April 17, 2025 • 33 mins
Now is the time to grow a healthy, thriving youth ministry...if you'd like to work with us, check out GrowYourYouthMinistry.com *** In this episode, we take a look at the top mistakes that youth pastors make when making their youth ministry website and social media accounts. One of your main goals for your student ministry website should be: remove the barriers between your youth group and the families you're trying to reach.
From years of "secret shopping" church websites, we reveal the common mistakes that create unnecessary hurdles for parents and students trying to connect with your ministry. We walk through exactly what information needs to be prominently displayed on your website and social media bios so that a newcomer can easily figure out how to get involved.
Beyond just the technical aspects, we address the deeper issue of church trust-building through your online presence. Many parents approach youth ministry with caution, especially if they've had negative church experiences in their past. Your transparent, accessible online presence can be the first step in establishing the trust needed for them to entrust their children to your care.
Whether you're managing your church's main website, a dedicated youth ministry site, or social media accounts, you'll gain practical insights that you can implement immediately to create a more welcoming, accessible student ministry.
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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:
(#047) Youth Pastors & Parents: Best Communication Tips
(#120) Best Practices for Communicating with Students in Youth Ministry
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
The whole concept is we're trying to remove as many
barriers as possible.
The more hurdles you remove forparents and the better access
they have to you, the betterresults you're going to get
every single time.
Today, we're talking about thetop mistakes youth pastors make
when it comes to their onlinepresence and how you can make it
better.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
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.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
My name is Jeff Laskola and this is Kristen
Laskola, and today we aretalking about mistakes youth
pastors make when it comes totheir online presence, and we're
going to give you somepractical tips on what you can
include to make sure that yoursocial media, your website,
whatever it is is communicatingexactly what you want it to and
(01:00):
maybe what it needs to to helpyou get better results.
And sometimes this episode wassort of birthed out of years,
actually, of me looking atdifferent youth group websites
or church websites or socialmedia and sort of secret
shopping, like if I were aparent who wanted my kid to be
(01:22):
involved in a youth group.
We just moved to the area andI'm trying to find a church and
some information about how toget my kid involved or plugged
in.
Could I do it just based onyour online presence?
And I hate to say this, but themajority of the time the answer
is no, and that's a bummerbecause they're super easy fixes
(01:44):
and after today, if you couldimplement a handful of these,
you will have a super strongonline presence that will help
someone go from not involved toat least know how to get started
to be involved.
And I don't.
I think there's this blindnessthat happens when you're the
(02:06):
youth pastor or have attended achurch for a long time, you
start to see things as aninsider and it just makes sense
to you.
But look at someone else'swebsite and do the test yourself
and say if I were a parenttrying to get my child involved,
or a student checking out awebsite trying to find a high
school group or whatever, couldI get involved based on the
(02:29):
information provided?
And if not, it'll help you kindof see where your own might be
lacking, because you, likeeveryone, knows what this means
Well it's like maybe in yourcity, in your church or whatever
, but think of the new person.
That's going to be the lens thatwe see this through, of always
keeping the new person in mind.
(02:50):
So let's talk about the websitefirst.
So a lot of churches have awebsite, like I would be hard.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
Step one have a website.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
I mean, you'd probably be hard pressed to find
a church without at least abasic website at this point in
time.
That would be shocking.
Now what happens after we getto the website?
That is where we have a mixedbag of all kinds of experiences,
so a lot of youth or a lot ofchurches.
I see they will have a pagethat says something like
(03:22):
ministries, or studentministries or family ministries,
something that leads me to belike, okay, this is probably the
area for me, and you click onthat and they might give you the
option of children's ministries, student ministries, junior
high, high school, whateveryou're looking for.
And then when you click on thatpage, here's where it goes
(03:45):
wrong a lot of times.
A maybe you can't even get tothat page and it just says youth
group meets every Wednesdaynight from 7 to 8 or something
like that.
There's no contact information,there's no extra information
about what do you do and stufflike that.
(04:07):
So imagine we get to the placewhere we're actually on the
student ministry site.
Here's what we need to belooking for.
We need to if you have your ownwebsite, which I do, so you
know I work at North CoastChurch and there is information
about my youth group on theNorth Coast page, but it's very
(04:28):
bare bones.
There is a link to click on togo to my actual website, which
is jhcom, and that's what opensup to the experience of my
specific youth group.
So is there a link to yourspecific youth group website?
(04:50):
If not, that's okay.
If you're not going to buildyour own website for your youth
group, totally okay, but thenyou need to build out from the
church's website.
So you want to make sure youare super clear and this sounds
so basic but I can't find it alot of times when, when and what
(05:14):
time you meet and how oftenWouldn't when be what time you
meet Well what day Gotcha meet?
well, what day gotcha?
So for example, ours would saywe meet every tuesday night from
6 30 to 8 30 at the falbertcampus of north coast church.
I would give an address forthat.
Now I know, and a lot of timespeople just like throw out, like
(05:37):
well, I'm gonna save that forthe social media.
So, and then within that, anevent description is really
great so you might again haveinsider language and be like
well, everyone knows what youthgroup is.
Again, who are we trying tocapture?
People that already know right,or are we trying to capture
people who are curious?
Speaker 2 (05:58):
both to be honest.
So you need to have informationthat caters to both people I
mean, if I had to choose, though, I would say I'm looking for
like in terms I think basicallywe're saying is the person that
doesn't know, you're going togive more than more information
than they even need you know,because you don't want to have
them come back and be like Ican't find the information,
(06:18):
Whereas a person who always iscoming, they might know a lot of
these things.
Overcommunicating is never aproblem.
Speaker 1 (06:24):
Right, they might know a lot of these things over.
Communicating is never aproblem, right?
So it's.
Yeah, you're trying to makesure someone who has never set
foot on your campus I say campusbecause we're multi-state or
church has ever, like they'venever stepped foot.
Could they figure it out?
You don't just say in in thefellowship hall, like that
doesn't mean something to anon-Christian or a non-church
(06:48):
member.
It's like where the heck, youknow?
So that doesn't make any senseto someone who hasn't stepped
foot on your campus, whichpoints again to signage as well.
You know of, like that night.
Make sure it's very clear theyouth are in this building.
They're not wandering around achurch Like where do I put my
(07:08):
kid?
Like this is so confusing, somaking sure we stay away.
The bottom line is you stay awayfrom insider language.
Do not use abbreviations.
You know, even on our ownwebsite, never say ncc.
We say north coast church, youknow, and it's like well, duh,
we're on the north coast, what?
(07:29):
But it's like I had asked somepeople to change something on
our website the other daybecause it was an acronym and
I'm like that means nothing to aperson clicking around your
website.
What is a AON?
Right, like I get so frustratedwhen the schools send me an
email and they're like pleaseparticipate in the PTO, bac,
(07:51):
blah, blah, and I'm like what?
I don't know what you're askingme to do, because those
acronyms are your world.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
Right.
Speaker 1 (07:57):
I'm just a parent.
I don't know what you'retalking about.
Speaker 2 (07:59):
And you send us 15 emails a day.
It's hard to sift through them,which is true, yeah, I count.
Speaker 1 (08:04):
Sometimes I'm like between the elementary school
and the junior high school.
I got 15 emails, not evencounting the notifications on my
phone.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
Right.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
And everything's urgent, urgent, urgent.
Please read Exclamation.
Is anyone else?
Just us?
Yeah, so sometimes I'm like I'dlove to do whatever you're
asking me to do, but I can'tdefine these terms that make
sense in a school context whenthat's your 40 hour a week job,
but when you're on the fringe ofthat like you're like huh.
(08:35):
I think this is what this means.
So never leave somebodywondering by abbreviating stuff.
Just spell it out, Act as ifnobody knows what you're talking
about and make it crystal,crystal clear.
Another thing you want to haveon that website other than so,
we break down like the weekends,like Saturday night we meet at
5 30 PM every Saturday night atthe Fallbrook campus, you know
(08:59):
and then Sunday morning, 9 AM,11 AM, and we give event
descriptions for both of those,Like what can you expect?
And then a calendar of events.
So I came across a churchwebsite recently that and
they're a fairly large churchand it was like upcoming events
(09:20):
and it was a little calendarwith about this much information
Roller skating night Okay, Likewhat time?
How much does?
Speaker 2 (09:29):
it cost.
Speaker 1 (09:30):
Do I, and so you couldn't click on anything.
So I'm like, oh, maybe it'sjust a heading and you click on
it and then it will open up to.
Oh, there's the details of signup by this day, and here
nothing.
It was just roller skatingnight, april 26th.
It's like, what Like?
Where are you going?
How like?
Speaker 2 (09:48):
me to the church, meet at the rink Exactly.
There's so many things.
Speaker 1 (09:52):
So the calendar of events again, for every single
one of those things has to becrystal clear of how can I like
participate?
Do I sign up?
Do I pick up a flyer?
Do I sign up in person?
Like, how do I go to this thing?
Number two how much does itcost?
Number three, and this one isso big who do I contact If I
(10:16):
have questions?
I am shocked at the lack ofcontact information on church
and youth group websites Emailoffice phone number.
If you don't want to publishyour cell phone number on a
website, I get that button thatgoes to your email or the church
(10:37):
office number with yourextension, something of like
questions, contact David.
And like there, if you couldeven put your picture there,
that's awesome too of like thisis the person that I need to get
in touch with, and it should bevery easy, right Cause.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
Again, you're going back to the person that's not
been there before and I'm goingto be dropping off my 12 year
old son or daughter, and I haveno idea who.
Speaker 1 (11:03):
I'm handing them off to Right Right and I think it
should be.
I don't know like.
I think people have differentopinions on this, but I think
sometimes pastors get elusivewith communication.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
Because they don't want to be bothered.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
Or they feel like, well, I don't, I don't feel
comfortable, or like there's.
There's always seems like alittle hesitancy.
I haven't quite figured outexactly the why behind it.
Speaker 2 (11:30):
I could just only guess, maybe they've been either
at churches or even at theircurrent church, where that's
been abused.
I feel like that's not been thecase with you.
But, like you were saying, bareminimum your email address is a
fairly non-aggressive way ofsomeone getting a hold of you,
and if you have an office linewith an extension, it's like,
well, you can only answer itwhen you're there.
(11:50):
I mean, if you're afraid ofpeople contacting you after
hours, you know, and they don'twant to give your cell phone out
, I can understand that.
Speaker 1 (11:59):
Sure, having at least an office line and a bare
minimum an email address, yeah,Because here's the thing I am
not sending my child with youanywhere If I can't get ahold of
you.
You know, like if I'm checkingsomething out and there's like
it's impossible to reach a live,real, breathing person.
Speaker 2 (12:19):
No way.
Yeah, I'm not dropping my kidoff Like we're going to go to
the water park or whatever, butI have no way of getting a hold
of anybody.
Speaker 1 (12:28):
And again, then that only serves your insiders.
Speaker 2 (12:31):
Yeah, right, assuming they even have your cell phone
number.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (12:34):
There's, there's no way.
Well, but they'd be at churchand they'd be like oh yeah, I
know about the water park night.
We're doing this, this and this, you know when everyone knows
you and is comfortable, but it'svery limited to your reach.
Speaker 2 (12:46):
Well, I was just thinking more along the lines of
if there was any kind ofemergency or you needed to
contact them and they weresomewhere else it would be nice
to have a cell phone somebody tobe able to reach them.
Speaker 1 (12:57):
Yeah, oh for sure, on an event, there's no question.
And then this is optional, butI think it really adds a lot of
personality to your website ofshowing videos and pictures of
your most recent events, becausejust by watching that someone
can see like, oh, these looklike totally normal people here,
and here's kind of the subheading under this that I'm not
(13:21):
saying people.
In my experience I've runacross a lot of people who have
lost trust with the church andthem getting their child
involved in a youth group is abig step for them, based on,
maybe, trauma they've hadthemselves when they were
younger or something happened,and so they want to know who we
(13:45):
are.
Can we be trusted?
Are we who we say we are?
And get a glimpse of us from adistance, which is the website.
That's a very safe distance tosay well, who are they and can I
move forward here?
And so I think being likehaving video and pictures of
like look at all these safe,smiling kids and these normal
(14:08):
leaders and people thriving hereand life change and like let
them see like this is safe, youcan trust us, because sometimes
people just like I mean I wish Ionly had a handful of people
who have this story, but thisstory comes across my ministry
(14:29):
all the time.
Parents very scared to get theirkid.
They're new, you know.
It's not like we hurt them, youknow at our church.
But they grew up in somedysfunctional church that had
some weird thing happen, somechurch trauma, and now they're
like holding onto their childrenfor dear life that it won't
happen to them and I hate thatthat's the case.
But wanting to show people like, hey, we have nothing to hide.
(14:53):
You want to get ahold of me?
Get ahold of me.
You want to see what we do?
Here's what we do.
I have no secrets to keep.
I'm not being elusive, I'm notbeing dodgy, I'm being
completely there's opentransparency here.
See our youth group, see ourcamps, contact me before you
come.
I'll talk to you, I'll emailyou, and the rate of return is
(15:17):
very important to like returningthose emails and phone calls
and all of that.
That's the first step of trustwith a parent or a new family or
a student that wants to becomeinvolved.
And it's like, oh my gosh, ittook three days for them just to
return an email.
It's like Ooh, when it comes toparents, when it comes to
(15:37):
families, when it comes I mean,you've got 24 hours, that is it?
Um, anything longer than thatsends a message of Hmm, like
wonder if this is a priority tothem.
And I get we're busy, like fine, of course it's.
But even just a quick, like heygot this, would love to connect
with you.
(15:58):
How about next?
You know like, if you need todelay that.
But even just a quick, like heygot this, would love to connect
with you.
How about next?
You know, like, if you need todelay that, but it doesn't take
any time.
I leave my email open while thewater is boiling to make
spaghetti and can like returnthree emails in that time of
just like oh, sweet, like youfind the time right If it's
important.
So a little rant on that.
(16:19):
I know that didn't necessarilyhave to do with this 100%, but
all that to say, I think contactinformation is a real
non-negotiable, for more thanjust well, they need to know
where the skating rink is at.
Speaker 2 (16:32):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:33):
It's a trust thing.
So now let's move on to socialmedia.
Speaker 2 (16:38):
Before we move on I have a couple things I wanted to
add.
Did you talk about address orare you going to talk about that
with social media?
So I kind of did okay just Ijust feel like that should be
very present under the contact.
I put our address in the thing,true yeah, I just I feel like
people assume people know wherethe grace church of whatever is.
Speaker 1 (17:00):
That's kind of what I'm getting to with the social
media, too.
Speaker 2 (17:02):
The other thing I wanted to bring up was for your
events page or things like that.
Make sure it's current and upto date.
I've been at some people'swebsites and you click on it it
is like, well, I know what youguys did in 2023, but I have no
idea what's coming up or then ifthings change.
So this is a personalexperience, not youth ministry
(17:22):
related, but back many years agowhen I first was getting
started.
I do screen printing on theside and I wanted to take there
was a local fairly local, about40 minutes away class and this
website said we're offering thisfree kind of you know,
beginners screen printing thinglike that.
I thought sounds great like freeand it's you know, so I don't
know if you remember it, but Idrove, like I said, it's about
(17:44):
40 minutes I showed up inmarietta.
Speaker 1 (17:46):
Yeah, oh yeah, I do remember and I.
Speaker 2 (17:48):
The front door is locked and I'm thinking well, I
knew I've been at this placebefore.
I knew they had a back side totheir business and that's where
all like their machines andthings like that were.
So I thought maybe there'shaving it around the back.
There's no sign, but clearlyI'm here at the right time.
And so I went all the wayaround the building and I went
to open the back door, which wasopen, and as I push it open, I
(18:11):
set off the building alarm.
Oh my, God.
And I'm like, well, now, what doI do?
And I'm like, well, now, whatdo I do?
I feel like I can't go in, butI don't know what to do.
So I went back around to thefront and I waited and finally
somebody showed up the police.
It was the police, it was oneof the owners, and I said, hi,
that was me, I'm here for theclass.
And he seemed oblivious, likehad no idea.
(18:34):
So there was somehow.
I don't know if they canceled itor what, I don't really
remember but, the classobviously was not happening and
I thought I was going off ofyour website information which
you would think would bereliable but, you're right.
Speaker 1 (18:48):
Sometimes it's like it was the right day, the right
year the right time.
Speaker 2 (18:52):
Oh, we're not doing that anymore but they never
bothered, didn't just delete itjust say cancel.
Speaker 1 (18:56):
You're the only one who showed up.
I'm surprised, more peoplecould have gone one-on-one
instead.
Speaker 2 (19:00):
I just set off the building alarm.
Well, that's a really good show, though, if you have something,
an event like, maybe outside ofyour normal youth group, or if
you're a youth group forwhatever reason small group
night out or something you'renot meeting there then that
person shows up to an emptychurch yeah, and it's awkward
okay, really bad look yeah, Iguess I'm not coming back here
because you feel embarrassed.
Speaker 1 (19:21):
I was certainly embarrassed for setting off an
alarm, but you just feel likethis is awkward maybe I just
don't want to come back well,and so a good rule of thumb
would be check your website oncea week.
I think I need to be better atthat right before we did this
episode.
I'm like, if I to talk aboutthis, I better look at my
website.
You know, because I this linkis broken.
(19:41):
I hand that off to a couple ofpeople who run it, and they run
it Well, they do a great job.
They missed a couple of thingsand so I sent them.
You know three or four edits oflike wait, this but that, and
we need to clean that up, andthis is not updated.
And so if that is you, ifyou're the one who updates it,
(20:03):
you know you need to make sure.
I think a good rule of thumb ischecking in on it once a week to
make sure everything's up todate and current, because that
has come back to bite me beforeI got a text from a mom like a
couple of years.
She's like hey, I'm confused.
The website says this time, butthen your calendar said this
(20:25):
time, and then the announcementsalso said that like there were
two different times and twothings said this, but the
website said this, and I'm like,oh my gosh, how embarrassing
she had to text me to like wejust look like we don't have our
act together and we didn't.
That was a bad, bad look for usand I'm like, oh, I'm so sorry,
(20:46):
this is the correct time.
And I just was like, ah, darnit.
I hate when that stuff happensbecause you want to come across
like we're organized we're ontop of it.
You can trust you don't have togo investigating is this, really
it, like I just want to be ableto say this information is what
is happening.
Speaker 2 (21:05):
Bottom line like because, at at the end of the
day, you people are trustingtheir children with you and if
you look like, you're notrunning a tight ship at all.
It's like I don't know.
I don't know if I feelcomfortable with my kid going
there.
Speaker 1 (21:18):
I always ask myself would an idiot do that?
And if the answer is yes.
I do not do that thing.
Speaker 2 (21:25):
So you have your own dedicated website.
Speaker 1 (21:28):
Is it?
Speaker 2 (21:29):
linked to the church's website.
Speaker 1 (21:30):
Have you been listening?
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (21:33):
Maybe I heard it, maybe I didn't.
Speaker 1 (21:35):
Address, said it Linked to the website.
Said it Wake up little snoozy,Smell Smelling salts.
Speaker 2 (21:42):
Yeah, so just so that if they're clicking because a
lot of people, I think, do havetheir website as part of their
church's overall page, which isgreat, but if you're going to
have a separate one, yeah,making sure that one goes to the
other Does yours link back tothe churches?
(22:02):
Did you talk about that?
Because if they go to yours,can they go?
Okay, you're part of thischurch, can I go back to it?
I don't know, oh, riddle methat.
Speaker 1 (22:08):
Okay, that's a good question.
You don't need to get all huffypuffy.
Speaker 2 (22:11):
That one's good.
The rest were not.
Speaker 1 (22:16):
So you're one for 30.
I was reiterating can't overcommunicate anywho social media
bro, let's do that, moving onmoving on.
Okay, so I don't know, maybe youstill have a facebook one, that
I've seen them.
They are thriving, great, great, great.
(22:37):
I'm just on instagram, so it'sthis could apply for any of them
Instagram, facebook, tiktok,whatever.
I would not do a Snapchat.
I don't know, just my personalopinion.
If you're doing it and it'sworking, well, amen, brothers
and sisters, but I can't snap.
I mean, we know social mediacan be one of two things I don't
(23:01):
know.
Speaker 2 (23:01):
I Snapchat's more of the other.
Speaker 1 (23:03):
I do think so and I tried really hard to give it a
fair assessment.
It's I can't really direct kidsthere.
I think without even trying it,you get into some pretty bad
stuff very quickly and, like thefor you pages on snapchat are
bad news.
So I was like I think we'redone with this, but let's talk
(23:25):
about like bios, right?
So here's what I see.
Often that is not helpfulwhatsoever.
So say, your youth group iscalled fire very good you can
have that one for free, but witha y mysterious youth friar, um,
(23:52):
because I mean maybe they'retrying to name their youth group
right now.
Fire, our youth group is fireokay, so it would be like fire,
and then it would say it's litbro.
Speaker 2 (24:13):
Yeah, maybe I'm going to extend that pause, make it
like 10 seconds.
Speaker 1 (24:18):
Add some crickets in.
Speaker 2 (24:21):
Noted.
Speaker 1 (24:22):
Okay.
So then it would say fire youthministry of, and then they
might at their church.
Doesn't tell me a whole lot,because that's all they'll say.
It's like so you're saying, ifthat's all they say, yeah, like
you could say youth ministry atlike north coast church, fine,
(24:43):
but that doesn't give meanything.
I need to get involved.
So then I start clicking likethrough their pictures.
Maybe they gave me informationin some of these picture
captions or something, nope.
So now I have to go to yourchurch Instagram and hope they
have service times.
Speaker 2 (24:59):
If you can find it.
Speaker 1 (25:00):
But chances are well, they at them a lot.
So then you click on that andthen it's like, well, chances
are, you're not talking aboutyouth group on your main church
page.
So I still don't know when youmeet or where, or what time or
how often.
So here's what you want to do.
You need times, locations,including the address for your
(25:23):
midweek in the bio I should pullours up, actually and what it
says junior high.
This is the bio, junior highministry of North Coast Church,
Fallbrook.
We need to be specific becausewe're multi-site, so it's not
just North Coast Church.
If you're a multi-site church,make sure you include the campus
on there.
And here's when we meet.
(25:45):
You include the campus on there.
And here's when we meetTuesdays, 630 to 830 pm.
Saturdays, 530 pm.
Sundays, 9 and 11 am, and thenit gives the address.
Right below the address itgives a link to our youth group
website.
So everything you need to getinvolved would be here.
(26:07):
You know, the address, you knowthe times, you know the days,
you know what church we're apart of, what campus we're a
part of.
And then if you scroll and look, well, I don't know if that
picks up well on camera, but, um, sometimes I don't like going
to youth group websites becauseyou look at their feed on their
page and it's just a bunch oftext.
(26:29):
It's just all these wordsdifferent of like I know they're
trying to use it forannouncements, but it's such a
boring feed.
It's like here's the logo forour new series.
It's like yippee, like what kidis so excited to like a banner
for a new sermon series?
Like they want to see theirfriends, they want to see them,
(26:50):
they want to see what the youthgroup is doing and who's there
and what's going on.
And I want to be a part of that.
Not like just looks like abunch of like flyers, you know.
And so make sure you havepictures of students, not just
information.
I'm not saying you can't havebanners and stuff like that, but
(27:11):
it's like not only that, likeseriously, some youth groups.
It's literally like hey, allnight event this Friday, and
then the next picture is likenew sermon series, something,
this, and then Easter services,nine and 11.
You're like this is like for aschool, like.
(27:33):
You know what I mean.
Like this is just like how,like all these.
But if you post pictures andvideos of the events and then in
the caption talk about whatthey are like, clover Knight are
coming up.
Here's the information you needto know.
Use the caption for theinformation, because the picture
will get the attention and belike oh, that looks fun.
(27:53):
A flyer cannot convey funAction.
Can Students in glow paint,like playing dodgeball can.
But just saying Glover Knightas a flyer, that can't convey
who you are.
And another pro tip would benot only linking the website in
your bio, but if you have anyevent registration, so when we
(28:17):
have camp coming up, we put thatlink in the bio so you can just
click right there at the topand be directed to the camp
signup page, which is so greatfor students, especially new
ones.
Sometimes those kids aren't onour parent email list and they
just need a quick way to get tothe camp signups that they're,
(28:37):
or the all nighter signups.
Whatever you're doing, justmake it so accessible and simple
there.
So, yeah, I think the bottomline is be super clear.
Speaker 2 (28:51):
Yeah, Also, like you're saying how, if you go to
the youth's Instagram page, it'slike well, I can't see where
the church is at, but I see theytag the church.
Let me click there.
Did the church say wherethey're at?
No, but they have a websitelink.
Let me click there.
Okay, now I'm at the websitewebsite.
Like stop making them jump fromone place to another right so,
like you're saying, it's like oninstagram.
Here's the registration to signup for event.
(29:11):
Here's our website.
Here's our church address,where it's like I can get
everything I need right here.
Or, if I went to the churchwebsite, here's a place to sign
up for events.
Here's the address.
Here's like, everywhere you go,it contains all the information
that you need, so it's notconstantly like well, first
click here, then go here andthen exactly, and then scroll
(29:32):
down to the bottom and maybeit'll be.
You know, it's like.
No, it's like everywhere you goit has the same stuff right.
Speaker 1 (29:37):
And I just looked up another one right now while we
were filming because I thought,oh, this one's probably really
good.
It it was not, I won't say.
But I was like, oh, I'll usethem as an example of here's
some other pro tips.
But you can't, like we saidbefore, you can't just link the
church because now you've sentthem on a treasure hunt.
(29:58):
Like the church's primarywebsite at least ours is not
like the front page of it Likehere's the youth pastor, here's
all the information.
You're still going to have toclick around to find it.
So if someone's going straightto your Instagram or your
Facebook page, why not just putall that right there?
Here's who this is for sixththrough eighth graders.
(30:21):
This is the days and times wemeet.
This is the address we meet,this is the church we meet at,
and now you can scroll throughand see who we are.
But at least you have all thenuts and bolts and you don't
have to guess right like uhwhere are they?
Speaker 2 (30:35):
I remember seeing that information.
Where did I see it?
Was it on this page or was it?
Speaker 1 (30:39):
you know it's like anywhere you go, you're still
going to find all thatinformation and like the, the
whole concept is we're trying toremove as many barriers as
possible, like every time welike create a new hurdle or a
new hoop.
Chances are like, if I like thewebsite I was looking at the
other day where I was tellingyou it had like roller skating
(30:59):
night but nothing to click on.
I'll click around for a coupleminutes and then I'm giving up
yeah and then if I cannotcontact someone easily to ask a
question to, I am a hundredpercent.
Moving on, if you're not aparent yet and you're a youth
pastor, please do notunderestimate how busy parents
(31:20):
are and how many people andorganizations are vying for
their attention.
Your, your youth group, is apart of their life.
They're also on a baseball team, talking to the coach, and
they've got to get an order infor their you know uniform, and
then they have the booster cluband then they are on PTA, and
then the school and then theirkids project is due and, oh no,
(31:41):
everyone has a dentistappointment.
Like their inbox is filled withall of these people vying for
their attention.
So if you're a younger youthpastor that has not experienced
that yet, know that the morehurdles you remove for parents
and the better access they haveto you, the better results
(32:02):
you're going to get every singletime.
Speaker 2 (32:05):
Yeah, it's good strong stuff.
Um was as they fired up aboutall those school emails, man my
gosh and and the other thing islike most of the time when you
get them I would say nine timesout of ten or more you're like I
don't need this right now.
I don't need this informationright, this second right.
Speaker 1 (32:20):
So I you know but then they send it again and
again, and again, like fundrafor flowers, fundraiser for
flowers, and I'm like I don't,I'm not, I don't need it, bye,
bye.
Then they send it in theafternoon, in the morning, in
the evening.
They're over communicating,which is not a bad thing, but I
think there's well, I'm going toget on a tangent.
(32:41):
I I know we better cut whilewe're ahead.
Speaker 2 (32:43):
I can't end up finding.
Even though they send me 20emails on the same thing, I
can't end up finding it becausethey're all labeled weird.
That's a school district issuewe have.
Speaker 1 (32:51):
Nevermind, I'm exhausted.
Speaker 2 (32:52):
That's not besides the point this is a community
comment of the day.
This comes from Faithful R8Q,who says you have no idea how
much your videos help me out ouryouth ministry, so thank you.
Speaker 1 (33:03):
You're welcome.
We appreciate that.
We love hearing those things.
Speaker 2 (33:07):
We thank you guys for watching and listening and
we'll see you next time.
Speaker 1 (33:11):
Today, we're talking about five words that should
describe every youth ministry.
Today, we're talking about thefive most powerful words that
can describe your youth ministry.
Today, we're talking about fivewords that should describe
every youth ministry.
What are five words that shoulddescribe every youth ministry
Today?
Hello.
The whole concept is we're trying to remove as many
barriers as possible.
The more hurdles you remove forparents and the better access
they have to you, the betterresults you're going to get
every single time.
Today, we're talking about thetop mistakes youth pastors make
when it comes to their onlinepresence and how you can make it
better.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
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.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
My name is Jeff Laskola and this is Kristen
Laskola, and today we aretalking about mistakes youth
pastors make when it comes totheir online presence, and we're
going to give you somepractical tips on what you can
include to make sure that yoursocial media, your website,
whatever it is is communicatingexactly what you want it to and
(01:00):
maybe what it needs to to helpyou get better results.
And sometimes this episode wassort of birthed out of years,
actually, of me looking atdifferent youth group websites
or church websites or socialmedia and sort of secret
shopping, like if I were aparent who wanted my kid to be
(01:22):
involved in a youth group.
We just moved to the area andI'm trying to find a church and
some information about how toget my kid involved or plugged
in.
Could I do it just based onyour online presence?
And I hate to say this, but themajority of the time the answer
is no, and that's a bummerbecause they're super easy fixes
(01:44):
and after today, if you couldimplement a handful of these,
you will have a super strongonline presence that will help
someone go from not involved toat least know how to get started
to be involved.
And I don't.
I think there's this blindnessthat happens when you're the
(02:06):
youth pastor or have attended achurch for a long time, you
start to see things as aninsider and it just makes sense
to you.
But look at someone else'swebsite and do the test yourself
and say if I were a parenttrying to get my child involved,
or a student checking out awebsite trying to find a high
school group or whatever, couldI get involved based on the
(02:29):
information provided?
And if not, it'll help you kindof see where your own might be
lacking, because you, likeeveryone, knows what this means
Well it's like maybe in yourcity, in your church or whatever
, but think of the new person.
That's going to be the lens thatwe see this through, of always
keeping the new person in mind.
(02:50):
So let's talk about the websitefirst.
So a lot of churches have awebsite, like I would be hard.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
Step one have a website.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
I mean, you'd probably be hard pressed to find
a church without at least abasic website at this point in
time.
That would be shocking.
Now what happens after we getto the website?
That is where we have a mixedbag of all kinds of experiences,
so a lot of youth or a lot ofchurches.
I see they will have a pagethat says something like
(03:22):
ministries, or studentministries or family ministries,
something that leads me to belike, okay, this is probably the
area for me, and you click onthat and they might give you the
option of children's ministries, student ministries, junior
high, high school, whateveryou're looking for.
And then when you click on thatpage, here's where it goes
(03:45):
wrong a lot of times.
A maybe you can't even get tothat page and it just says youth
group meets every Wednesdaynight from 7 to 8 or something
like that.
There's no contact information,there's no extra information
about what do you do and stufflike that.
(04:07):
So imagine we get to the placewhere we're actually on the
student ministry site.
Here's what we need to belooking for.
We need to if you have your ownwebsite, which I do, so you
know I work at North CoastChurch and there is information
about my youth group on theNorth Coast page, but it's very
(04:28):
bare bones.
There is a link to click on togo to my actual website, which
is jhcom, and that's what opensup to the experience of my
specific youth group.
So is there a link to yourspecific youth group website?
(04:50):
If not, that's okay.
If you're not going to buildyour own website for your youth
group, totally okay, but thenyou need to build out from the
church's website.
So you want to make sure youare super clear and this sounds
so basic but I can't find it alot of times when, when and what
(05:14):
time you meet and how oftenWouldn't when be what time you
meet Well what day Gotcha meet?
well, what day gotcha?
So for example, ours would saywe meet every tuesday night from
6 30 to 8 30 at the falbertcampus of north coast church.
I would give an address forthat.
Now I know, and a lot of timespeople just like throw out, like
(05:37):
well, I'm gonna save that forthe social media.
So, and then within that, anevent description is really
great so you might again haveinsider language and be like
well, everyone knows what youthgroup is.
Again, who are we trying tocapture?
People that already know right,or are we trying to capture
people who are curious?
Speaker 2 (05:58):
both to be honest.
So you need to have informationthat caters to both people I
mean, if I had to choose, though, I would say I'm looking for
like in terms I think basicallywe're saying is the person that
doesn't know, you're going togive more than more information
than they even need you know,because you don't want to have
them come back and be like Ican't find the information,
(06:18):
Whereas a person who always iscoming, they might know a lot of
these things.
Overcommunicating is never aproblem.
Speaker 1 (06:24):
Right, they might know a lot of these things over.
Communicating is never aproblem, right?
So it's.
Yeah, you're trying to makesure someone who has never set
foot on your campus I say campusbecause we're multi-state or
church has ever, like they'venever stepped foot.
Could they figure it out?
You don't just say in in thefellowship hall, like that
doesn't mean something to anon-Christian or a non-church
(06:48):
member.
It's like where the heck, youknow?
So that doesn't make any senseto someone who hasn't stepped
foot on your campus, whichpoints again to signage as well.
You know of, like that night.
Make sure it's very clear theyouth are in this building.
They're not wandering around achurch Like where do I put my
(07:08):
kid?
Like this is so confusing, somaking sure we stay away.
The bottom line is you stay awayfrom insider language.
Do not use abbreviations.
You know, even on our ownwebsite, never say ncc.
We say north coast church, youknow, and it's like well, duh,
we're on the north coast, what?
(07:29):
But it's like I had asked somepeople to change something on
our website the other daybecause it was an acronym and
I'm like that means nothing to aperson clicking around your
website.
What is a AON?
Right, like I get so frustratedwhen the schools send me an
email and they're like pleaseparticipate in the PTO, bac,
(07:51):
blah, blah, and I'm like what?
I don't know what you're askingme to do, because those
acronyms are your world.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
Right.
Speaker 1 (07:57):
I'm just a parent.
I don't know what you'retalking about.
Speaker 2 (07:59):
And you send us 15 emails a day.
It's hard to sift through them,which is true, yeah, I count.
Speaker 1 (08:04):
Sometimes I'm like between the elementary school
and the junior high school.
I got 15 emails, not evencounting the notifications on my
phone.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
Right.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
And everything's urgent, urgent, urgent.
Please read Exclamation.
Is anyone else?
Just us?
Yeah, so sometimes I'm like I'dlove to do whatever you're
asking me to do, but I can'tdefine these terms that make
sense in a school context whenthat's your 40 hour a week job,
but when you're on the fringe ofthat like you're like huh.
(08:35):
I think this is what this means.
So never leave somebodywondering by abbreviating stuff.
Just spell it out, Act as ifnobody knows what you're talking
about and make it crystal,crystal clear.
Another thing you want to haveon that website other than so,
we break down like the weekends,like Saturday night we meet at
5 30 PM every Saturday night atthe Fallbrook campus, you know
(08:59):
and then Sunday morning, 9 AM,11 AM, and we give event
descriptions for both of those,Like what can you expect?
And then a calendar of events.
So I came across a churchwebsite recently that and
they're a fairly large churchand it was like upcoming events
(09:20):
and it was a little calendarwith about this much information
Roller skating night Okay, Likewhat time?
How much does?
Speaker 2 (09:29):
it cost.
Speaker 1 (09:30):
Do I, and so you couldn't click on anything.
So I'm like, oh, maybe it'sjust a heading and you click on
it and then it will open up to.
Oh, there's the details of signup by this day, and here
nothing.
It was just roller skatingnight, april 26th.
It's like, what Like?
Where are you going?
How like?
Speaker 2 (09:48):
me to the church, meet at the rink Exactly.
There's so many things.
Speaker 1 (09:52):
So the calendar of events again, for every single
one of those things has to becrystal clear of how can I like
participate?
Do I sign up?
Do I pick up a flyer?
Do I sign up in person?
Like, how do I go to this thing?
Number two how much does itcost?
Number three, and this one isso big who do I contact If I
(10:16):
have questions?
I am shocked at the lack ofcontact information on church
and youth group websites Emailoffice phone number.
If you don't want to publishyour cell phone number on a
website, I get that button thatgoes to your email or the church
(10:37):
office number with yourextension, something of like
questions, contact David.
And like there, if you couldeven put your picture there,
that's awesome too of like thisis the person that I need to get
in touch with, and it should bevery easy, right Cause.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
Again, you're going back to the person that's not
been there before and I'm goingto be dropping off my 12 year
old son or daughter, and I haveno idea who.
Speaker 1 (11:03):
I'm handing them off to Right Right and I think it
should be.
I don't know like.
I think people have differentopinions on this, but I think
sometimes pastors get elusivewith communication.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
Because they don't want to be bothered.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
Or they feel like, well, I don't, I don't feel
comfortable, or like there's.
There's always seems like alittle hesitancy.
I haven't quite figured outexactly the why behind it.
Speaker 2 (11:30):
I could just only guess, maybe they've been either
at churches or even at theircurrent church, where that's
been abused.
I feel like that's not been thecase with you.
But, like you were saying, bareminimum your email address is a
fairly non-aggressive way ofsomeone getting a hold of you,
and if you have an office linewith an extension, it's like,
well, you can only answer itwhen you're there.
(11:50):
I mean, if you're afraid ofpeople contacting you after
hours, you know, and they don'twant to give your cell phone out
, I can understand that.
Speaker 1 (11:59):
Sure, having at least an office line and a bare
minimum an email address, yeah,Because here's the thing I am
not sending my child with youanywhere If I can't get ahold of
you.
You know, like if I'm checkingsomething out and there's like
it's impossible to reach a live,real, breathing person.
Speaker 2 (12:19):
No way.
Yeah, I'm not dropping my kidoff Like we're going to go to
the water park or whatever, butI have no way of getting a hold
of anybody.
Speaker 1 (12:28):
And again, then that only serves your insiders.
Speaker 2 (12:31):
Yeah, right, assuming they even have your cell phone
number.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (12:34):
There's, there's no way.
Well, but they'd be at churchand they'd be like oh yeah, I
know about the water park night.
We're doing this, this and this, you know when everyone knows
you and is comfortable, but it'svery limited to your reach.
Speaker 2 (12:46):
Well, I was just thinking more along the lines of
if there was any kind ofemergency or you needed to
contact them and they weresomewhere else it would be nice
to have a cell phone somebody tobe able to reach them.
Speaker 1 (12:57):
Yeah, oh for sure, on an event, there's no question.
And then this is optional, butI think it really adds a lot of
personality to your website ofshowing videos and pictures of
your most recent events, becausejust by watching that someone
can see like, oh, these looklike totally normal people here,
and here's kind of the subheading under this that I'm not
(13:21):
saying people.
In my experience I've runacross a lot of people who have
lost trust with the church andthem getting their child
involved in a youth group is abig step for them, based on,
maybe, trauma they've hadthemselves when they were
younger or something happened,and so they want to know who we
(13:45):
are.
Can we be trusted?
Are we who we say we are?
And get a glimpse of us from adistance, which is the website.
That's a very safe distance tosay well, who are they and can I
move forward here?
And so I think being likehaving video and pictures of
like look at all these safe,smiling kids and these normal
(14:08):
leaders and people thriving hereand life change and like let
them see like this is safe, youcan trust us, because sometimes
people just like I mean I wish Ionly had a handful of people
who have this story, but thisstory comes across my ministry
(14:29):
all the time.
Parents very scared to get theirkid.
They're new, you know.
It's not like we hurt them, youknow at our church.
But they grew up in somedysfunctional church that had
some weird thing happen, somechurch trauma, and now they're
like holding onto their childrenfor dear life that it won't
happen to them and I hate thatthat's the case.
But wanting to show people like, hey, we have nothing to hide.
(14:53):
You want to get ahold of me?
Get ahold of me.
You want to see what we do?
Here's what we do.
I have no secrets to keep.
I'm not being elusive, I'm notbeing dodgy, I'm being
completely there's opentransparency here.
See our youth group, see ourcamps, contact me before you
come.
I'll talk to you, I'll emailyou, and the rate of return is
(15:17):
very important to like returningthose emails and phone calls
and all of that.
That's the first step of trustwith a parent or a new family or
a student that wants to becomeinvolved.
And it's like, oh my gosh, ittook three days for them just to
return an email.
It's like Ooh, when it comes toparents, when it comes to
(15:37):
families, when it comes I mean,you've got 24 hours, that is it?
Um, anything longer than thatsends a message of Hmm, like
wonder if this is a priority tothem.
And I get we're busy, like fine, of course it's.
But even just a quick, like heygot this, would love to connect
with you.
(15:58):
How about next?
You know like, if you need todelay that.
But even just a quick, like heygot this, would love to connect
with you.
How about next?
You know, like, if you need todelay that, but it doesn't take
any time.
I leave my email open while thewater is boiling to make
spaghetti and can like returnthree emails in that time of
just like oh, sweet, like youfind the time right If it's
important.
So a little rant on that.
(16:19):
I know that didn't necessarilyhave to do with this 100%, but
all that to say, I think contactinformation is a real
non-negotiable, for more thanjust well, they need to know
where the skating rink is at.
Speaker 2 (16:32):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:33):
It's a trust thing.
So now let's move on to socialmedia.
Speaker 2 (16:38):
Before we move on I have a couple things I wanted to
add.
Did you talk about address orare you going to talk about that
with social media?
So I kind of did okay just Ijust feel like that should be
very present under the contact.
I put our address in the thing,true yeah, I just I feel like
people assume people know wherethe grace church of whatever is.
Speaker 1 (17:00):
That's kind of what I'm getting to with the social
media, too.
Speaker 2 (17:02):
The other thing I wanted to bring up was for your
events page or things like that.
Make sure it's current and upto date.
I've been at some people'swebsites and you click on it it
is like, well, I know what youguys did in 2023, but I have no
idea what's coming up or then ifthings change.
So this is a personalexperience, not youth ministry
(17:22):
related, but back many years agowhen I first was getting
started.
I do screen printing on theside and I wanted to take there
was a local fairly local, about40 minutes away class and this
website said we're offering thisfree kind of you know,
beginners screen printing thinglike that.
I thought sounds great like freeand it's you know, so I don't
know if you remember it, but Idrove, like I said, it's about
(17:44):
40 minutes I showed up inmarietta.
Speaker 1 (17:46):
Yeah, oh yeah, I do remember and I.
Speaker 2 (17:48):
The front door is locked and I'm thinking well, I
knew I've been at this placebefore.
I knew they had a back side totheir business and that's where
all like their machines andthings like that were.
So I thought maybe there'shaving it around the back.
There's no sign, but clearlyI'm here at the right time.
And so I went all the wayaround the building and I went
to open the back door, which wasopen, and as I push it open, I
(18:11):
set off the building alarm.
Oh my, God.
And I'm like, well, now, what doI do?
And I'm like, well, now, whatdo I do?
I feel like I can't go in, butI don't know what to do.
So I went back around to thefront and I waited and finally
somebody showed up the police.
It was the police, it was oneof the owners, and I said, hi,
that was me, I'm here for theclass.
And he seemed oblivious, likehad no idea.
(18:34):
So there was somehow.
I don't know if they canceled itor what, I don't really
remember but, the classobviously was not happening and
I thought I was going off ofyour website information which
you would think would bereliable but, you're right.
Speaker 1 (18:48):
Sometimes it's like it was the right day, the right
year the right time.
Speaker 2 (18:52):
Oh, we're not doing that anymore but they never
bothered, didn't just delete itjust say cancel.
Speaker 1 (18:56):
You're the only one who showed up.
I'm surprised, more peoplecould have gone one-on-one
instead.
Speaker 2 (19:00):
I just set off the building alarm.
Well, that's a really good show, though, if you have something,
an event like, maybe outside ofyour normal youth group, or if
you're a youth group forwhatever reason small group
night out or something you'renot meeting there then that
person shows up to an emptychurch yeah, and it's awkward
okay, really bad look yeah, Iguess I'm not coming back here
because you feel embarrassed.
Speaker 1 (19:21):
I was certainly embarrassed for setting off an
alarm, but you just feel likethis is awkward maybe I just
don't want to come back well,and so a good rule of thumb
would be check your website oncea week.
I think I need to be better atthat right before we did this
episode.
I'm like, if I to talk aboutthis, I better look at my
website.
You know, because I this linkis broken.
(19:41):
I hand that off to a couple ofpeople who run it, and they run
it Well, they do a great job.
They missed a couple of thingsand so I sent them.
You know three or four edits oflike wait, this but that, and
we need to clean that up, andthis is not updated.
And so if that is you, ifyou're the one who updates it,
(20:03):
you know you need to make sure.
I think a good rule of thumb ischecking in on it once a week to
make sure everything's up todate and current, because that
has come back to bite me beforeI got a text from a mom like a
couple of years.
She's like hey, I'm confused.
The website says this time, butthen your calendar said this
(20:25):
time, and then the announcementsalso said that like there were
two different times and twothings said this, but the
website said this, and I'm like,oh my gosh, how embarrassing
she had to text me to like wejust look like we don't have our
act together and we didn't.
That was a bad, bad look for usand I'm like, oh, I'm so sorry,
(20:46):
this is the correct time.
And I just was like, ah, darnit.
I hate when that stuff happensbecause you want to come across
like we're organized we're ontop of it.
You can trust you don't have togo investigating is this, really
it, like I just want to be ableto say this information is what
is happening.
Speaker 2 (21:05):
Bottom line like because, at at the end of the
day, you people are trustingtheir children with you and if
you look like, you're notrunning a tight ship at all.
It's like I don't know.
I don't know if I feelcomfortable with my kid going
there.
Speaker 1 (21:18):
I always ask myself would an idiot do that?
And if the answer is yes.
I do not do that thing.
Speaker 2 (21:25):
So you have your own dedicated website.
Speaker 1 (21:28):
Is it?
Speaker 2 (21:29):
linked to the church's website.
Speaker 1 (21:30):
Have you been listening?
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (21:33):
Maybe I heard it, maybe I didn't.
Speaker 1 (21:35):
Address, said it Linked to the website.
Said it Wake up little snoozy,Smell Smelling salts.
Speaker 2 (21:42):
Yeah, so just so that if they're clicking because a
lot of people, I think, do havetheir website as part of their
church's overall page, which isgreat, but if you're going to
have a separate one, yeah,making sure that one goes to the
other Does yours link back tothe churches?
(22:02):
Did you talk about that?
Because if they go to yours,can they go?
Okay, you're part of thischurch, can I go back to it?
I don't know, oh, riddle methat.
Speaker 1 (22:08):
Okay, that's a good question.
You don't need to get all huffypuffy.
Speaker 2 (22:11):
That one's good.
The rest were not.
Speaker 1 (22:16):
So you're one for 30.
I was reiterating can't overcommunicate anywho social media
bro, let's do that, moving onmoving on.
Okay, so I don't know, maybe youstill have a facebook one, that
I've seen them.
They are thriving, great, great, great.
(22:37):
I'm just on instagram, so it'sthis could apply for any of them
Instagram, facebook, tiktok,whatever.
I would not do a Snapchat.
I don't know, just my personalopinion.
If you're doing it and it'sworking, well, amen, brothers
and sisters, but I can't snap.
I mean, we know social mediacan be one of two things I don't
(23:01):
know.
Speaker 2 (23:01):
I Snapchat's more of the other.
Speaker 1 (23:03):
I do think so and I tried really hard to give it a
fair assessment.
It's I can't really direct kidsthere.
I think without even trying it,you get into some pretty bad
stuff very quickly and, like thefor you pages on snapchat are
bad news.
So I was like I think we'redone with this, but let's talk
(23:25):
about like bios, right?
So here's what I see.
Often that is not helpfulwhatsoever.
So say, your youth group iscalled fire very good you can
have that one for free, but witha y mysterious youth friar, um,
(23:52):
because I mean maybe they'retrying to name their youth group
right now.
Fire, our youth group is fireokay, so it would be like fire,
and then it would say it's litbro.
Speaker 2 (24:13):
Yeah, maybe I'm going to extend that pause, make it
like 10 seconds.
Speaker 1 (24:18):
Add some crickets in.
Speaker 2 (24:21):
Noted.
Speaker 1 (24:22):
Okay.
So then it would say fire youthministry of, and then they
might at their church.
Doesn't tell me a whole lot,because that's all they'll say.
It's like so you're saying, ifthat's all they say, yeah, like
you could say youth ministry atlike north coast church, fine,
(24:43):
but that doesn't give meanything.
I need to get involved.
So then I start clicking likethrough their pictures.
Maybe they gave me informationin some of these picture
captions or something, nope.
So now I have to go to yourchurch Instagram and hope they
have service times.
Speaker 2 (24:59):
If you can find it.
Speaker 1 (25:00):
But chances are well, they at them a lot.
So then you click on that andthen it's like, well, chances
are, you're not talking aboutyouth group on your main church
page.
So I still don't know when youmeet or where, or what time or
how often.
So here's what you want to do.
You need times, locations,including the address for your
(25:23):
midweek in the bio I should pullours up, actually and what it
says junior high.
This is the bio, junior highministry of North Coast Church,
Fallbrook.
We need to be specific becausewe're multi-site, so it's not
just North Coast Church.
If you're a multi-site church,make sure you include the campus
on there.
And here's when we meet.
(25:45):
You include the campus on there.
And here's when we meetTuesdays, 630 to 830 pm.
Saturdays, 530 pm.
Sundays, 9 and 11 am, and thenit gives the address.
Right below the address itgives a link to our youth group
website.
So everything you need to getinvolved would be here.
(26:07):
You know, the address, you knowthe times, you know the days,
you know what church we're apart of, what campus we're a
part of.
And then if you scroll and look, well, I don't know if that
picks up well on camera, but, um, sometimes I don't like going
to youth group websites becauseyou look at their feed on their
page and it's just a bunch oftext.
(26:29):
It's just all these wordsdifferent of like I know they're
trying to use it forannouncements, but it's such a
boring feed.
It's like here's the logo forour new series.
It's like yippee, like what kidis so excited to like a banner
for a new sermon series?
Like they want to see theirfriends, they want to see them,
(26:50):
they want to see what the youthgroup is doing and who's there
and what's going on.
And I want to be a part of that.
Not like just looks like abunch of like flyers, you know.
And so make sure you havepictures of students, not just
information.
I'm not saying you can't havebanners and stuff like that, but
(27:11):
it's like not only that, likeseriously, some youth groups.
It's literally like hey, allnight event this Friday, and
then the next picture is likenew sermon series, something,
this, and then Easter services,nine and 11.
You're like this is like for aschool, like.
(27:33):
You know what I mean.
Like this is just like how,like all these.
But if you post pictures andvideos of the events and then in
the caption talk about whatthey are like, clover Knight are
coming up.
Here's the information you needto know.
Use the caption for theinformation, because the picture
will get the attention and belike oh, that looks fun.
(27:53):
A flyer cannot convey funAction.
Can Students in glow paint,like playing dodgeball can.
But just saying Glover Knightas a flyer, that can't convey
who you are.
And another pro tip would benot only linking the website in
your bio, but if you have anyevent registration, so when we
(28:17):
have camp coming up, we put thatlink in the bio so you can just
click right there at the topand be directed to the camp
signup page, which is so greatfor students, especially new
ones.
Sometimes those kids aren't onour parent email list and they
just need a quick way to get tothe camp signups that they're,
(28:37):
or the all nighter signups.
Whatever you're doing, justmake it so accessible and simple
there.
So, yeah, I think the bottomline is be super clear.
Speaker 2 (28:51):
Yeah, Also, like you're saying how, if you go to
the youth's Instagram page, it'slike well, I can't see where
the church is at, but I see theytag the church.
Let me click there.
Did the church say wherethey're at?
No, but they have a websitelink.
Let me click there.
Okay, now I'm at the websitewebsite.
Like stop making them jump fromone place to another right so,
like you're saying, it's like oninstagram.
Here's the registration to signup for event.
(29:11):
Here's our website.
Here's our church address,where it's like I can get
everything I need right here.
Or, if I went to the churchwebsite, here's a place to sign
up for events.
Here's the address.
Here's like, everywhere you go,it contains all the information
that you need, so it's notconstantly like well, first
click here, then go here andthen exactly, and then scroll
(29:32):
down to the bottom and maybeit'll be.
You know, it's like.
No, it's like everywhere you goit has the same stuff right.
Speaker 1 (29:37):
And I just looked up another one right now while we
were filming because I thought,oh, this one's probably really
good.
It it was not, I won't say.
But I was like, oh, I'll usethem as an example of here's
some other pro tips.
But you can't, like we saidbefore, you can't just link the
church because now you've sentthem on a treasure hunt.
(29:58):
Like the church's primarywebsite at least ours is not
like the front page of it Likehere's the youth pastor, here's
all the information.
You're still going to have toclick around to find it.
So if someone's going straightto your Instagram or your
Facebook page, why not just putall that right there?
Here's who this is for sixththrough eighth graders.
(30:21):
This is the days and times wemeet.
This is the address we meet,this is the church we meet at,
and now you can scroll throughand see who we are.
But at least you have all thenuts and bolts and you don't
have to guess right like uhwhere are they?
Speaker 2 (30:35):
I remember seeing that information.
Where did I see it?
Was it on this page or was it?
Speaker 1 (30:39):
you know it's like anywhere you go, you're still
going to find all thatinformation and like the, the
whole concept is we're trying toremove as many barriers as
possible, like every time welike create a new hurdle or a
new hoop.
Chances are like, if I like thewebsite I was looking at the
other day where I was tellingyou it had like roller skating
(30:59):
night but nothing to click on.
I'll click around for a coupleminutes and then I'm giving up
yeah and then if I cannotcontact someone easily to ask a
question to, I am a hundredpercent.
Moving on, if you're not aparent yet and you're a youth
pastor, please do notunderestimate how busy parents
(31:20):
are and how many people andorganizations are vying for
their attention.
Your, your youth group, is apart of their life.
They're also on a baseball team, talking to the coach, and
they've got to get an order infor their you know uniform, and
then they have the booster cluband then they are on PTA, and
then the school and then theirkids project is due and, oh no,
(31:41):
everyone has a dentistappointment.
Like their inbox is filled withall of these people vying for
their attention.
So if you're a younger youthpastor that has not experienced
that yet, know that the morehurdles you remove for parents
and the better access they haveto you, the better results
(32:02):
you're going to get every singletime.
Speaker 2 (32:05):
Yeah, it's good strong stuff.
Um was as they fired up aboutall those school emails, man my
gosh and and the other thing islike most of the time when you
get them I would say nine timesout of ten or more you're like I
don't need this right now.
I don't need this informationright, this second right.
Speaker 1 (32:20):
So I you know but then they send it again and
again, and again, like fundrafor flowers, fundraiser for
flowers, and I'm like I don't,I'm not, I don't need it, bye,
bye.
Then they send it in theafternoon, in the morning, in
the evening.
They're over communicating,which is not a bad thing, but I
think there's well, I'm going toget on a tangent.
(32:41):
I I know we better cut whilewe're ahead.
Speaker 2 (32:43):
I can't end up finding.
Even though they send me 20emails on the same thing, I
can't end up finding it becausethey're all labeled weird.
That's a school district issuewe have.
Speaker 1 (32:51):
Nevermind, I'm exhausted.
Speaker 2 (32:52):
That's not besides the point this is a community
comment of the day.
This comes from Faithful R8Q,who says you have no idea how
much your videos help me out ouryouth ministry, so thank you.
Speaker 1 (33:03):
You're welcome.
We appreciate that.
We love hearing those things.
Speaker 2 (33:07):
We thank you guys for watching and listening and
we'll see you next time.
Speaker 1 (33:11):
Today, we're talking about five words that should
describe every youth ministry.
Today, we're talking about thefive most powerful words that
can describe your youth ministry.
Today, we're talking about fivewords that should describe
every youth ministry.
What are five words that shoulddescribe every youth ministry
Today?
Hello.
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