It ends up being like$12 a kidor something.
Obviously, the more kids, themore leaders you need, but it
will kind of balance itself out.
And we'll talk about that in asecond.
Then you want to pay yourspeaker.
So add in the speaker fee.
(10:52):
I don't know what if you if yougo in-house, meaning like if you
ask someone from your own churchto come up and speak, maybe it's
a different youth pastor or uhan executive pastor or your
campus pastor.
I don't know, someone who's agood speaker on your team or
whatever, I think the in-houserate is definitely cheaper than
(11:14):
the some guy outhouse rate.
Outhouse rate.
Yeah, it's just so keep that inmind.
And then you want to putsomething together for a margin
for game supplies.
And we're gonna talk aboutprogram in a second.
But yeah, you might need to buysome things for the weekend,
whether it's decor, whether it'sgame supplies, stuff like that.
(11:36):
And then one really sneaky,sneaky cost.
If you do online signups, youget charged a credit card
percentage fee that if you don'troll that into the cost of the
camper, uh, you will lose money.
Now the 3%.
SPEAKER_01 (11:51):
Yeah, it's like Which never seems like a lot
when you're making one purchase,but yeah, if you adds up with
all those kids.
SPEAKER_00 (11:57):
And here's the bummer like we just prefer
everyone pay online becauseotherwise you're like, well, I
paid 3%, but I gave you a check.
And how does that work?
And you can't, oh, okay, well,then the cost for you is only
279.
Like it just is easier.
Everyone sign up online, use acredit card, we roll in the 3%.
(12:20):
But I feel like that has beenone of the most common areas
that our youth pastors havefallen short or been in the red
because they forgot about the 3%credit card thing.
So, anyways, once you'vecalculated your cost, you know
what you're gonna chargestudents, make sure your camp
contracts are done.
Don't just assume like you havesome verbal agreement or
(12:43):
handshake or something.
Make sure you have something inwriting with the dates and your
projected attendance on therefor who whatever you're booking
through.
And then book yourtransportation.
So if it's a bus, obviously bookthat.
If it's private individuals,make sure you have cleared it
with them.
I would always have a backup forprivate individuals because so,
(13:06):
so often people mean well, butthey commit and back out last
minute.
It happens literally all thetime.
So if you are like tight andit's like, this is only gonna
work if every single persondoesn't get sick, doesn't have a
family emergency, remembers,wants to.
It's like very easy to saysomething like yes to something
(13:29):
in October.
Yeah.
And then February rolls around.
It's like, I can't do that.
You know, it happens literallyall the time.
SPEAKER_01 (13:35):
Or like you were saying, there's the family
emergency, someone got sick,just can't make it, can't do it.
SPEAKER_00 (13:39):
It's not always their fault.
Sometimes it's their fault, butsometimes it's not.
Okay, so that's phase one.
Do you have any questions?
SPEAKER_01 (13:46):
No, I do not.
Because I explained it so well.
Okay, 100%.
SPEAKER_00 (13:50):
Or because you don't care.
A little bit of both.
Okay.
SPEAKER_01 (13:53):
A little bit of both.
SPEAKER_00 (13:54):
Second planning phase, engage.
All right.
This one's very important.
Find someone to set up and runyour tech if you are doing your
own camp.
So the camp we go to, yes, it'sa facility and they have a
soundboard, but it's like theyaren't providing anybody to run
it.
So we really actually bring upall of our own sound equipment,
(14:15):
all of our own worshipequipment, because ours is
better than theirs.
And it just like I don't thinkthey're listening.
Well, if they are, just so youknow, our equipment's better.
Um so there.
Yeah.
And someone to set it up and runit.
So what we usually do is havethat tech person go up earlier
(14:35):
in the day and they bring atrailer full of all of the mics
for worship, the amps, thesoundboards, the lights that
we're gonna be using, thelaptop, everything that we're
going to need, they bring up andstart setting up.
And it's so great to havesomeone who's just in charge of
that.
So when you get up there, you'vegot a hot mic ready to go, and
(14:57):
everything's been tested and upand running.
If you're more remote, then wedo this at a campsite and we
just bring generators and we dothe whole shebang.
We have power, lights,everything that we run off of a
generator.
Just make sure you turn it offduring the day or it will run
out of gas.
That's happened to us before.
Um, and then start planning yourprogram.
(15:20):
So, what are the program islike, I feel like sometimes
that's what takes up the mosttime.
What are we gonna do?
So we kind of follow a formula,and I'll share that quickly with
you now.
But, you know, Friday, they getto the church, they check in, we
load all their luggage on thebottom of the bus.
Luckily, and then we might bringanother truck or trailer if we
(15:41):
need to.
Once we make sure we haveeveryone's permission, slips,
money, we head up the mountain,we get there, and then the cabin
assignments are already on thedoors.
Students go put their stuff intheir cabins and then meet us
for dinner.
After dinner, we do our firstprogram of the night.
And the programs follow aformula, and they're usually
always the same.
(16:01):
So it starts with, you know, acouple of us MCing, getting
everyone hyped and excited, andthen we do a group game, like
game, uh, like uh sorry, teamcompetition.
You know, like I was telling youabout the cereal bowls.
So it'd be like the teamscompeting and then worship and
then the message, and then theygo back to their cabins for
(16:24):
small group.
After that, we invite them tocome back into the main room and
we do late night fun options.
So we bring our gaga pit up.
We bring last year we had like acereal bar and like they could
come and get any one of thoseflavors of cereal.
We had glow in the dark ninesquare going, castle sports
straps are already glow, so it'sperfect.
(16:45):
We had like a video game stationset up.
SPEAKER_01 (16:49):
Some sorry, some castle sports straps are glow.
Okay, not all of them.
I think it's the yellow andgreen, anyway, the like kind of
floresy ones.
True.
Total side note, but justletting it be known.
SPEAKER_00 (17:02):
Thank you, Jeff.
Okay, and then the best part oflate night options is the snack
shack.
So the kids are ready to snack.
So we set up a snack shack.
We go to like Costco, Smart andFinal, whatever, and buy tons of
candy, soda, only a few chipsbecause we noticed they mostly
(17:24):
wanted just candy and soda,mostly Arizona iced teas, too.
They would drink all of them.
And it's just like this fun.
We're selling stuff for like adollar or two dollars, whatever
it is, and we let them hang outtill about 11 o'clock, and then
they go back to their cabin andgo to bed wake now.
No matter how much we try to do,lights out, the boys take their
(17:47):
mattresses off the beds andwrestle until two in the
morning, and it's a tradition.
I don't know.
There's no way around it.
So then the next morning we Ihate this, but they used to want
to do like a leader meetingbefore breakfast.
And I'm like, this is horrible.
Our leaders just got no sleep.
Yeah, and now we're asking themmeet us here at 7 a.m.
(18:10):
So we moved our leader meetingto after breakfast, which is so
much better.
So we have breakfast and thenthe students come in for the
morning program, and it'sbasically the same thing, it's
just different people leading itnow, a different game.
Speaker does message number two.
We know we do worship, all ofthat.
(18:32):
And then they go and do solotime.
So that's a difference.
They don't do small groups, wewrite small our solo time for
them to engage with the Bible ontheir own.
So they're supposed to go tolike a quiet spot on their own.
We give them about 30 minutesand we give them a sh, like they
get a booklet the first nightwhere it has like the camp
(18:54):
schedule and the solo timequestions in it.
So if they have their booklet,the questions are there, and
they get some time just to prayand process on their own.
And then we might do somethingfun before free time, like a
color war or something likethat.
And then field competition.
(19:15):
So that's when all three teamscome together and we play games
down on the field likedodgeball, like I said, color
war, some earth ball type games,flag tag, kajabi can can
anything like that.
SPEAKER_01 (19:27):
It is worth pointing out at this point in this
episode that we live in SouthernCalifornia and the chances of
snow.
SPEAKER_00 (19:35):
Oh, yeah, sorry.
SPEAKER_01 (19:36):
Pretty low.
SPEAKER_00 (19:37):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (19:38):
I I mean, maybe one out of six or seven.
Did I really just walk rightinto that?
Six or seven camps.
Oh my gosh, Jeff.
What a fool.
Um that's about that's about howoften you guys actually get
snow.
And if you do, it's usually likea light dusting.
Yeah.
So this is gonna be different,probably depending on where
you're at.
SPEAKER_00 (19:58):
You're gonna have a flooding competition, a tubing
competition, you know, somethinglike that.
SPEAKER_01 (20:03):
Yeah, you guys did do the color powder war one time
when there was snow.
SPEAKER_00 (20:06):
Yeah.
Um, but it was beautiful becauseit was like this white
background with all these likebright colors.
It was beautiful.
Yeah, play snow games.
I don't know.
SPEAKER_01 (20:18):
Whatever snow people do.
SPEAKER_00 (20:21):
Snow people.
They'll have a snowman contest,obviously.
Actually, actually, soundsreally fun.
So then we go to free time, andthat's when there's a bunch of
different options availablethrough the camp.
So they have like a zipline,they have archery, they have
paintball, um, stuff like that.
So the kids get to do that allafternoon up until dinner.
(20:44):
Then we have dinner, and thenit's the same kind of thing
program, some kind of hype teamcompetition in our auditorium,
chapel area, then worship, thenthe message, then small groups,
then late night options again.
We could change it up a littlebit and do like a fun.
It even though it is SouthernCalifornia, the it does get cold
(21:05):
at night up there.
So we've tried to do someoutdoor late night games and it
was just getting too cold.
So you could just do a repeat ofthe night before.
Maybe you add in something alittle extra special, like the
first night we didn't havecereal, the second night we did,
you know, something like that.
Um, or I I've just noticed withstudents sometimes watching a
(21:26):
movie just turns into likepopcorn throwing all over the
place.
We did that one year and it wasthe worst.
I was in that auditorium tillthe wee hours of the morning
cleaning up popcorn.
It was awful.
And then the next morning, um,yeah, the next morning we
basically just have breakfastand then our last program
(21:48):
announced the winner, and wehave some kind of prize for the
winner, like a sticker, acommemorative sticker, you know,
winter camp 2026 with the likeone year we did it was holidays
were the teams, so it was likeSanta Claus wearing a Santa
Claus.
Santa Claus.
(22:09):
What did I say?
SPEAKER_01 (22:10):
Santa Claus.
SPEAKER_00 (22:13):
Santa Claus.
Uh and he was wearing like anAmerican flag outfit because
that was for 4th of July, and hewas riding on a shark.
I don't know why the shark.
And then he had like ForNational Shark Day.
There's something about like aleprechaun in there, and like
they got a sticker of that, likethis just silly made up thing.
And then we do church debrief,meaning, like, since we've all
(22:38):
been together all weekend, webreak up into our specific
campuses, we talk to just ourstudents, let them kind of share
as a large group, like, hey,what did you guys learn?
You know, how was camp?
What did you like?
And this was a time for them tospeak up of like how God moved,
maybe their favorite memory ofthe weekend.
Then we load up on the bus andgo home.
So that's kind of it in anutshell.
(23:00):
And the other thing you want tomake sure in this phase of
planning that you're thinkingthrough who is going to capture
this weekend for you.
So at that point, we would startthinking about do we have a
photographer?
Do we have someone taking video?
Because it's really cool to havesome footage for promotion for
the following year.
If parents are like, where doyou guys go?
(23:21):
What does it look like?
You know, we just put it onYouTube, send them the link, and
having pictures available on ourwebsite and Instagram for
parents to see, you know, stufflike that.
So yeah, that's sort of phasetwo.
One more thing in phase two.
Um, you want to start thinkingabout graphics as well and
flyers.
So if you're going to haveflyers in your room for students
(23:44):
to take, I would highlyrecommend that because when a
new family comes in, you cansay, Oh yeah, and we're going to
a winter camp.
And you can hand them a flyer,preferably with a QR code for
them to sign up through QR,which is really nice.
If if you can't do QR, then atleast like the name of the
website where they can sign upand you know, your information
(24:05):
in case they get stuck or havequestions.
And then if you want to createor have someone create a logo
for the weekend, you know, wedid the cereal bowl and it was
obviously a bowl of cereal, andit was really cute.
And it served as our banner foronline signups.
It was some images that we coulduse on Instagram, images that we
(24:27):
could use on our announcementslides when we're doing it live,
and images that we could put onthe flyers that we have hard
copies of in the room to give topeople, which is really nice
because then they can give it tofriends as well if their friends
want to go.
That's phase two.
SPEAKER_01 (24:42):
Okay, now phase three.
SPEAKER_00 (24:46):
Good, Jeff.
You're really paying attention.
SPEAKER_01 (24:48):
I picked up on that.
I was like one, two, and thenI'm like, phase three.
SPEAKER_00 (24:53):
Three.
Good.
All right.
Okay, so here we go.
Now we're getting really close.
So you'd want to start thinkingof who I can send up early, not
you.
Because you need to stay withyour group.
What if there's an emergency?
So a group you can send up earlyto start setting up things.
We already talked about settingup tech early, but what about
(25:14):
setting up decor early?
So last year we had, you know,all the logos for frosted flakes
and lucky charms and you know,serial stuff and pictures and
banners, you know, because wewere trying to make the place
kind of festive and fun.
So when the students come in,they're already excited
visually.
You know, it's not just like,oh, chairs in a room with a
(25:35):
screen, you know, like put alittle money in your budget to
kind of make the place themedand hype for the weekend.
And that it's amazing how muchenergy that can produce.
So it's gonna be tough to dothat yourself.
Send someone up ahead of time uhto get that done if you're doing
this kind of uh camp.
(25:55):
You wanna make sure.
So that's like just making sureyou have that, and then begin
your signups.
So get you know your onlinesignups going or whichever
method you want to do that, makesure you're getting the word out
to promote that your signups arelive, whether that's live
announcements, putting that inyour parent email, putting it on
(26:18):
Instagram.
If you're smaller, why not evendo a mailer?
If you're only sending it to 30kids or something like or less,
great, put it in the mail.
And then another really hardthing, divide your teams if you
are doing the team competition.
So you look at all your signupsand you start putting people on
teams.
You have your team captains,which would be leaders.
(26:41):
So one of our leaders dressed uplike as Captain Crunch last
year, we had Lucky and we hadthe tiger from Frosted Flakes,
and then we had other leaders onthe team as well.
So you want to make sure whenplanning for leaders that you
have correct ratios.
So ratios for students toadults.
So in California, actually,legally it's one to 10, but you
(27:06):
want to check with the camp orthe facility that you're using
and see if they have a differentrequirement.
And it's funny because it reallydoes vary state to state.
Like, for example, in Texas, thelegal ratio is one to 25.
I'm like, wow, Texas kids aremore well behaved, probably.
Because that seems like way toomany like adult or kids per
(27:31):
kids, you'd have four leaders.
It would be mutiny.
SPEAKER_01 (27:34):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (27:34):
Like, I don't know.
So whatever you're comfortablewith, I'm just saying there is a
legal parameter.
However, you do whatever'scomfortable for you.
Just make sure, you know, youcan pay for all the leaders.
Sometimes we get way too manyleaders.
It's like, oh shoot, now wedidn't charge the kids enough,
you know.
So then you want to do yourcabin assignments or room
(27:56):
assignments.
It's just very helpful that itnot be a free-for-all, that you
put people where they belong,obviously by gender, but also
it's like small group.
Like we try to put small groupstogether as much as possible.
And that's why it's great tohave a two-leader system because
if the room doesn't houseeveryone in that small group,
(28:17):
then you can take that leaderand they can another leader,
they can go into another room.
Yeah.
And they can do come into theother room and do things
together.
But at least it's not like, oh,I'm just with this random group
of girls I don't know at all.
So, and then again, confirm yourtransportation.
That's very important because,like I said, things change over
(28:39):
the months.
Even if you're going with aprofessional company, make sure
I've been let down byprofessional companies and by,
you know, private individuals.
So make sure you're confirmingtransportation all the time.
And then you want to make sureyou've written your content for
your small groups and solo time.
So, like I said, on Friday andSaturday night when your
(29:03):
students go to small group time,and then on Saturday morning
when they have solo time, makesure that's all in their booklet
for them.
And in that booklet, like thisis such a great thing to just
hand out.
You want to just maybe put thecamp rules, the camp schedule,
solo time, and then some blankpages for notes.
And then you can put the camplogo on the front and hand it to
(29:25):
students.
Always keep tons of extras.
Why?
Because they lose them all thetime.
Um, and you know, I've seencamps do like points, you know,
for that.
If you bring your Bible in yourbooklet, you know, you get a
point for that or something togive incentive.
Force home used to do that alot, um, which makes a ton of
sense.
And so when it's that's phasethree, but then some more tips
(29:48):
for when it's actually go time.
Um, you want to prep yourleaders and your staff that are
going, like cast the vision forthe weekend, have a leader
meeting prior to camp on theschedule.
on the procedures, on thevision, on your expectations for
what is a leader supposed to doat this camp.
And then I some years I haven'tbeen perfect at this every year,
(30:12):
but I do like to bring littlegifts for all the leaders that
do go and leave it on their bedlike on Friday night or
something, kind of sneak intheir room and like put it like
just a treat, an encouragingnote, maybe a pair of cozy socks
or Tylenol or something on theirbed just to say, I see you.
(30:35):
Thanks so much for coming, allof that.
And yeah, those elements usuallymake for a really good weekend.
Obviously obviously thingshappen that are outside of our
control, but that is sort of ifI could bottle winter camp
planning and give it to you as alittle free item, that's what I
(30:57):
would do.
SPEAKER_01 (30:57):
Yeah, I think winter camp is not quite as popular in
most places as summer camp, butput in the comment section below
if winter camp is something thatyou do in the area you're in and
actually put the area you're inbecause it'd be interesting to
know how many of you who are incolder winter climates actually
will do a winter camp.
SPEAKER_00 (31:13):
Because I think that weather can really change a lot
of planning and aspects well andour our campuses that would go,
because it's just because we'reat such a low elevation,
California gets a ton of snow.
Right.
So our high school ministry, youknow, they go up to Big Bear or
something like that.
It's all snow.
So what they would do is theyand I went to a college winter
(31:34):
retreat with a ton of snow.
So you could choose to get lifttickets to go snowboarding or
skiing or like if you weren'tdoing that there was another
group that would go to the tuberuns, you know, and that was
free time.
And then but all the programelements can stay the same.
It was just sort of like thatfree time and team competition
(31:56):
what does that look like?
So that's where you would haveto adjust.
But yeah if you're in a snowyclimate lift tickets you know
people can buy those on theirown and you would just have to
coordinate the transportationfor that.
But that was really fun.
Yeah.
Hey friend I just wanted tointerrupt this episode for a
second to let you know about anawesome opportunity for you and
(32:17):
your youth ministry.
So last year we launched ourcourse and coaching program
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.
(32:40):
Maybe you just have a vague planin your mind of what you're
doing and you want some realhelp to get you from where you
are to where you want to go.
So if that sounds like somethingyou've been looking for go to
growyouryoutministry dot com andcheck it out for more details.
All right let's get back to theepisode.
SPEAKER_01 (32:57):
If you guys are looking for some games for
indoor like some upfront gameswe have an episode all about
that so make sure you guys checkthat out.
All right let's can I give thema game real quick?
Sure.
If I what if I said no I'm likecan you imagine that I'm like no
moving on.
SPEAKER_00 (33:11):
Guys okay it's almost Halloween I can't do a
whole episode on just this gamebecause it would be too short.
But we played it this morning Iplay it every year and it's so
fun.
Okay.
So easy barely any prep it'scalled Ghost Cup Stack
Tournament.
So we have these white coffeecups that we just draw like
(33:32):
spooky little eyes on andthey're like the cardboard kind
of like to go mug things.
SPEAKER_01 (33:37):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (33:37):
Cups um not mugs.
They don't have handles cupsyeah so you bring a table up on
the stage like one of those justregular pop-out six foot plastic
tables and you bring two peopleup and you give them each ten
ghost cups and they have to yousay three two one ghost nice
(34:02):
have fun playing that you guysno wait I'm not done and then
they stack you know four thenthree then two then one and then
they have to let their hand goto show it stands just for a
second and then they put it allback together in one nice neat
stack.
(34:23):
If you win you stay and you geta piece of candy per round that
you stay if you lose you leaveand we get a new challenger.
So it's just head to headthere's not like multiple people
playing at once yeah it's justhead to head and everyone's
watching and it was so coolbecause they were always trying
to beat each other's like howmany rounds they could win and
(34:46):
so Saturday night service likethe top one was three.
Sunday first service this girlwon 14 rounds that's and that
just shows you how many kids youget to play because the it's
such a quick game and so she won14 pieces of candy and she even
beat the leaders it was so funand then we played kind of fun
(35:07):
Halloween music like thrillerand this is a winter camp
episode though.
Yeah but it's in October and Iwas thinking today oh my gosh
just make it Christmas treestack.
There you go it could work foranything yeah so anyways enjoy
that game it was so fun and Ithought icebreaker look at all
this with just 20 cups and atable the kids are going crazy
(35:31):
and they didn't want to stop andthey were like trying to get on
the stage and they were likejust I mean they were rioting
because they wanted anotherchance you know to try again oh
it was it was high energy sofun.
SPEAKER_01 (35:44):
That's a freebie freebie okay this is a community
comment of the day this comesfrom SPL youth who says oh and
this is from the episode we didon the full tour of the youth
group night um around the churchsays I really appreciate seeing
your space and some of the tipsand tricks that you use for
youth group I especiallyappreciate your welcome table
that includes mailbox forpayment drops as I am always
(36:05):
having kids hand items to meduring events and trying not to
lose them.
SPEAKER_00 (36:10):
And that is exactly how that was born I was like
they just keep handing me.
There you go there's that andI'm like wait I have to be on
stage in like 30 seconds wheredo I put this and then I would
set it down and then the momwould be like well we turned on
it we turned it in and I'm likeof course you did but where did
I put it so now I never take itout of a kid's hand I just say
(36:31):
put in the mailbox put it in themailbox put it in the mailbox
you say it twice or three timesprobably eight kind of like a
parrot.
SPEAKER_01 (36:41):
Anyways I thought that was funny uh thank you SPL
youth we appreciate that andthank you guys for watching and
listening hope you got a lot ofgood tips for this winter camp
special episode and we'll seeyou next time today we're gonna
give you the ultimate guide forhosting a winter retreat plus
(37:01):
stick around for the end for aspecial free today we're talking
today we're giving you theultimate guide for leading this
is the number one reason why youthus why can't you do it?
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