BTE 5.15 Summers Off vs. Regular Programming: Part 2 with Hannah Helwege and Lane Moss

Summer can either empty out your youth ministry calendar or expose what was never sustainable to begin with. We sit down with Hannah Helwege from New Life Church in Colorado Springs to get specific about what actually works when school gets out, sports and theater shift, and families finally have breathing room. If you’re a youth pastor trying to build summer programming that keeps students engaged and keeps leaders healthy, you’ll hear practical rhythms you can borrow immediately.

Hannah serves in a multi-congregational church where each congregation has real autonomy, which means student ministry can be shaped around local schools and real family schedules. We break down her baseline weekly plan for middle school and high school, why they meet when they meet, and how she thinks about consistency versus flexibility. Then we zoom out to the bigger summer moments like conferences, serving opportunities, and CIY Move, including how she’s using camp as a launchpad for incoming freshmen and a capstone option for seniors.

The heart of the conversation is follow-up. We talk about testimony nights right after returning, one-on-one and small-group conversations in the weeks that follow, and how to mobilize volunteer leaders so students don’t come home from a “mountaintop experience” and get dropped back into isolation. We also cover long-range planning outside the summer rush, simplifying teaching to create margin, and protecting Sabbath with a church culture that treats rest as obedience, not a luxury.

Subscribe wherever you listen, share this with a youth pastor who’s building their summer calendar, and leave a review with the one summer rhythm you’re committing to this year.

Transcript

Cold Open And Season Finale

SPEAKER_03 0:00

Ouch. There's no H left in me. I pinched it right out. Ouch.

SPEAKER_04 0:04

Ow. You just pinked the H out of yourself.

SPEAKER_03 0:11

That's quick. Well, I'm impressed. Thanks. How quick you're able to pick out the H's. We just totally exclude them.

SPEAKER_04 0:18

I got blood blisters. We can give Ozark the credit for that. Yeah. You're kind of stark. If there's any kind of if there's any kind of life lesson or life skill I learned at Ozark that has stuck with me, it's it's learning to very quickly misinterpret things on purpose. All right, guys.

SPEAKER_02 0:36

Let's let's do this. We are doing it. Save it for the pod. Hi, I'm Brad Warren. This is Beyond the Event, a youth ministry podcast presented by Christ in Youth, where we help you maintain momentum between the mountaintops. This is our final episode.

SPEAKER_03 0:56

Last one. Is it okay that I talked in the intro?

Brad’s Math Victory Story

SPEAKER_02 1:00

Season five. Of course it is. You can talk whenever you want. You outrang me. Uh last episode of season five. Um it has been way more than two weeks, and I apologize for that. Uh, but our last episode that we published was with Tyler Lane. Talked a little bit about how they do their summer programming. Today we're talking to Hannah Hellage, who is at New Life Church. Is that right?

SPEAKER_03 1:23

Love Tyler. Love Hannah.

SPEAKER_02 1:25

New Life. Yeah. Yeah. New Life Church in Colorado Springs, Colorado. And uh before we do anything else, I would like to brag on myself. Can I do that? Of course. I wish you would. Okay. I've never done this before. This is what it's like to like yourself.

SPEAKER_03 1:42

This is crazy. This is what John A. Cuff was talking about.

SPEAKER_02 1:48

Um on our last episode, I was talking to Tyler Lane. You've heard me. What a guy. Um, I get to see him on Monday. Uh and he talked about his attendance during the summer typically dropping off from about 260 students to about 180 students. And I said casually, oh, so like a 30% dip. Just like toss that out. Just toss it out there. I don't know anything about numbers, which I think I said on the episode. I was like, that could be that could be embarrassing how off that is. So nobody checked me on it. And then we made a joke about you know who on staff would know instantly who had like what 180 divided by 260 is. If you were to pick somebody who had to tell you that right now, who would you pick? John Luzetter. No. Ryan Claiborne. Maybe, but no. Oh, I'm out. Joel Yates?

SPEAKER_03 2:44

Oh, yeah, juice box. Juice box. Oh juice box yates. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 2:48

Well, Joel gave me this pink post-it note where he did the math after listening to the episode. And do you know what the actual percentage is? I'm going to go with 30. 30.27%. It's incredible. Nicely done.

SPEAKER_04 3:02

So it's like a 30%. It's like a 30%.

SPEAKER_02 3:05

Rounds down to 30, baby. Nice job. Thank you. I'm quitting to become a mathematician.

SPEAKER_04 3:11

Hey, and shout out a job.

SPEAKER_02 3:12

Shout out to Joel.

SPEAKER_04 3:13

I'm not going to tell him that we chatted him out. He'll get to hear it.

SPEAKER_02 3:16

That's right. Yeah, we love Joel. He yeah, yeah, we do. Is he the kindest person on our staff?

SPEAKER_03 3:22

I mean, he's he is the most akin to a golden retriever on our staff, I think. Which is to say, yes. Yeah. John Luzadder, by the way, John, he was a he's a state champion mathlete in high school.

SPEAKER_02 3:38

Shut up.

SPEAKER_03 3:38

That's actually true. Yeah. So funny. I did not know that. If I gave you four guesses to guess what he has a state ring for from high school, where in that line of four would be now.

SPEAKER_02 3:53

What kind of dog would John Luzadder be?

SPEAKER_03 3:57

Um that's a great question. I w I want to say like a I don't want to give him too much credit. I don't know. I don't know. I need to think about it. I need to go, I need to think. I'm not so familiar with my dog breeds. Like a Scotty dog.

SPEAKER_02 4:14

Like a little Scottish terrier? Yeah. Yeah. I think they're pretty yippy. Are they he's not yippy. He's not really yippy. He's like an English Bulldog.

SPEAKER_03 4:23

Yeah, he's like an English Bulldog, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 4:24

Like he's got that face and then he doesn't talk that often, but when he does, you hear it.

SPEAKER_03 4:28

You hear it.

SPEAKER_02 4:28

You know? And he's always right, just like an English Bulldog.

SPEAKER_03 4:31

Just like an English bulldog. That's what they say about English Bulldogs.

SPEAKER_02 4:34

Um, Lane, it is nearly summer. We are we the we're uh on the cusp. The the summer is nigh, as they say. 100%. Um, and we it has been a tradition. Um, I don't know if you even know this or not, but it has been my tradition to have you on the last episode of every season of this podcast.

SPEAKER_03 4:54

I have not picked up on that.

SPEAKER_02 4:57

Well, that's what I've done. I love it.

SPEAKER_03 5:00

It's an honor for me.

SPEAKER_02 5:01

It's partially because I'm not gonna lie, I get a little bit fried on podcasting. I believe it. Um, by the end of the year. You do a lot of it, yeah. And you're just like the best person to talk to, and it makes it so easy. So thank you for being here. It's my joy. Um I love to do it. This is your what number, summer?

SPEAKER_03 5:19

This is summer number 14 for me.

SPEAKER_02 5:21

14?

SPEAKER_03 5:22

Yeah. Yeah, summer 14.

SPEAKER_02 5:24

What's gonna be different about summer 14 than has ever happened in any other move summer before?

SPEAKER_03 5:30

Um, I don't know that I can speak to any other move summer uh period. Yeah, the other 13. Yeah, yeah. Okay, okay, okay. Um well, certainly um the the fact just the sheer number, uh, we're doing 43 events. Is that all? Yeah, that's all. Uh so 43, which is a sizable jump from where we were. We're doing seven new, seven additional events to what we did last year, but we're doing eight new locations and and and adding locations is more work even than adding events. Uh sorry. So so the team's been really busy like putting all that stuff together, making sure that we've got all those um potholes all uh filled in and smoothed out. And then um, but then also, yeah, which also that's that means we're gonna be north of 50,000 attendees, which is incredible. Um, and just a shout out to youth ministry all over the country that's just like working really hard and doing really great in the way that the Lord is moving in the lives of young people is really, really sweet. So, so just if nothing else, that volume has led to a lot more just like contracted personnel and our team is growing um in that regard in a way that's really sweet, but we feel great about it. Um, like suspiciously good about it, you know? Um, so I'm I'm thrilled. Can't wait.

SPEAKER_02 6:42

Yeah. Um we have like almost 90 full-time staff members.

SPEAKER_03 6:46

Yeah, that's true. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 6:48

That's crazy.

SPEAKER_03 6:48

Yeah. And that's not to mention, I mean, there are, you know, the we'll we'll have 20, I think 20 directors this summer. Um, eleven of those are contracted, 21 assistant directors, 19 of those are contracted. Um, that's not to say anything for the um event coordinators and you know, the amount of contract. I think we're contracting 11 or so um of the 20 uh event coordinators and so production managers. So they're yeah, production managers. So there so there's so many. There's our team is so much bigger than than people that are full-time CIY employees. You know, the team is so much bigger than that. There's um just so many and event staff. Yeah. I mean, they're about to roll in. They're about to roll in eight teams this summer. Our lives are gonna change for yeah that day. Um can say if we've been changed for the better.

SPEAKER_02 7:35

But we have been changed for all I know is I've been changed for good. Yeah. I read that somewhere.

SPEAKER_01 7:39

In a book.

Why CIY Launches Coaching Cohorts

SPEAKER_02 7:41

Proverbs. That sounds right. Yeah, that sounds right. Uh anyway. Um, listen, we're gonna go have a great conversation with Hannah Holage. Um, do you want to talk before we do that? Um, and if you don't, it's okay. We can cut this. I did not, I did not prep you for this. This is this is improv. Okay, great. Um, would you like to talk a little bit about youth ministry coaching?

SPEAKER_03 8:08

Oh, yeah, I would love to. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 8:09

Let's do it. Yeah, so CIY is doing a fun new thing.

SPEAKER_03 8:12

Yeah, CI is doing a fun, fun new thing. I'm I this is something that I've I've wanted us um to be a part of for a long time because if you've been to a CI event in the last couple of years, then you've noticed um probably this kind of increased emphasis on calling young people into vocational ministry, which we believe that God has placed that on our hearts. And so we're trying to be faithful to that calling. I mean, not because we believe that that's like a more important call or a or or anything like that, but simply because there's so many people speaking into the lives of young people and telling them, hey, you should consider this field or this field or this field. And so we're saying we want to affirm those things and say, yes, you should consider those fields. Here's another field that people might not be talking to you about, but we think that some of you should consider this as well. And so um, we wanna, we wanna talk to them about that. But one of the reasons that we're doing that is because there's been, there's there is such a need for it in in churches right now, all across the country and indeed all across the world. And so we want young people to consider this. One of the reasons there's a need for it is because the back door is wide open. There's so many people um leaving the ministry. There's a very high percentage of people who are retiring and not a very large number of people who are taking their place and all of these things.

SPEAKER_02 9:25

And so and people leaving like what I'll call prematurely. I know people have a lot of good reasons to do that. But yeah.

SPEAKER_03 9:33

Yeah, some of it's a tri you can attribute a lot of it to like burnout and all kinds of different things. And so, um, and so my my heart has been um, you know, that we would have these events uh that uh, and I don't know if we need if we'll get to keep this or not, but I call them CBD um uh uh initiatives.

SPEAKER_02 9:51

We already got the explicit tag on our last episode. Oh, did we? Yeah, I said something sucks, and apparently that gets explicit.

SPEAKER_03 9:57

That'll do it. Okay. Well, that I I I I mean um close the back door is what I mean by CBD. And so I just want to do things to increase the health and longevity of ministries. So that's why we do things like Wilderness and the Falls, why we do things like Youth Ministry Summit um in January. And new to that lineup of things that we're doing is youth ministry coaching. So we're super excited about doing this. There, there have been times when we've been resistant to stepping into that world simply because we wanted to um we didn't want to come across as telling um telling ministers and youth pastors and children, telling them what to do as somebody from a parachurch organization. And so instead, what we've decided to do is we've designed some kind of curriculum, some, some setup, um, some systems. And then we've got um some youth ministry practitioners that we love and trust that have been doing it for a long time, and they're coming alongside us as coaches. And so, yeah, first group launches um here in just about a week, uh, May one, and then um we're kind of beta testing it this year. Second group launches um this fall. Um, those are six month cohorts. Uh how big are the uh like kind of depends on how many people sign up, but uh, but probably a maximum of 12 um of 12 people.

SPEAKER_02 11:10

And there uh is it designed that those 12 or 13 people, if you include the facilitator, would like interact quite a bit with each other, or is it kind of like one-on-one, more more one-on-one stuff with the facilitator?

SPEAKER_03 11:23

It is it is both. Okay. So, so yeah, so there'd be a once-a-month um group uh meeting where you kind of like work through the general material. And then um there's because based on every member will fill out an intake form ahead of time to get to know the needs of like their context and everything else. And so then you will also each participant will have a one-on-one, a monthly one-on-one with the coach that is that is highly contextualized to your areas of strength or the areas where you can grow, or specifically to some different um pain points within your ministry. Um, and then there'll be a kind of like a physical gathering that happens with that group within the six months as well, um, as well as some just kind of like exclude exclusive things from CIY. So I'm thrilled about uh I'm I'm really, really excited about this. I think that it has a ton of potential.

SPEAKER_02 12:10

Yeah, I do too. I'm excited about it. This sounds awesome, Lane. How do I sign up?

SPEAKER_03 12:14

You can go to CIY.com slash coaching.

SPEAKER_02 12:19

I don't know if that's right. Can you can you check that, Pycole? Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 12:22

Um and and and there, there you can get a little bit more info there. You can um you can find a place where you can contact me directly from that um space, and you can have uh and there's a link to register there as well.

SPEAKER_04 12:32

Yep. Straight ahead. I see a register now button.

SPEAKER_02 12:36

CI.com slash coaching. Um there I don't want this to get too like marketing y, but I do want to like have this conversation. Like there are lots of other people out there that do this kind of thing. What is the secret sauce of CIY coaching? I know we're still like, you know, we're trying this out, we're figuring it out a little bit, but like what do you think this brings to the table that makes it unique? That might make uh me as a youth pastor who, you know, little flyers cross my desk for this kind of thing all the time. I talk to somebody at every conference I go to about coaching this, coaching that. Like, why should my you know, ears perk up for this? Good question. I don't know. Yeah, I know it's a good question.

SPEAKER_03 13:32

Um I I think there's I think there's a few things. One one of them is um one of them is just like the decades long um or I'm gonna say I'm gonna say it this way, the decades deep roots that CIY has in the youth ministry, in the youth ministry world. Um so so we're so CIY has been so well connected to the goings-ons of youth ministry for a long time that we've been able to see trends and ebbs and flows that kind of factor into what we do and what we see coming in the next few years. In addition to that, um we're we're working really hard with a group with some other groups of people, Barna doing some exclusive studies uh with Barna to really do a better job understanding the needs of of generations and not just generations um that are coming up, but also the people who are working with those generations. So understanding um better how to how to do those things and maybe hopefully have some more fruitful um ministries. But then in addition to that, we're we're taking all of that data and what we're trying to do is we're trying to compile that into a really solid philosophy of youth ministry that we think is biblically um is is biblically aligned, um, is aligned with the heart of Jesus and is very um and is very um on point for what we're seeing happening in in these generations and and everything else. So um yeah, there's more that I could say about that, but I but I don't want to jump into all that just yet.

SPEAKER_02 15:04

Okay. Great. Well, thanks for giving us um a little information. I can't wait to C B D with you, Lane.

SPEAKER_03 15:11

I cannot wait to C BD with you either, Brad, and with you, Michael.

SPEAKER_02 15:14

Do you want to talk about its partner class, THC?

SPEAKER_03 15:17

No, I don't think we're there yet.

SPEAKER_02 15:22

Theological honing course.

SPEAKER_03 15:25

Theological honing course. That's right. Yep.

SPEAKER_02 15:27

It's more brainy. Um let's do Mike Dub.

SPEAKER_04 15:32

Great. One last time. One last time. We got two parts. Here's the first part. I saw a headline in March, okay? Um, and I'm gonna pose this as a question. Um Wendy's is looking for a chief tasting officer. Okay. This headline does tell me what Wendy's is offering to pay, but I'm gonna withhold that information. I want to ask you if your full-time job was to be the chief tasting officer at Wendy's, how much do you think your palate is worth?

SPEAKER_03 16:08

Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_02 16:09

Is it first of all, my health insurance premium better be covered and it better be good.

SPEAKER_03 16:15

Yeah, that's right. Are we talking about salary? Like, is this like a salary position? I think so. I bet they're paying$90,000 a year. I mean, I think I got a$200,000 palette. Okay. I'm not saying that I'm not saying that that's what they're paying.

SPEAKER_04 16:29

I'm just saying that that's I think that's the that's the question I'm really asking. Yeah. I don't want to I don't want to know what you think they're paying. I want you to tell me what you think you want to power. I I it's fixed. Zero. Lefty Lucy. For the listener, Blaine was fidgeting with his uh next fan. And it fell on the shirt.

SPEAKER_02 16:50

Zero dollars. Zero dollars. Yeah, just pay me that little thing. Just give me the food. You would do it for free.

SPEAKER_03 16:57

You don't think you're very good at it. No, I I wouldn't the question is not how much would you take to do it? The question yeah, the question is how like how much do you trust your palate? How refined is it for you to be able to give like what high how how what how good of a contributor in the feedback loop are you?

SPEAKER_02 17:13

Yeah. Uh wherever the poverty line is, just like a little bit above that. Oh, okay.$26,000. I don't know.

SPEAKER_04 17:20

Man. Is the line that low?

SPEAKER_02 17:22

I don't have any idea.

SPEAKER_04 17:23

Is it terrible that I feel like it's that low or or is it terrible that I would I don't know.

SPEAKER_03 17:28

I don't know. What's your what what what's your number? I'm not not what is the actual number, what's your number?

SPEAKER_04 17:32

So when I first saw this, I I immediately turned like started this conversation with whoever I was hanging out with. And I don't exactly remember off the top of my head what I said. I think I think I had said 120,000. Yeah, that yeah. Because it's not necessarily that I think I have the most refined or or sure tuned, you know, palette out there, but there's also just the the the responsibility of being the chief tasting officer and having to like carry those decisions and everything. It's like I need I need to feel like you trust me. That's right. You know, absolutely, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 18:05

Poverty line's$33,000. Okay. So I would make$33,000 and$500.

SPEAKER_04 18:12

Yeah. Yeah. Okay. I yeah. So okay, so$33,500 from Brad.

SPEAKER_02 18:20

$200,000 from Lane.

SPEAKER_04 18:21

$200 from Lane,$120 from me. Do you want to know what they're actually paying? I do.$100,000. I was pretty close. You were pretty close. Yeah. I with especially with chief and officer being in the title, you would think it was quite a bit higher.

SPEAKER_03 18:34

Yeah, I agree. Yeah. I agree. And and here's the deal. Like, I I don't know. Oh, I don't know what's on in, you know, do I is this like uh chew it up, spit it in a bucket situation. They have a spittoon.

SPEAKER_04 18:44

Yeah, they have a spit the windy spittoon. Maybe maybe they're modeling it after the McDonald's CEO and like and like just the tiniest little nibbles. Yeah, right. It's like it's like we're not giving you that much food, dude.

SPEAKER_03 18:56

Yeah. Right. Do you have to chief tasting officer is amazing though? I mean, you're like, there's not that many of them. It makes me think though. I just read a book on like poisoning in like royal courts, like in like the history of it or whatever. And it makes me it, it, you know. He saw a TikTok. I didn't. I read a whole book. It's called The Royal Art of Poison. It's crazy.

SPEAKER_04 19:14

Dang.

SPEAKER_03 19:15

Yeah. Did you know credenzas are actually named after like the having a credenza in your living in your dining room or whatever? It's named after the poison testing that was like known to happen on them. I can't remember like the I can't remember what that term is. I did know that, yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 19:28

I did not know that.

SPEAKER_03 19:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 19:29

No, of course I didn't know that.

SPEAKER_04 19:30

Oh, I was like, oh, am I the only one? Was that common knowledge? Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 19:34

Uh credenza is a good word.

Food Stops For Event Travel

SPEAKER_04 19:37

Um okay, interesting, interesting, interesting. Um here's the here's the second part. This is actually a um a re-up of a of a mic'd up conversation that we had a few episodes ago that that Brad said this would be a great one to have with Lane. Um, and travel season is coming up. We will have a lot of people at um events around the country. Um, and sometimes we just want to find a good place to eat. And Lane, I want to hear what some of your food recommendations are from some locations. I have I have maybe some ideas of like locations if you have some off the top of your head. But like we have a high concentration in places like bowling green, Holland, Michigan, um Southern California.

SPEAKER_02 20:20

What's the poly eyes place in bowling green call?

SPEAKER_04 20:22

Yeah, but you nailed it poly eyes.

SPEAKER_02 20:24

But it's like something poly eyes.

SPEAKER_03 20:26

Oh, I don't know. I don't know. I don't know, but it's Tennessee. In Tennessee. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 20:31

So I haven't been to that.

SPEAKER_02 20:32

That's in Bowling Green.

SPEAKER_04 20:33

No, sorry, I'm just I'm saying I'm just saying we have tons of people in those areas. Sorry. How efficient could be able to do that.

SPEAKER_02 20:39

So like Lane, Lane, the reason I thought you'd be good at this is you're the ultimate like when I go to this city, I want to eat this thing guy. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 20:47

Yeah. I have a lot of the I do have a lot of those.

SPEAKER_02 20:50

So just it doesn't have to be too scientific. You have to forgive me to the communication goes.

SPEAKER_03 20:54

Yeah, you have to forgive me because I don't I already forgiven. I a lot of them I don't have like the names to. I just have to be like, hey, what was that one place that I you know what I mean? And I have to go to that. So I I'll tell you my I'll tell you what is like an all-time favorite for me, and it's in none of those places that you mentioned.

SPEAKER_04 21:06

Yep, yep, yep.

SPEAKER_03 21:06

Um it is. Yeah, you do. Yeah. So there's a place in uh out in Newport, Oregon that we go to every year whenever we're in Corvallis, we drive out to um Newport for a day. And there's a place called Local Ocean um there in the harbor that is just um the most spectacular fresh seafood. It's unbelievable. Um and I I have had more I've taken a lot of people to this place and I've had more than one uh person in their, you know, in their 20s or 30s look at me, you know, after having and just be like, I didn't know it could be like this. You know, it is just it is, I'm telling you, it is absolutely incredible. They have like this like peach halibut dish that's amazing. Kind of my go to is this thing called the fishwife stew, which is really just kind of the kitchen sink. There's everything in that, and it is uh it that place is special. Um uh bowling green, Ohio, uh, yeah, the poly eyes place. Campus poly eyes. Campus poly eyes, thank you. They have pizza tubes that are basically just cal zones. They're mini cal zones, basically. Oh mini? Well, yeah. Yeah, I mean, it's plenty of food. It's a lot of food. It's a lot of food. And boy, uh, you regret it afterwards. But during, you're real happy with your choices in life that you've made because they are they are fantastic. They're spectacular. There's also what's the coffee shop in Bowling Green?

unknown 22:31

Oh.

SPEAKER_03 22:31

I've not been to Bowling Green.

SPEAKER_02 22:32

The one like kind of downtown. Downtown on the right. Yes.

SPEAKER_03 22:36

I can't remember the name of it off the top of my head. It's very good. It's fantastic coffee. The guy that was in there that was that that owned it the last time I was in there, he had his like uh eight-year-old son in there with him, like slinging coffee. And this kid was the coolest.

SPEAKER_04 22:48

And then they also had a but they had I almost guarantee you if you're gonna be at Bowling Green this summer when you go to registr to to or not registration, sorry, to check in on check-in day. Um I almost guarantee whether it's the EC or the director or hospitality, they're gonna know whoever. They're if you say, hey, what's the what's the coffee place?

SPEAKER_03 23:06

Yeah, they will probably know. They're gonna know. And it is, it's uh they have a they have a scone there. Um that's an scone, thank you. They have a scon. It's an old-fashioned scone. And it is and it's and it's not but it not old fashioned, like old-fashioned style, like old-fashioned, like the cocktail, it's inspired by the cocktail, so it's like orange and like a little cherry and a little bitters, and it is just fantastic. But that's really good coffee, really good pour over and a delicious scone.

SPEAKER_01 23:34

Um I mean, I need to think where's some where some if you uh let's see. Where do you usually go? You gotta buy a lola. Yeah, I gotta buy a lola.

SPEAKER_04 23:52

Um there's a there's a place that I went to on the recommendation of Louie Black Out. Um this past summer. It's called Joy. Um It was was some variety of Asian. I I do not remember. Uh off the top of my head, I'm gonna have to pull it up and find it. Taiwanese. It is Taiwanese food. It was very, very good.

SPEAKER_03 24:28

Yeah, so I went to a um I went to uh to a place in when it last so my neighbors before we lived in uh before we moved um eight years ago or so, the other house we lived in Joplin, our neighbors moved to Joplin to open like a Thai restaurant. They're from uh they're from Thailand, they're from Bangkok originally, and um so they lived in LA for a few years and then they moved to Joplin and opened up a great restaurant here in Joplin. Um but so whenever I was going out to LA when I was going to Biola a couple years ago, um my neighbor Nope is his name, and he was like, Hey, the best Thai food um that I have had in the States so far is in like Thai town in uh in in LA, like in like Hollywood area. You gotta go. So I went out and I Ubered straight from the airport to this Thai restaurant. It was in uh it was in like a strip mall, and I went in there and um there's nothing, it's very it was very small. There's uh n nothing on the menu is in English. Um, but he told me that I was supposed to get the crispy pork. And so I was able to kind of communicate with the server well enough to communicate that I wanted crispy pork. And they asked me um how hot do I want it? And I said medium. No. And she looked at me and said, Are you sure? And I said, Yeah. And she said, Too hot for you. We'll do mild. And and and she saved my life. Praise the Lord. It was so good.

SPEAKER_02 26:04

It was so that's gonna that create some reflection.

SPEAKER_03 26:11

Okay. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 26:12

Like, what is it about me that prevents a mild?

SPEAKER_03 26:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 26:16

I think I think it's just the skin tone.

SPEAKER_03 26:18

She tapped it was. I it was, and I was the only person of said skin tone uh sk said skin tone that was hard to say in the restaurant. But it was so funny. She just she held her pad of paper and looked at me and tapped her pad of her pad of paper a couple times and then pointed her pencil at me and just went, too hot for you. We'll do mild. And uh and oh my gosh, it was spectacular food though. It was so, so good. Amazing. It was awesome.

SPEAKER_02 26:40

I it reminds me of Ted Lasso when he goes to the uh the idea place.

SPEAKER_03 26:44

Uh yeah, season one. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He was like, I want to make it just like you'd make it for your family. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 26:50

Um Flatlands, I think, is the coffee place. Flatlands, right. Flatlands is that right? Yep, that's the one. Anyway. Yep. Uh all right, lovely. I am I'm antsy. I'm excited to go talk to Hannah. So are you ready to make that happen? Can't wait.

SPEAKER_03 27:05

Okay, let's love talking to Hannah.

SPEAKER_02 27:10

Hannah Hellwich, thanks for being here.

SPEAKER_00 27:13

Thanks for having me.

SPEAKER_02 27:15

Oh my gosh. This is gonna be so fun. I love talking to you. I love your little brain. Wow. And not little. Yeah. Just a little bit. Why would you take that like that? No, like L-I-L. I love Lil Wayne. He's not well, he's little.

SPEAKER_00 27:30

Yeah, like my rap name. Yeah, Lil Brain.

SPEAKER_02 27:33

Lil' Lil Brain. Lil Brains with the Z. That's right. Anyway, um last episode of the season, baby. We're cutting loose. Yes. Okay. Um, Hannah, you are in beautiful sunny Colorado today. Yes. I am. Yes. Um, and I want you to tell us a little bit about, let's just start here. You're in a unique church situation. Would love for you to just tell us what that is. Um and then we can rock and roll. We'll just kind of see where it goes. Okay. We're going to talk about summer programming, but first I want to know what your life is like at church.

SPEAKER_00 28:12

Yeah. Yeah. Sounds great. I am a part of a multi-congregational church, which is where I put on my church model snobbery hat and say it's not the same as multi-campus, um, but it actually isn't the same as multi-campus. So I'm part of a church that has six congregations.

SPEAKER_05 28:31

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 28:31

Um, each congregation is a different size, slightly different flavor. They're all within Colorado Springs where I live. Um, but different from a multi-campus model, we have a lot of autonomy as different congregations. So we pretty much just share uh centralized operations. Like we all have one HR department, we all have one logo and you know, some things like that.

SPEAKER_02 28:54

But otherwise you have live teaching at your campus and everything. We have live teaching at every at your every congregation.

SPEAKER_00 29:01

Yeah, yeah. I won't, I won't be a snob about it, I promise. But I mean, I'm yeah, each congregation has we all have live teaching, so we're never streaming anywhere. Um, I mean, we stream to like our YouTube channel, but um, we're not streaming from one location to the other ones on Sunday mornings.

SPEAKER_02 29:18

Yeah, you know, in our staff's uh fellowship down in Bentonville. They do stream, yeah. Like I don't I know I haven't heard a lot about this, but yeah, it is kind of cool.

SPEAKER_00 29:27

Yeah. Um yeah, it's a cool model. It makes it like a family of churches where we we have a lot of autonomy, but we also do some things together and can share resources and that kind of thing. So yeah.

SPEAKER_02 29:37

So what does that how does that play out in youth ministry world? Like you are one of one of five can one of five congregations, is that right?

SPEAKER_00 29:47

I think we're one of six congregations, but one of the congregations does not have a student ministry. Okay. So there are five other youth ministries represented in the in the church family. Um, so that's kind of helpful. I have counterparts at all the other congregations to bounce ideas off of and to process things and to plan events with. So sometimes we'll do joint events, just two congregations at a time or three congregations at a time. Other times we'll do big events where everybody is involved. Um, and that makes for some pretty good idea sharing and resource sharing and that kind of thing. Um, but yeah, so in youth ministry, more than anything, like because each congregation has autonomy, I get to decide for the congregation that I'm a part of as a youth pastor. We get to make our own decisions about what our summers look like and what our school years look like. And we're not um, we're not like all on the same teaching calendar. Um, we don't all meet at the same time throughout the week. So there are some students in our city who will like come to my youth group on a Sunday night. High school youth group is Sunday night for us, and then they'll go to another congregation's youth group on a Wednesday night and just double dip throughout the week, which is great. There are worse things to do twice a week than go to church, especially if you're a high school student. Um, so yeah, so there's a good amount of autonomy to figure out what what rhythms work best for the families that I serve.

SPEAKER_02 31:07

And so when you're like when you're strolling into work in the morning, do you feel like I am the youth pastor at my church? Or do you feel like you're like part of a a bigger team? Like which of those things more often do you like feel? Which this has nothing to do with what we're talking about, but I'm just really context, right? Lane will Lane's smart, he'll figure out a way to tie it all together. It's gonna be hard.

SPEAKER_00 31:39

He'll tie it in, yeah, yeah. Um and then call it to like a special offering, it'll be great. Yeah, right. You got it. Um, I would say it probably depends on the day and depends on the season, but for the most part, I it's probably like a 5-15 split where 85% of the time, I'm like, I am the youth pastor for my congregation. I'm also because we're one of the smaller congregations, it is only me where some of the other ones have multiple people on their youth staff. Um, our largest congregation has, I think like seven full-time people on their student ministry staff alone. And ours is just quite a bit smaller. So it's only me. So most days it's like, it's me, gotta make some decisions today. Should probably call some people and see if my ideas are stupid and see what their thoughts are and make sure it's all gonna work. Um regularly. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, if you could hit me back, that'd be great. Um, but yeah, most days, most days it's like that. And then if we are putting together something that is more of a shared experience or a cross-congregational experience, then I feel more like I'm part of a team. So that comes into play more so in the summer when we do more of our combined stuff. And I'm like, oh, okay, great. Uh it doesn't all ride on my shoulders for this event to happen. Um, so I do appreciate those days, but they're not the majority.

SPEAKER_03 32:56

I do love that. And what one of the things that I love about being able to have the autonomy and stuff for teaching calendars and and everything else, though, is because one of one of my favorite things, you know, whenever I'm, you know, doing things at at my at my church here in in Joplin as well, you know, where I just preach this past Sunday. And, you know, a major part of that sermon prep and everything else is just asking, like, Lord, what do you have for like this group of people and being able to know that group of people? And so, you know, your of course your teaching halls are different. So are your school calendars? You're doing different, you have different school districts, you have different, you know, all kinds of different things. So yeah, what works uh, you know, at one campus isn't necessarily what needs to be happening at the other one and everything. Uh so I love the autonomy. Sorry, congregation. I love the autonomy. It's really for being for being able to do it. No, I'm gonna do it cong uh congregampus, I think is what I'm gonna stick with. Congregampus. Okay, yeah. Camp camprigation.

SPEAKER_02 33:48

Yeah, I know.

SPEAKER_03 33:49

Yeah, I don't know. Well, but I I I I just adore that. I think that's really sweet. Yeah. And I also think, you know, I think there's a lot of really great ways to do um, you know, multi-congregation, multi-site, multi-you, I think there's a lot of really great ways to do it. So I don't mean to like disparage one or the other, but I do think that there's something about having live teaching at a church and things like that that tends to, I think does a um maybe more naturally uh incites the imagination of a young person towards like what could God be calling me into. Um, I think that there's just something about that, you know, having some having somebody in front of you and everything else. And of course, we have a lot of really great friends um and you know, some brothers and sisters that are doing it in a different way and doing satellite teaching and things like that. And I think it's great. And it seems to be like working well and the you know the word of God is sinking deeply into the hearts of people there and stuff, which is awesome. Um, but I do, but I do love this. I think it's cool.

SPEAKER_02 34:47

Um real quick. You preached on Sunday? I did. I asked Kelly, your wife, who works alongside me. The wonderful Kelly. Um She said you're not allowed to say that. I don't know. There she said you called her the wonderful Kelly twice on stage, and that it was one time too many. I didn't say the wonderful Kelly. Oh. It's like the Wizard of Oz.

SPEAKER_03 35:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 35:11

I asked her to give me an honest critique of your sermon. Would you like to know what she said?

SPEAKER_03 35:17

Yeah, I've I she's probably given it to me too.

SPEAKER_02 35:19

So no, she said honestly, one of my favorites.

SPEAKER_03 35:22

Oh.

SPEAKER_00 35:23

Oh. Yeah, that's so nice.

SPEAKER_02 35:24

And that was it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 35:25

That was different than what I thought he was gonna say.

SPEAKER_03 35:27

She actually did she actually did tell me that though. She actually did say that was on my favorites. That's very sweet of her.

SPEAKER_02 35:33

Um okay, anyway. We are gonna talk today, Hannah, about summer. Uh which is like is it's happening. Uh I mean it is here.

SPEAKER_00 35:43

It's it's tomorrow, basically.

SPEAKER_02 35:46

For us, it is yesterday. Um it's crazy.

SPEAKER_00 35:50

It's between yesterday and tomorrow.

SPEAKER_02 35:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 35:53

Nice.

Summer Youth Group Rhythm

SPEAKER_02 35:54

Thanks. It hurts to think about. Um can't wait. Yeah, no, it's gonna be super fun. I'm super excited. This is my uh favorite time of year when everything gets exciting and awesome and comes to fruition, and it's wonderful. Different like it's a different thing for our friends in the local church, and it's a different thing for each of our friends in the local church because summer holds uh different challenges, I think, um regionally and just like depending on different aspects of like context and the culture of the congregation and all kinds of different things. And so everybody has like a different solution to how do we do programming during the summer? Uh like five weeks ago or something, we talked to Tyler Lane from Valley Real Life uh in spoke in Washington, and he's like, We rock it through the summer, we pretty much let it ride. Uh, regular programming, you know, they'll do a couple different things, but he's like, I want my students to just have some consistency, and for him in his context, that's great. What I want to know is for you, in your context, when you start thinking about summer, kids are gonna go through a radical change, obviously, from being in school to not being in school. Um how does New Life adapt or not adapt to that change?

SPEAKER_00 37:17

Yeah. Um, for the most part, I'm team Tyler on this. Like we've got we've got more time during the summer than we do during the school year, so let's use it. Um I've been a part of churches before, um, or had friends who work at churches before where that's not the culture and they they don't do anything in the summer and they're and then they wonder in the fall why it's so hard to get their students um back into youth ministry, let alone even if they can physically get them there to get them back into the groove of this is how we do youth ministry and this is what this is supposed to look like. Um, and I've just never really understood that. So yeah, we we are a full steam ahead. We do more during the summer than we do during the school year, by and large, because for us regionally, students are way more available in the summer than they are during the school year. I mean, obviously because school is out, but even beyond that, um, a lot of my students play competitive sports or are in like theater groups that are all taking a break for the summer, which is really convenient. And so the students that I would normally see because Yeah, I know that's not the case everywhere, but um, but yeah, out here, I mean, I'm I'm in a season right now. We're recording this in April where some of my most bought-in families, I will see them maybe once every eight weeks because of travel tournaments for soccer or flag footballs picking up and you know, all of that kind of stuff. Um, let alone if they're the kind of students that are in yeah, the theater world. Things can get really busy when they're preparing for a show, but those are only happening during the school year. So for some reason, everything kind of seems to settle down around here, um, let alone they're also then out of school. So students just have a lot more capacity and a lot more availability. And I'm certainly not trying to absorb or stay claim on all of that availability that they have. I think it's good for students to learn how to be bored in the summer and like maybe, I don't know, read a book or build a fort in the park with your friends and maybe get in trouble. I don't know. Do do do kid things, like be a child while you're while you're still a child. Um, but I like having more opportunities in the summer, um, knowing that it's less of a burden on students and their families to participate. So for the most part, what our summers will look like, we'll take a break at the beginning. Timeout.

SPEAKER_02 39:39

Timeout, timeout, timeout, time out time, time, time out. Can we get a baseline? Like what is normal programming during the school year? Yes. Just to help, just like to help me understand how it changes. I would love to know what's normal.

SPEAKER_00 39:53

Yeah. So normal is we have a um, I oversee sixth through twelfth grade ministry at my church. So we do middle school ministry, uh, middle school youth group is every Sunday morning. It's during one of our two morning services because my middle schoolers can't drive, and that is when they have physically shown up at the church building. So might as well. Um, they're also a menace to the adult service um when they are not in a developmentally uh designed, developmentally appropriate and designed space. So middle school youth group is during one of our morning services pretty much every week, except for major holidays, and we'll take like a winter break um for a few weeks around the Christmas time. Um, and then high school ministry for us is on Sunday evenings. So it used to be on Wednesday nights, but we're running into so many sports conflicts and school conflicts. Um, again, with primarily travel competitive soccer and musical theater. That is the name of the game out here in Colorado Springs. Those are the things that's so apparently everyone and their mother is doing.

SPEAKER_02 40:55

So yeah, here it's show choir. So my like when I was growing up, I didn't even know that was a thing. My my show choir? Yeah, like I don't think we had that. Uh huh. And here it's like oh yeah, I have to go for my girlfriend's show choir competition. Like, I it's so weird.

SPEAKER_03 41:13

My my 14-year-old, my 14-year-old had a soccer game last night, and he is Peter Pan in uh in a production of Peter Pan uh this weekend. So on Friday and Saturday. So yeah, so soccer. So there you go. He would fit right in. Yeah, fit right in. Yeah, Colorado Springs to his bones.

SPEAKER_00 41:31

There you go.

SPEAKER_03 41:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 41:33

Yeah. So so any weeknight was not working for us. It was on Wednesdays, but as I kind of started to have conversations about that, we ended up moving it to Sunday nights because I mean it's like five to seven on a Sunday. So they still have time afterwards to cram in that essay before it's due the next day if need be. Um, but it's and it's yeah, typically not encroaching on my family's rhythm. So that's our regular pattern throughout the year is weekly youth group for both of those age groups. Um, we do a spring retreat, we'll have some like kind of random one-off seasonal things, like we'll all go bowling or during spring break, we had a movie night um kind of thing. So we'll do random little things like that, but those are more so community building and fun spaces, unless there isn't like a sermon developed for that kind of thing. So our school year is relatively mild in terms of programming because there's not a ton of capacity for my students. So then when the summer hits, it's like, all right, we are gonna pack a lot in because you're not preparing to be in a show. You're not, you're unless you're like on a really elite team, you're not traveling for your sport during the summer, you don't have homework, summer school is not really much of a thing here. Whereas that was a big thing when I was a youth pastor in Southern California. Everyone did summer school. It wasn't just like you failed a class and you do summer school. Like you did summer school to get ahead. You did summer school just because you could. And so that's not a culture I have to work against here. Just I know, right? Southern California. Like, what do you mean?

SPEAKER_02 43:03

That's what I think of when I think of Southern California. Just a bunch of nerds, just dweebs out there.

Camps Conferences And Attendance

SPEAKER_00 43:11

Uh so yeah, so our summer, we maintain weekly youth group. Um, we'll take a break at the beginning of the summer, we'll take one weekend off at the beginning of the summer. Typically, school out here gets done um the week before Memorial Day, uh, which is also wild to me. Like I grew up in a state where you got done in mid-June. So, so we typically take Memorial Day weekend off. It's a holiday weekend anyway. People start to travel and do stuff, whatever. So that becomes a family Sunday. There's no kids ministry or student ministry for church that Sunday. We kind of do one big altogether summer kickoff situation that gives my volunteers a break as well. Um, but then for the meat of the summer, we'll have youth group every week. Um, and because it's on Sundays, for us, it doesn't overlap with any camp or kind of special events that are happening during the week. So we'll maintain youth group each week. And then we'll take a break, a two-week break at the end of our summer to give families just a little bit more space and one less thing on their calendar as they are all heading back to school. And all of our schools start within the same two-week period here, kind of mid to early August. So we end up having like an eight or nine-week summer, uh weekly youth group. Um, my church hosts a huge middle school and high school conference every summer, like three to four thousand people. It's at our church. Um, it is an overnight for everybody but our church to speak to our earlier conversation. But um, it's basically like a 15-hour-a-day day camp for middle schoolers and high schoolers, and it's a lot of fun, but that's a huge effort. So that's a big thing that happens in July. This year for the first time, we're taking high school students to move. Woo woo. Woo woo.

SPEAKER_02 44:51

What's that?

SPEAKER_00 44:52

DIY move. Yeah, you know it, you love it. It's your job.

SPEAKER_03 44:56

You know it is to know it is to love it.

SPEAKER_02 44:59

That's to know it is to love it. Oh, I'm so excited. I know me too. Okay, can't wait.

SPEAKER_00 45:04

We'll do that. Um, our students serve at our R VBS, our kids' camp each summer. So between those three things, like that's three weeks of June and July. That if you sign up for all three, one as a volunteer and then going to a sleepaway camp and then going to this conference that we host, like that's a lot of your summer. Um, so then around that, we kind of just sprinkle in like random stuff for touch points with students. Like, so I end up having kind of office hours, if you will, where I'll let students know, like, hey, every Monday in June, I'm gonna be at this Starbucks from 12 to 4.

SPEAKER_01 45:41

Love it.

SPEAKER_00 45:42

You know, and maybe I'll bring like a deck of Uno cards or something and just see like who shows up. And if nobody shows up, then I'm just working at a coffee shop and it's fine. Um, but kind of picking a rhythm and posting up somewhere is something that I like to do. Give students the opportunity to just like come and hang for a little bit, or sometimes they'll be out with their families and their families will come and say hi, and that's great. Just little touch points like that. Um, and then typically I'll give families the opportunity to host things throughout the summer, too. Like, do you want to host a pool party? Do you want to host a movie night? Do you want to host a kickball tournament in the park that's down the street from you or whatever? And so a lot of families will jump on that as well. Not a lot of people have pools in Colorado, though. That is a big change from my Southern California days.

SPEAKER_02 46:25

It does snow eight months out of the day. It does snow here. Yeah. Um, it's true. What is like what does engagement look like? Like in your normal Sunday programming, do you see a little bit of a drop-off or not really? And then how how how does engagement look at these kind of other things that you're talking about? I mean, I know move or like setting a baseline this year, so you can kind of ignore that one, but the other pieces that you're talking about.

SPEAKER_00 46:52

Yeah. Um, I would say for our regular weekly youth group spaces, the engagement is a little higher in the summer, even with a lot of my families will like go camping. We're Colorado people, so we we love outside. Outside is a good place to us. So a lot of my families will do camping trips or um national park trips or whatever throughout the summer. But even with any kind of family travel factored in, I tend to see more students in the summer um than I do during the school year because there's not as many extracurricular other activities um going on. And so when when families are in town, they're at church versus during the school year, if they're in town, they might not be at church because they're at X, Y, or Z activity for their child. Um, so that engagement is pretty similar, if not a little bit higher during the summer. Um, for the big conference that we host, um, like you said, we haven't been to move yet. This is our first summer, not my first summer, but our students for summer. So we'll see how many end up coming and I'm sure they'll love it. Um, but for the conference that we host, I see a pretty decent amount. I almost see more students that that can go to a one-time event, special event like that, than I do my average weekly attendance. So the congregation that I'm at is relatively small. I'll see between middle school and high school about 30 students a week total between those two groups, um, which is a big change from my last church, but we're growing, we're doing it. It's happening. Um, but for example, even with a weekly average of about 30, I think I brought like 37 of them to the conference last summer. So more of them tend to check in for those special events that are only happening one time a year and they don't want to be the one kid that missed it.

SPEAKER_02 48:37

Um I think I think we're starting to see that more across the board. I think a lot of churches bring more people to move than like what their like I'm just thinking of C Clay averages. Way more than what their weekly average is to move. And which is kind of cool. I don't know. Anyway, yeah. I've been w what are you thinking about, Lane?

SPEAKER_03 48:56

Well, no, I I well, I mean, specifically with regards to that, I think that that is this is a total uh uh side side kind of tangent. But it's good, it's uh I think it's a well worth the energy of uh youth pastors and youth ministry teams to go, okay, well, if that's the case, if we're gonna bring more these kinds of things, then how does that what then what role does this event play in our youth ministry calendar? And how can we use it to, you know, as as a catalyst, as kind of like a launching pad for making sure that it's not just an extra thing that we do? It's not just uh you know, it's not just this like extracurricular one-off like crazy thing, but rather no, this is this plays a uh a deeply rooted role in the ministry calendar so that um it serves as kind of like a springboard uh for for attendance and for you know all those other things.

SPEAKER_02 49:46

Were you consciously trying not to use the word momentum there?

SPEAKER_03 49:50

I wasn't. I wasn't.

SPEAKER_02 49:51

I I just kept expecting it. I was like, he's gonna say momentum, and then it never happened.

SPEAKER_03 49:56

It's like Pee-Wee Herman, like you're in Pee-wee's playoffs as like the word of the day. Like everybody like freaks out. Oh man.

Follow-Up That Extends Mountaintops

SPEAKER_02 50:03

Uh so to Lane's point though, like let's talk about that. These things should have a defined role, right, in our in our ministry scope. That's the question.

SPEAKER_00 50:14

That's the question. Yeah, sorry.

SPEAKER_02 50:16

I didn't I didn't really land the plane there, but uh talk now.

SPEAKER_03 50:21

Yes, and now I now I speak. Yeah. Well, it's not your own. Do you want to say more or do you want me to jump off that? Well that's not so I know I know that I know that this is the first this is the first year, again, this has been well established, but this is the first year for the church that you're currently serving at um to to come to MOOC, but it's not yours. Um A, because you've been a speaker at MOOC for a number of years, but also because you've led groups of students to to move before. So did did was that a thing like was there some intentionality about the role that that played within like the scope of the calendar or the what you know the um ministry strategy, or was it just kind of like no, we just kind of use it as a let me ask you this. Was it did you all view your summer as kind of like a conclusion? Was move kind of like a conclusion to a year of ministry, or was it the beginning of a year of ministry, or was there, or did you even bother making that distinction?

SPEAKER_00 51:08

Yeah, um, I don't think I did previously, but this year, based on the dates that we're going, I really see it as a start of a ministry season. Um, the week we're going to is the week of like June 15th.

SPEAKER_01 51:22

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 51:23

And so I think that'll be the third week of my summer, uh, of my at least for my high school. Yeah, for it'll be the third week of summer for our student industry overall. But what is gonna be really nice for my incoming freshmen, which I have a decent amount of eighth graders about to move up into high school. Um, and they're invited to come, and several of them have already signed up to come to move with us this third week of June. Um, I think that that will really help them with feeling integrated into this group where suddenly they're like the bottom of the food chain, if you will. Um, and so they have this opportunity to get to know some older students and to get to know some leaders and to spend a week with all of us before before high school starts for them in the fall. Um, but also just right at the start, just a couple of weeks into their high school youth group journey. Um, and then also any outgoing seniors I'm letting come as well if they would like. So it's kind of a capstone for them, but for everybody else, it kind of feels like the start of the new year. Because we move all of our, we move everybody up K through 12 um at the end of the school year instead of at the beginning of the next school year. So we they have the summer to kind of transition and get used to the new ministry space before they're also trying to get used to a new teacher, potentially a new school building, potentially like changing classes for the first time and all that. So um, so yeah, so I would say um move based on where it falls in our calendar is gonna be a launching thing. Our the big conference that we host is just always in July. Um and so it's kind of right in the middle there. Um, so there's not like a ton of strategy for that one as in terms of like how it fits into my calendar. It's just like, uh, it's just in the middle and we know it's always gonna be that week. So so yeah, but um, but I do think that there's a there's a huge opportunity with special events to make sure that our follow-up is intentional and really strategic. So that if brings a friend, for example, to summer camp or to this conference or to whatever special event we're doing in the summer, um, how do we follow up with that student in a way that makes them feel like, oh, I didn't just go to that thing one time, um, but I'm actually like being invited into a community and welcomed into this community. And I could actually be a part of this and I could have a small dose of what I had at that week long camp or at that conference or whatever. I could actually have that every single week uh throughout the rest of the year. Um, so I think follow-up is a huge deal there, and not just for new students that like happen to sign up with a friend of theirs, but even for students that are really already plugged in. Like, how do we, how do we take mountaintop experiences, if you will, like move as a mountaintop experience, any kind of retreat, any kind of special event like that is going to feel like a real big highlight moment. And so, how do we kind of stair step students back down into reality, but also show them that they get to experience that same God every single day of their life, not just every week at youth group, but you actually can have this all the time. And maybe the lights aren't as cool and you know, nobody's uh taking you to the outer realm uh in real life like they do at Mix. Is that what it's called? I've never actually been at Mix, but I've heard stories. No, you nailed it. Um, but yeah, so I I think that the follow-up is a is a big area of need for so many student ministries to figure out how do we now reintegrate into real life um and not leave students hanging, but also how do we help them see that like they they actually can experience the same powerful move of God that they got at a camp actually any day of their life. It doesn't have to be there.

SPEAKER_03 55:02

Yeah, and yeah, you're exactly right. And to your and to your point about, you know, move being maybe like a mountaintop experience or a retreat or a camp or something like that, being kind of a mountaintop experience where, you know, by definition, uh mountains require uh, you know, lower elevation at some point. Otherwise, they're just plateaus. You know what I mean? So like in order for it to be a mountain, there's gotta be a valley, there's gotta be slopes somewhere. So there's a real opportunity to go, hey, you know, uh we're uh uh we're gonna walk through valleys, but you maybe you just don't gotta walk through them alone. Like this is this this group, you know, this group that you get the invitation now is now we're gonna like walk down the slopes, we're gonna walk through the valleys, we're gonna walk up some hills, we're gonna do some other things, but we're gonna do it together. You know, the the you know, one of the greatest promises of Jesus is that we get to do things with one another, you know, with his presence as a Holy Spirit, but also through you know, what his gift of the church. And so yeah, that's a beautiful invitation. But sometimes it takes somebody signing up to come to this like mountaintop thing in order to like also receive that invitation through the valley as well.

SPEAKER_02 56:08

Yeah, I think that's uh huge and special. It really plays into the conversation about summer, not to too aggressively try to uh turn our conversation back this way. But um like if you go to move in June and kids have that mountaintop experience and you don't have any other programming besides one night that you're meeting up at Sonic in July or whatever, then the process that Lane is describing becomes a lot harder, right? And so I'm curious to know how you plan to use, and I I'm I know you've given this thought, um uh plan to use like the the rest of the summer to that end. You know what I mean? Like we're going in June, that's the start of our youth ministry calendar, we get back from move, okay. I have six more weeks of summer to before before I lose students again, before I start seeing them once a month. Sorry, I keep talking with my hands over in this general direction.

SPEAKER_03 57:14

Um just how I like it. Nobody looking at Lane.

SPEAKER_02 57:19

Um But yeah, like how how do like you you kind of alluded to that, but like how I'm curious what if we can put meat on the bones with that a little bit.

SPEAKER_00 57:30

Yeah, totally. I think um one of the things I'm pointing for this summer is the high school youth group that's immediately following our week of move. So like that next Sunday, we'll get back on a Friday mornings, we're going to a shorter event. Um and then that next Sunday evening at high school youth group, like we'll just do storytelling because I will have less students go to move than are in the youth group, um, which is you know, for whatever reason. Sometimes people just can't make it, or they're like, I don't want to go to camp or camp is loud, no thank you. Um, any number of reasons.

SPEAKER_02 58:09

Um off mic, you described like camp culture at your church is new. Like we are we are establishing this this idea the this culture of like, hey, we go away sometimes for a week in the summer.

SPEAKER_00 58:23

So totally, yeah. And they used to have a camp culture, but this generation, there isn't a single student in sixth through twelfth grade. There probably isn't even a student all the way up till like maybe the age of like 24 or 25 who would have been in student ministry the last time they had a camp culture. So there is a little bit like this is new. Yeah, it's gonna be fine. You're probably gonna love it. This is gonna turn into the highlight of your year, perhaps. Um, but right now I'm just I feel like I'm making a lot of promises to people and say, like, no, really, it's gonna be a good time. Um, you're gonna have, yeah, you're gonna enjoy it. But in any case, we'll use that that Sunday night after we come back as a time to share stories and to talk about like this is something that I felt like God shared with me, or this was a message that really stood out to me, or this was a worship song that really resonated for me. And just let the students that went practice the spiritual discipline of testimony and practice noticing God did a thing, and now I'm going to share that thing with people that I'm in community with. Um, and it will be it'll be on myself and my high school leaders to be really clear like all these stories are great. God did all that, that's awesome. Um, maybe God didn't tell you to marry that guy that you looked at during worship, but otherwise, God did all those things. Um and that maybe he did.

SPEAKER_03 59:43

Maybe he did. Not gonna box him in. Yeah, not gonna box him in. Yeah, now they now they have no church.

SPEAKER_00 59:52

Um, but anyhow, it'll be on us as leaders to like shepherd that moment and help be clear. Like, yes, God did all those things, and God will sustain those things in this kind of community that you gather with on a regular basis. Um, and also God will do those things beyond just the physical location that we went to for DIY move. So that's one opportunity. We tend to do that after our conference each year, but also after our spring retreat, like just to pause and say, like, what was that like for you? Um, that also gives other students who didn't participate the opportunity to hear from their peers and not just okay, Pastor Hannah, we get it. Like camp is amazing. Okay, like you're obsessed with it. Why don't you shut up? Like it sounds a little different when it's like, oh, that cool, like junior or senior, like really seem to enjoy that. Like, I need to make it a priority next year to get there. Um, because this seems this was a big deal to them, and I they're a big deal to me. Um, does that make sense? So I think that's that's one like initial step. Um, but then also the other thing that I'll do, we did this after we've done this after retreats and conferences before, is I'll just meet one-on-one or two on one, um, sometimes three on one, depending on the the students themselves, but I'll just meet with groups of students who went to the camp or the thing, whatever it was, in the weeks following, just like, hey, let's go grab proyo. And I just want to hear about what camp was like for you. And that's also a great opportunity to follow up with any decisions that are made, especially if decisions are made, um, just to get to talk to them. So if it's like a pack of seventh grade boys, like I'm not gonna hang out one-on-one with them, period. But also they will be more likely to talk if their friends are there. So I'll have them all meet me at, I don't know, Dutch Bros is a huge thing here. So I'll have them meet me at Dutch Bros or we'll meet at a park or whatever, and we'll just chat for a little bit and um to following up with students. That's something that leaders can do too. Like it's scalable at my congregation size for it to be me, the youth pastor, to meet with those students because they don't have a huge youth group. But for these youth groups with 150 to 350 students that they're bringing to camp, like that's not gonna be very feasible for one or two paid staff members to be able to do that work, but you can mobilize your volunteer team to do that and kind of create like a set. Here's like the three camp follow-up questions, and we want we want you to meet with everybody in your cabin over the next month and process what they learned and what they heard and how life reintegration is going, and what are their next steps and how are they planning to take those and all of that? Like that's something you could give to your small group leaders or whoever's on your volunteer team to do to follow up as well. It's awesome.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:40

I w I'm I wonder, by the way, how baristas in the Netherlands feel about being represented so heavily by Dutch bros. And it's just like I does all the coffee in the Netherlands taste like candy bars, or is it just our biggest? I hope not.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:58

I thought that was gonna be such good questions. Okay, yeah, yeah. I have a I have a none of us are qualified to speak on behalf of Dutch people.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:07

I I no, yeah, okay. So I have it. Other follow-up question though. Are they still doing froyo in Colorado Springs? Because I feel like I have like it feels like we all went culturally real hard. Like we rode hard for Froyo for a while. And then it was like we got rid of all of it. And I was just like, hang on. Like, we could get we we could I agree that we could trim it down a little bit, but it's gone.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:32

We could I got frog. We could practice a little bit.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:35

As we come up on the end of our time together, I do want to touch on one other. I have another question that's youth ministry related. Do you actually?

SPEAKER_03 1:03:41

I do. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:43

You get one you get one more. We're out of time. We've taken up too much of Hannah's time.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:47

Go on, chillin'.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:49

All right.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:49

So I've got time for your own.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:53

I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:55

I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:56

Lane once described me as having a sharp tongue. Which is true.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:01

Occasionally I say something and did he say that one time like five years ago, and it's destroyed some of you?

SPEAKER_02 1:04:09

Very, very recently.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:10

Um, okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:12

Listen.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:13

Listen, you're not saying that sharp. You did not say that sharp. You're fine. You are well with yeah, you're doing what you gotta do. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:18

He was being he was discipling me. It was fine. He wasn't being a jerk. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:22

Yeah.

unknown 1:04:22

Oh my gosh.

Planning The Year Outside Summer

SPEAKER_03 1:04:24

Uh okay. Here's my real question though. So so with regards to summer programming. It is oftentimes um it is like kind of within like the what's really important is because here's what we know, right? Is that like there is a week-to-week tyranny of the urgent youth group is happening again, it's coming. And so oftentimes you talk about teaching calendars, you talk about event calendars, all those things. So oftentimes it like people will take uh they'll take the summer off and they'll use that maybe as a time to look ahead and go, here's what this next year could look like. Let's like stop thinking on like a six-day turnaround for half a second and let's consider the next like nine to twelve to eighteen months or something like that. So with programming happening all summer long, my question is simply where do you find time to do that? Is that like what where what how has that, how is future planning factored into your rhythm um as somebody who continues to go on like that six-day term? Yeah. What does that look like for you?

SPEAKER_00 1:05:21

Yeah, I just don't do it in the summer. It's just a bad, it's a really bad time for me to be thinking uh long and hard about really anything, but especially the school year. Um, so I just pick a different time in the year when ministry is less crazy. Um, and yeah, extracurriculars and all of that are less crazy to do that. So for me, a lot of like I was planning 2026, 2027 last fall, um, like December time, where like I'm I'm a youth pastor, so my Christmas responsibilities are pretty minimal. I show up on Christmas. But I'm not like, I don't gotta do a lot for Christmas. So in December, as we're like winding down, um, especially once I get into my winter break and I'm still working, but my stuff I don't have youth group for like three weeks in a row, that gives a lot more time to think through like, okay, what is what, where did I leave off in like four-year teaching calendar planning? Okay, let's keep chugging along on that. Or, you know, what are some events that we want to do? You know, what are things that require a little bit more forethought? Like if we, you know, a lot of CI events fill up by December. And so if I'm thinking about what do I want to do in summer 2027, I'm like, you know, that that's a good time to do that for me personally. But summer is also trickier for me personally because I travel to preach a lot. So I'm not, I'm not around a ton. And when I am around, I would like that time to be going to my students and not to like thinking ahead. So I just do that sooner rather than later. But also our teaching calendar in the summer is usually something that's relatively simple. So, like this summer, for example, we're doing a a testimony series where I will have every single one of my leaders just share their testimony. It's great. And like kind of kind of like a this is a moment God changed my life kind of thing. Cause you can't, well, depending on the person, you can't necessarily fit your whole testimony into like a 20 to 25 minute message. Um, so it'll but it'll it'll be testimony style. So I'll teach like once or twice to my students this summer. So that removes one of the kind of tyranny of the urgent things and frees up week, it frees up time in my week every single week to do office hours or to follow up after a special event or whatever. So we'll usually have something like that planned for summer in terms of teaching, or we could do a video study, or we could do like more of a Bible study format where no one's preparing a message. We're just in the moment learning how to read the Bible together in community. So there are options, I think, for reducing some of the urgencies that we normally we being youth pastors are normally dealing with throughout the rest of the year.

SPEAKER_03 1:08:10

So the important but but there you go. The important thing there though is to note there is time. Like it does time. It's not there is time. You there is a place with a little forethought, with a little planning. There is time there in order to you can just you can set aside some space to be able to have that where you gotta get out of, like I said, the tyranny of the urgent, you know, um and really be able to focus on the okay, that's great.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:33

Well, and similarly, yeah, and we will let you go after this. This is my last question. No, it's probably okay. Similarly, like what does Sabbath look like for you during the summer? Like, how do you just make sure that you're not you know for that? Getting acne and gaining 50 pounds. Oh, is that just me?

SPEAKER_00 1:08:53

Big believer in Sabbath. My life is different than yours in the summer, though, Brad. Um I mean a little. Yeah, just a little. You probably take like 400 flights and give or take.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:05

Hannah, we have very similar summers.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:10

Okay. I mean, I'll take you at your word for it. But no, Sabbath is a huge deal to me. Um used to be a lot easier for me to Sabbath on the same day every single week because my husband and I both worked at a church and had the same work schedule. And now that he does not work at a church and is no longer a Sunday to Thursday schedule, he's now a Monday to Friday schedule. We like to Sabbath together. Um, we primarily Sabbath on Saturdays. Um, sometimes I have to flex that if I like have a thing, if there's a church thing happening on a Saturday, which is pretty rare. But if there's a church thing happening on a Saturday, I will just Sabbath by myself on Friday. And then Tim, you can have a great time by yourself on Saturday while I go do X, Y, or Z ministry thing. Um, so sometimes there's a little bit of flex on which day it is, but for the most part, throughout the summer, I mean, because students are not in school, Saturday is suddenly not the only day that it feels like I can see them outside of church because they're not in school during the week. Um, so it's almost easier for me to maintain a Saturday, Sabbath during the summer because it's not like the one day when I can go to so-and-so soccer game or or you know, this, that, or the other, or hang out with a student for coffee. Um, so yeah, it typically is one of those two days, Friday or Saturday. More often than not, it's Saturday, but it it just flexes week to week throughout the year, kind of depending on the week.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:36

So but even though your responsibility should Sabbath. Yeah. Even though your responsibilities increase during the summer, you're able to be protective of that.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:46

Yes, it helps tremendously to have a lead pastor who believes that um keeping the Sabbath is a commandment, not a suggestion. Um, and who protects it for our whole team. Um and it looks different for everybody on our team. Some people have kids, and so and some people like we'll do like an evening into the next day versus like just like a morning to evening on the same. So, but it it helps a lot to be in a church culture where Sabbath is like celebrated, honored, kept, protected, and not viewed as like, oh, like you do that as if it's not like all over the Bible. But anyway, 100%. Yeah, so that that helps a lot because I've been in I've been in another church where I would put it on the all church calendar, like literally, like on our internal all stab calendar. Anna is sabbathing.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:39

Don't call me, contact, yeah, don't freak.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:41

And I would meet I would after even after doing that for months, let alone years, I would still people would still reach out, like co-workers would. If congregants don't like happen to know that I'm Sabbath thing, that's not a big deal. It is not very hard to be gracious and to say, like, hey, I'll you know, I'll get back to you next week or whatever. Um, but co-workers, so it helps a lot to have uh leadership that protects it. Praise Lovefield.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:04

That's huge.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:05

It really is amazing. Um, Hannah, you also are amazing, and I am grateful that you took the opportunity to spend uh some time with us, with Lane and Michael and I today, and to uh just kind of give us a little bit of wisdom from your ministry experience about uh Summers. It was not the conversation I was expecting, but it was a very cool conversation. So I'm glad that it wasn't the one I was expecting. But anyway, we appreciate you. Keep up the good work. We'll see you at uh Move New Mexico, huh?

SPEAKER_03 1:12:39

Woo! See you there. See you there, Hannah. Thanks.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:44

Thanks so much for tuning in today. Uh special thanks to Hannah and to Lane for being with us today. Uh today's episode was produced by Michael Hester, Lauren Bryan, and myself. This is the last episode of this season of the podcast. So if you want to stay in touch with us, especially if you want to make sure that you don't miss anything if and when we come back for season six, make sure that you are subscribed to our show wherever you listen to podcasts. But in the meantime, you can always reach us at podcast at CIY.com or on the CIY community Facebook group. Whenever it is, we'll see you next time.