Ministry Coach: Youth Ministry Tips & Resources

SPORTS vs. YOUTH GROUP: 5 Ways to Win the Battle of Priorities!

• Kristen Lascola • Episode 235

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Are you looking to grow the size and health of your youth ministry? Check out
GrowYourYouthMinistry.com *** The perpetual tug-of-war between youth ministry and sports commitments has challenged youth pastors for many years. How do we navigate this tension when both activities compete for limited time? 

In this episode, we discuss five strategic approaches that can help youth pastors position their student ministries as priorities worth making time for. Rather than villainizing sports, we explore what makes athletics so attractive to families and how youth group can learn a few things and incorporate those same appealing elements into mid-week programs.  

We ask the challenging question every youth pastor needs to answer: "In your students' eyes, is your youth ministry truly worth missing sports for?" 

Whether you're in the middle of baseball season, football practice, basketball drills, volleyball games or another athletic commitment in your community, these strategies will help you create a youth ministry experience students feel they can't afford to miss.   Ultimately, we shouldn't be looking to eliminate sports, but rather, how can we create a youth group that students will do whatever it takes to attend?

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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:

(#057) Getting Parents Involved in Youth Ministry

(#047) Youth Pastors & Parents: Best Communication Tips


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Speaker 1:

Today we're talking about five ways to help you navigate the tension between youth group and sports.

Speaker 2:

Welcome to the Ministry Coach Podcast. Today we're talking all about the battle for your students' commitment.

Speaker 1:

My name is Jeff Laskola and this is Kristen Laskola, and today we're going to talk about something that has been plaguing and bugging youth pastors since the dawn of youth ministry, and that is sports versus youth group who will win, who will be victorious?

Speaker 1:

It's a battle we are all familiar with, and I hear youth pastors talk about all the time where, when their attendance dips, they point to a lot of things, and one of them is we have a lot of football players or baseball players and, depending what kind of community you live in, that can determine the intensity of the passion for sports and how intense this tug of war for time and commitment that you're involved in.

Speaker 1:

Like if you're in a community that highly, highly prizes baseball, that's our sport. I feel like in our well, with the junior hires specifically. Maybe when they get to high school it's more football, but for my junior hires it's baseball, baseball, baseball baseball. That's all we ever hear about, that's all they're doing on the weekends, and so I don't know what that is for your community. But it's a real thing and as youth pastors it's a little bit discouraging at times because you so badly want students to prioritize youth group. And you know, know, deep down, sports are not bad, you know, like we're not talking about, like choose us over your life of sin you know it's like well sports are great you know,

Speaker 1:

and we're a sports parents. We are sports parents. Now our daughter is on the basketball team, and so now I can actually do this episode from real experience on how this tension works. And sports are great. There's a lot as a parent that you're like I want my kids involved in sports for these reasons, and we're going to talk about that in a second. But how do we ask them to pick us when it's like well, sports are also good. Now I feel like it's the difference and I know our audience does too of like yeah, sports are good, but youth group is great, church is excellent. Like how could you even compare those two things? And so today we're going to talk about five different ways we can help navigate this topic as youth pastors and position ourselves in the most favorable place possible to hopefully win over the hearts of our youth so that they will pick us, pick me, okay.

Speaker 1:

So, number one think about the purpose sports serve. That's what we were talking about a second ago. Sports are a good thing. It's not this sin issue that we have to eradicate. So that's why it's not just this black and white like pick pick youth group over sports. Well, families are very drawn to sports for a lot of reasons. Belonging it's a sense of belonging and involvement and boosts kids' confidence. You learn teamwork. You use your gifts and talents, even physical fitness.

Speaker 2:

You know there's a whole lot of art of winning and losing and how to successfully navigate both.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, like the whole emotional side of it and building your character, like you said. Like, yeah, all of those. So what I was thinking about this week is all of those are real benefits of sports. Do we have opportunities in our youth groups that meet those needs? So it might not meet it the exact same way, but I think it's worth learning a lesson or two from the sports culture and why it's so enticing and why it's so exciting and why parents want their kids involved in it. We are those parents, like I said, our daughter's on the basketball team. So does youth group. Not that we're trying to compete apples to apples, necessarily, because youth group is different than a sports team. However, getting kind of more below the surface and asking ourselves is that felt need, having the opportunity to be met here?

Speaker 1:

as well so. So, for example, do students have a way to truly belong at your youth group? Now, all of these, what I'm trying to get at is we need to make our youth groups as irresistible as possible. So we're going after what is the felt need elsewhere and how can I incorporate that here? So do they have an opportunity to belong? We accomplish that through small groups, through kids having a place where they're known by their peers, by their consistent adult leaders. That is where we're just. That's our discipleship model. That's where you're seen, you're known, you're loved, you belong. Teamwork is another thing, like at sports, so do we have that reflected in youth group as well? Well, our student leadership team works together as a team to do their different jobs at youth group, and they feel like they're a part of the bigger picture. They have real roles and responsibilities, and that is an enticement of sports, is you're learning how to be a responsible person, and it's a confidence boost.

Speaker 1:

So, do we have opportunities for students to use, like sports, their gifts, their talents, their ability? Do you let students use the tech booth and make the night happen on a tech level? Do you have students who get to play instruments in the worship team? Do you have students who could do hand motions, you know, for the fast songs? Do you have students working in the snack shack? Do you have students helping you in the office? That's a tough one, but they love it, and so finding ways for students to use these gifts because, again, sports are magnetic, because it's a place where they belong and can use their gifts. And they're on, they're not on the sidelines. Nobody wants to join a sports team and sit on the bench the entire season and watch everyone else play.

Speaker 1:

That's the same as youth group Like. For a while maybe you want to show up and just see how things are working, but after a while you want to get in the game.

Speaker 1:

You want to make things happen, you want to have a role, you want to have a contribution. So we have to make sure that our students know that we have those opportunities. Or maybe we need to ask ourselves do we have those opportunities? And if not, that could be lacking. And now sports has a leg up on us and they might just think, ah well, church is good enough, you know, like they go to church on the weekend. Right, we just can't make it.

Speaker 2:

Hopefully, because sometimes there's sports even competing with that True.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, those Sunday morning baseball morning baseball games.

Speaker 2:

I'm like nothing's off limits anymore right.

Speaker 1:

so we've got to make sure like I hate using this word, but this is the concept that's coming to mind we've got to stay competitive. You know sports analogy, um, with what is the felt need there? And can I deliver that in a different way, because clearly this is attractive? So, instead of fighting it and being like, well, church is better, well duh, we know that, but can we get people? Can we get them there with us? I mean and this might even be a stretch, but like the aspect of physical fitness, you know, you don. You don't think I'm going to go to church to get yoked, but you could.

Speaker 2:

Equally yoked perhaps.

Speaker 1:

Ah, yes, good, good illustration.

Speaker 2:

Thank you.

Speaker 1:

But it's like what if the kids came early for an hour and you set up a ultimate football tournament or ultimate Frisbee or dodgeball tournament one week, or a kickball tournament one week and they had the opportunity to run around and be physical and get that out and you could make it more organized. A lot of churches have have like little sports leagues that they do, like the softball or whatever, because it does have value, that togetherness, that bonding, that playing together, that teamwork. So again, we're not trying to fight the sports culture, we're like what can we learn and adopt for our purposes and use it to our advantage? You know, and it's like that, saying like if you can't beat them, join them.

Speaker 1:

It's kind of how I feel about this again, because there's nothing wrong with sports, but we are in this tug of war for time and commitment because there's only so many things people can be involved in and we want to be the top of their list because as youth pastors.

Speaker 1:

We know, like I know, our daughter is not going to play for the WNBA you know what I mean, like but I'm hoping she's going to be a Christian and a part of the church forever. So that's what we're trying to get parents to understand. Is like yes, sports are important, but not if you have to give up something excellent for something good you know like then then it's not worth it anymore.

Speaker 1:

And so, number two, here's a. Sometimes we ask these types of questions that kind of cause you to like pause and reflect and be real and and you know this is hard, maybe like subjectively, for you to answer. So I don't know, maybe you need someone else speaking into this, but is your youth group worth?

Speaker 1:

missing sports, for I don't know. I mean, I would like to think, well, yes, no matter what, church should always be number one, no matter what. But the reality is, you know, like how you sometimes go somewhere and you're like well, I was always in two hours, right, you know, like I could have done without that. I? There's so many other things I wish I would have done with my time, because it wasn't fruitful.

Speaker 1:

I didn't grow, it wasn't meaningful, it wasn't enjoyable. I went out of obligation or guilt, not because I'm true desire to be there, yeah exactly, and so I kind of feel like what?

Speaker 1:

like we need to ask families what is worth prioritizing and working around. So why should it always be one way Meaning, like a family might say how can we make church fit our sports schedule? But what the point we want to get them to is how can I make sports fit my church schedule? Right, obviously, sports fit my church schedule, obviously. So I mean we have kids in our youth group that 100% do not want to miss a Tuesday night, and so, posing the same question to you is your youth group so irresistible that kids would be devastated to miss a Tuesday or Wednesday or whatever night you do it, and sports might pale in comparison, like I know. For us, if the basketball season practices had been on Tuesdays during youth group, I would have been like, well, we're not going to do it then.

Speaker 2:

Right.

Speaker 1:

Like it would have been an easy no, and I know I'm obviously biased because I'm the youth pastor, so well, or a very minimum.

Speaker 2:

It would have been a conversation with the coach just to say, hey, I have this prior obligation of youth group that I attend, I love to go to. I'm not going to be able to practice during that time and if that was a deal breaker, then that's something that we would have to deal with, which obviously means it would breaking the deal. We wouldn't go there, go to a basketball, but you know, that's just something that you can work out with a coach and hopefully there'd be an understanding there as well.

Speaker 1:

But that's neither here nor there, so keep going no, that's a good point because, like you know, thinking back to making it a hard decision, like, if we want families to choose us, we've got to give them a reason to. You know, like you, I think it's so tempting in this space to be like well, you should know the right answer.

Speaker 1:

Like you should like it should be important to you. Okay, that's totally irrelevant to this conversation. We can't just look down on people who have a heavy sports schedule and say you should know better. Oh well, it's like okay, well, if I can't convince you that church is more important than sports, then let me show you what you're missing out on. And then the onus becomes on us a little bit Like well, prove it to me. Prove why spending a Wednesday with you is better than spending a Wednesday at the ball field. And what are we bringing to the table? Are we just relying on the fact well, trump card, it's church.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 1:

So so we win, and if you don't agree, you're not spiritually mature, right? Clearly it's like ah, maybe that's how you feel deep down and I get that. However, that's just not reality.

Speaker 2:

That's just not where we're operating, and you know that and kind of as a side note, even as you're saying that, like you as the youth pastor, please don't guilt trip a student that is you don't see for a season or whatever, because of practice or because of games. The last thing that they're going to want to hear is you coming down on them like where were you? Oh, was that more important than church?

Speaker 2:

or all these kind of subtle guilt trip things, whereas say it's so good to see you, like we missed you, like it's great that you know that you're here, you know all those type of things, encouraging them not so much slamming them for like, well, you know, if your priorities were straight, obviously you would have been not always.

Speaker 1:

Backfires totally every single time and I've heard from students, you know, throughout the years who have some youth pastor has said something like that to them and it always backfires and then they retreat even further instead of just being excited that they're there.

Speaker 1:

It's like where have you been? Well, clearly you're not a strong Christian, even if you're joking. They're probably feeling insecure about like yeah, I haven't been here in a while, instead of just like, oh my gosh, ah, things are so much better now. I missed you, whatever. But I love that you brought that up, not guilting them into well, if you were a true Christian, you would be here. I love what Craig Groeschel says. One of the pieces of their mission statement for Life Church is we will do anything short of sin to reach people who don't know Christ, and I love that concept of fighting for these people not being like well, when you're ready to be a real Christian we'll be waiting, but it's like this idea of going after them, fighting for them, meeting them where they're at, meeting them in their spiritual immaturity, until because here's what's at stake it's the gospel and that's a big, big deal.

Speaker 1:

So if we have to be a more robust youth ministry and learn something from the sports culture so that we can get them in, so be it. So here's a way to ask the question to yourself as well Is my youth group everything that a parent or a student could want Right? And there could be an area that we're lacking, like maybe like the areas we were talking about earlier. You don't have a student leadership team. You don't do any fun events. There isn't a way to get involved. We don't have small groups.

Speaker 1:

I don't know how to connect with people my own age, I'm not growing spiritually. The messages are too watered down, worship isn't meaningful, like the leaders aren't present, whatever it is like. Don't give them a reason to choose something else. Be working so hard to be everything that a and I know what probably a lot of people are thinking like. Well, that's consumer Christianity, like making the attendee the customer, and to that I would say what Craig Groeschel says I will do anything short of sin to get you here. So if I have to plan a fun event and play some fun music and play a fun game so that I can get you to understand who Jesus is and what he's done for you, oh, well like that is a small price to pay for somebody hearing the gospel, and that I am more than willing to pay that.

Speaker 1:

I am not too good to make church what the customer wants, and I'm sure many people disagree with that, and I even disagree with it, you know, like, as I say it, but, however, I just don't know another way like meeting the felt needs of the people that we're trying to reach. I don't think that's a, it's a, it's not a bad thing, it's just a thing I wish were different, you know. But I feel like as a pastor, I've come to just really embrace what is not. What I wish was, you know, and then my ministry becomes more effective. And again he said short of sin, I'm not sinning, I'm not willing to sin to reach someone. That's counterintuitive.

Speaker 2:

Well, and also the main point, like you're saying, is not so much to do the events and do all the fun and games and this and that, and there's no gospel, like there're saying, is not so much to do the events and do all the fun and games and this and that, and there's no gospel, like there's no truth being taught. It's the complete opposite.

Speaker 1:

Right.

Speaker 2:

It's just that those are some of the things that can get kids in the door. I mean just, it's a fact. Yeah, there's so many other things, sports included, competing with their time. Why is church going to be the one thing that they dread going to?

Speaker 1:

Right. So use that strategy. Use strategy of how can I meet those needs that would cause you to choose something else over us. What can I do here? So another question to ask yourself this is like number three how is your communication with parents? Are you always on their radar? And with this, the concept here is don't let them forget about you. You know it's just like oh, that one church, yeah, Aren't they meeting on Wednesday? I don't know. I don't really ever hear anything about it.

Speaker 1:

You've got to be marketing yourself, communicating, letting people know we are here. We have stuff going on, We've got exciting stuff going on and seriously, as a parent, I prefer youth group over sports because, number one, it's free. Number two, I don't have to go travel and go to all these games and practices and stuff. It's a Christian centered environment and my kid still gets all the benefits of growth of her character, but it's around her spiritual life. So I would choose that every single time. But don't let these other parents forget about you. Make sure you're posting, make sure you're emailing, make sure you're on campuses. Sure you're emailing, make sure you're on campuses and you're involved in the community.

Speaker 2:

People see you out and about and you're making connections like, and one of those places you should be is at the sporting events that these kids are going to yeah, support them and assuming it's on a different night than your youth group.

Speaker 1:

Obviously yes support them in their sports, their games, their performances, their performances, whatever it is, but become noisy. You know, like, market yourself well of like, this is something you want to be a part of. This is something that's happening. This is something that has a buzz and energy and vibrancy, and then let that be shared among parents too. So get on their radar and stay on their radar, and I think that's a good way to draw people and parents' interest toward you. What's that thing going on on Wednesday nights? And, um, oh, yeah, I met him or her. Oh, that was a youth pastor, like a familiar face or some kind of interaction that lets people know I'm a member of this community, I'm a fan of this community, I'm on campuses, I have a presence, and that will be like an incredible marketing tool to get people to say, hey, like, maybe there's something to this, maybe we should try it out. Hey, friend, I just want to interrupt this episode for a second to let you know about an awesome opportunity for you and your youth ministry. So last year we launched our course and coaching program called Youth Ministry Growth Accelerator and the response has been amazing. So we've helped tons of youth pastors grow the size and health of their youth ministry, and we want to invite you to be a part of that as well, because maybe you're just sort of feeling stuck in a rut. Maybe you don't know what to do next, maybe you just have a vague plan in your mind of what you're doing and you want some real help to get you from where you are to where you want to go. So if that sounds like something you've been looking for, go to growyouryouthministrycom and check it out for more details. All right, let's get back to the episode.

Speaker 1:

And then another thing is do you make it easy for families this would be like number four Do you make it easy for families to come to your youth group? So real, practically. Here's why it's hard for some sports families to go to youth group. Sports practice might end within enough time for their kid to go to youth group, but then they're hungry, they're tired, they might have homework. So one thing and I didn't go in with this intention, but this is what has really helped our sports families is we sell pizza every Tuesday night, and so if a mom or dad is bringing their kid and doesn't have enough time to stop by home and get them dinner or go through a drive through or something like that, send them with three bucks and they can get two pieces of pizza and that's dinner. Yeah, that's done. And they'll even come in their baseball uniforms and they'll just be eating pizza and go straight into youth group and go straight into youth group.

Speaker 1:

A mom texted me last week and she's like my son's going to be a little late. Can you please save him two pieces of pizza? He'll pay you when he gets there, but I just want to make sure it's not gone, because this is what I'm counting on for dinner. I'm like, absolutely, and she goes. Okay, he's so embarrassed, but I told him it's okay, like you know. And I'm like, who cares? You don't need to be embarrassed, we'll just set it aside for you.

Speaker 1:

And it just made me realize, like this is another, we're removing one more barrier for them for coming, or let them come a little early, like, and do their homework. Like our daughter does that, but it's our daughter. But like you're taking the other one to gymnastics and when am I going to be able to drop you off? So she'll just sit in one of the cafe tables and do her homework.

Speaker 1:

Could you open youth, the youth room a little early and kids can sit in, you know whatever space you have available and just kind of get a half hour of homework done. So parents aren't like do we go all the way home and then do we go back and we're coming from the ball field and then do we go, so just say like, hey, send me a little text, a heads up, and bring them a little early. They can sit there quietly and do their homework. You know, and I have a lot of kids that their parents are like I have a Bible study I can't bring you. Can I just drop them off a half an hour early? And we're there, we're just setting up and kids will just kind of hang out. And the cherry on top of that would be if you had like a leader who would go early and like help.

Speaker 2:

Tutor.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, like help them with their homework. Yeah, like that's a parent's dream Free tutoring.

Speaker 2:

Come on now.

Speaker 1:

Like I can get my kid their homework done. Tutoring dinner.

Speaker 1:

Yes so yeah, worship message, small groups, like it is. I have realized now that I have a kid in youth group. It is a parent's dream come true. Like so many years. Parents would thank me and they'd be like thank you so much for what you do, like it's meant so much to our family and I. I was appreciative of their compliments. I was like you're welcome, you know, but I didn't feel it until I had a kid in the youth group. I'm like this is gold.

Speaker 1:

Like I get to send my kid to a free program every week with caring adults who are trying to point them to Jesus, where they are learning how to worship, how to read the Bible, how to study the Bible. They have community that are being pointed in the right direction. There's other adults besides me that are loving them and mentoring them and teaching them. They have a sense of community. They can use their gifts and their talents and they're having fun and they're begging to go and they don't want to miss it. I don't know if, as a parent, I don't know of anything like that. You send your kid to school. Maybe they like it, maybe they don't, but they're not like please don't let me miss school. It's the funnest thing.

Speaker 1:

Maybe they tolerate it. Some kids like it more than others. Maybe their sports teams they get very excited about. But there's very few things in life like this and that's what we want to showcase to families of like. You are missing out if you are not here. We're going to teach your kid how much God loves them, how they can walk with him for the rest of their lives, and when the parents start seeing the fruit of that in their kids lives, they will 100 make sure their kid gets there yeah we have parents who use our youth group as a bargaining chip with their kids and like you don't get your homework done, you can't go, you know.

Speaker 1:

Or you don't clean your room, you, you can't go. It's like no.

Speaker 2:

And we even had a coach and not that you want them to pit and make that like a punishment. However, it shows the importance to the student how much they want to be there.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, which I love, and we even had a baseball coach change the nights of his practice and the games for us and that felt, as a youth pastor, the biggest victory because we are always playing second fiddle to that's such an old term. I played second fiddle to the sports.

Speaker 2:

Now you're playing first fiddle. Yes, good job.

Speaker 1:

Thank you. That's not a fiddle. If you're a musical person.

Speaker 2:

Can you tell me what that was, please?

Speaker 1:

Because we don't know what instrument did. I just say Like it felt like such a victory, because it's always like we're working around the sports schedule and should we move the night of our youth group Because everyone's practice? No, don't move it, you know, because then you have to move it again and then you're just accommodating everything at one point.

Speaker 2:

Let's touch on that. Hold your thought, but before we move on, I want to touch on that. That's a very popular thing to do is to move the day of your youth group, and we talked about this just the other day. You had opinions on. I have opinions on it. They're both kind of the same opinions. I thought yours were better, even than mine. The first thought I had was if you were going to go so far as to change the night and time of your youth group, that's fine, but, like you're saying, it now has to be the new permanent yeah and you can't like.

Speaker 2:

Well, football season, a lot of kids practice this day and friday night game, so we can't do that. We'll move it to tuesday. But during the spring there's baseball and they play too, so then in that season we'll move it to wednesday, like no. I don't know if you guys remember the show uh arrested development. I don't remember what network it was on, but they say one of the reasons why it never caught on was because they were constantly changing the time and the day interesting and now it's like a cult classic, but it's like at the time people couldn't figure out where it was and it didn't become.

Speaker 2:

This is back with like typical, like it's thursday night and we always watch you know, whatever it never caught on because of the fact that it's like you couldn't get into a rhythm and and like youth group being like we meet every night with weather aren't every night the kids would love that we meet every week minus a couple.

Speaker 2:

We don't stop during summer, like it becomes that this night of the week, at this time it's guaranteed. It's always a part of my schedule. So, with all that said, if you're going to change the date, it has to remain the same, and then that'll be it. Like, yeah, if you're. If you just find that you're on a bad day, switch it and that's it yeah.

Speaker 2:

A lot of people will choose because of all these things that could be on different days, sunday night and this is kind of the conversation we had. So my thought in that was I'm not a big fan of Sunday night. And this comes with just the caveat If Sunday night works for you and your youth group is growing thriving, stick with sunday night, don't change anything. However, my thought is you have church sunday morning and then you have youth group sunday night, and then you say see, in a week, yeah, I like the idea of having something mid-week because it breaks up like, yeah, you're getting poured into every few days. Yeah, sunday, wednesday, sunday wednesday, and then if there's an event, it's another thing versus sunday sunday wow, you're such a so dramatic, dramatic actor.

Speaker 2:

Sunday and see sunday, you see the difference?

Speaker 1:

did you see the difference there? Did you like?

Speaker 2:

no, did you hear the difference? It was a long.

Speaker 1:

First I was like sunday, wednesday sunday. Did you see the frequency?

Speaker 2:

kind of like you can jive to it, but no, if there's that long pause, no, hey yeah, it's just different.

Speaker 1:

You're right. You got my point, yeah, loud and clear. You brought up something else thank you.

Speaker 2:

You brought up something else, though, about sunday versus like a midweek, in which was what?

Speaker 1:

oh, I thought you're gonna say it. Uh, well, I was just, and again like the caveat you said if you're doing this and it's thriving, case closed for you, good, good on you. But I'm just like I would think it would be difficult for a family to be like doing both, like we already had church, you know, like we already had church this morning. We're gonna skip tonight instead of like back to back church. Like church in the morning, church in the evening, church at supper time you also.

Speaker 2:

You also are like sunday is traditionally a family day. We go to church together. Wow, that really rocked you, I got too, crazy. We a lot of times sunday is a family day. You go to church together and then you spend the rest of the day, but then all of a sudden you're like, and then we're gonna send you back yeah, I would just think at some point families would just kind of choose one or the other right Right.

Speaker 2:

That's not. You did mention that, but that's not the one I'm talking about. You said, when they're in school and it's midweek, that's when kids start talking. Are you going to youth group tonight?

Speaker 1:

You can't miss youth group tonight. And that like word of mouth marketing, which is gold, and then if you can get on campus that day, you know, or like one of our Christian clubs is on a Monday, Sometimes I can go and I love being able to see are you coming to chaos tomorrow? Are you coming tomorrow?

Speaker 2:

Are you?

Speaker 1:

coming tomorrow and I'm like talking to their friends and meeting their friends, I'm like you should bring them tomorrow, like come to our youth group and so when it's all on Sunday, you don't get that same energy. Or the kids will go home with each other on a Tuesday so that they can ride together and they plan their own little social things, so that they can show up at the same time and they create community around our community and want to be a part of it together. But yeah, it doesn't have that same buzz and energy on the weekend because they're not present with each other necessarily.

Speaker 2:

Outside of their people at church.

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

Already see and saying are you going to youth groups?

Speaker 1:

It's not as magnetic, it doesn't have the same pull as like in one cool thing, too. This is kind of an aside. One cool thing, too this is kind of an aside, but speaking of the school thing, when you put out merch, if it's cool stuff like, we did this awesome shirt I can't take credit for it, but two of my staff members designed it. It says Jesus is King on the back and all the kids wanted it and it was written in this really cool font. I don't know what was it Kind of like graffiti.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 1:

Not bubble letters but kind of whatever, and they loved it and they all wore it to school, and so you just see this little crew. Like ever, you could just see all the youth group kids, right?

Speaker 2:

and seeing one is kind of like okay, whatever, seeing it was like a movement. You're like what is this? What is this?

Speaker 1:

what's going on. So if you don't do merch I was never a huge fan of merch I was felt like it was a waste of my time. But seeing how they all wear it and it's like almost this, like movement, and it's kind of a witnessing tool in a way, instead of just having like chaos. You know, like your youth group name, like we were putting phrases like Jesus is king or God is good all the time, or you know, like that Jesus wear that's really popular. Now we were kind of adopting those concepts and giving it to them. We should do an episode on merch. I'm going way off topic, but all I had to say at school it creates a buzz. So midweek is very good for for youth group, but we were talking about making it easy for families to get there on a busy school night food homework.

Speaker 2:

Whatever, bring it back, bring it back.

Speaker 1:

And lastly, number five. We have already been talking about this, so I guess I jumped ahead by accident, but I was going to say have a community presence, but I think I wove that in somewhere else.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and a big thing too and you kind of touched on this is that bond with the parents, partnering with the parents, like letting them know how important youth ministry is and being it shouldn't. Parents should not be this separate part that you don't ever talk to or discuss, and you know things like that. They need to be an active part of your youth ministry. And actually we did a whole episode about how to get parents more involved in youth ministry, because when they're involved, when they're invested, it's one of those things where they want their kids to be there. You don't want it to be just like oh, go to youth group or don't go to youth group, I don't care, either way, you know you want that to be the priority for their kids lives.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and I would say actually kind of going back to the, making it easy. And then you brought up parents. I thought of, like on the back end as well. So like, yeah, we have dinner for them or they can come early and get their homework done, or whatever it might be. You can drop them off early if you have somewhere else to go. But then on the back end, remembering it's a school night and their kids are already tired, get out on time and get them out right away.

Speaker 1:

So many pastors go long because maybe they feel like the spirit is moving through their talk and they don't want to, you know, cut it off or something. And I'm sure everything you have to say was very good, but you need to say it by the time you said you were going to be done. And some churches like get criticism, like you're too, you're too staunch on your program, like where's the room just to be free and let ministry just go, and I feel like, yes, again, what? What do I wish was like and what is reality? But the reality is, if I'm in, if I'm a parent, and it's 8 30 on a school night and you went till 8 45 and I've been sitting there and my kid still has to take a shower and make their lunch do homework and put out already.

Speaker 1:

I'm just you're gonna lose points with me because you, you can't come out to every car and go, no, but you want to know what the holy spirit was just going and if it was during small groups, it might not have been their small group.

Speaker 2:

You know what I mean. Like so I don't know.

Speaker 1:

But it's like that thing where it's like you can do effective ministry and let the Holy Spirit move and let the Holy Spirit, like, speak and go and be attuned to where he wants to go that night. But you can also temper that with being true to your word, like so I, oh like, it just hit me. I don't know that the Holy Spirit would ever want us to not follow through on a promise we made. Like, how do those things exist at the same time Because that's the excuse pastors give all the time. But wouldn't the Holy Spirit say be true to your word.

Speaker 1:

If you promised this thing ends at eight 30 and you want your integrity and honesty to remain, then you get them out at eight 30. Don't blame it on me. You know that I made you late, you know, and I wonder how much of that is just like our. I don't know if it's pride or lack of discipline, I don't know what it is, but like when you get in the zone and I've been there where I'm teaching and it's flowing I feel like you're in the zone right now.

Speaker 1:

I'm in the zone and I feel really bad. I spoke at a winter camp this season and I was having one of those moments where I'm like this is fire right now, fire from heaven, and I let them out too late. We almost missed dinner. There was a big debacle with the kitchen, someone got yelled at and it was a mess because I went too late, you know, and I felt irresponsible because I didn't deliver what I said I would. You told me 45 minutes and I went 55 and it ruined the night, you know. So would the Holy Spirit say, nope, forget what you said earlier, we're going till midnight. Or would he say you know what I mean, like I don't know, that he would want us to not follow through on our commitment and then blame it on him?

Speaker 2:

Right, I don't know, it's just a thought Definitely up for debate. We had talked earlier. This is a question of the day. You had already kind of answered it. But what is the sport in your area that is the predominant one that you guys tend to battle with for a youth group versus sports for us, generally it's baseball a little bit football, but I would say definitely those two baseball by far, baseball a little bit football, but I would say definitely those two Baseball by far.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, baseball. The boys have these sparkly necklaces. Have you seen them? They're all wearing them at church. They're like these balls that are like really glittery red, white and blue and all the baseball boys wear them. They wear their uniforms to church on Sunday, they wear them to youth group on Tuesday. It's like you know the baseball kids, yeah In.

Speaker 2:

Southern California, there's never a non-baseball season because of the weather, so there's winter ball, summer ball, travel ball, baseball, this ball you know. So, anyways, put in the comment section below what is the sport you constantly are battling with. This is the community comment of the day, which comes from Michael Taylor, who says thank you both for this channel. It has been a tremendous asset, and I couldn't agree more with what you said about God leading you to what you need when you need it. I inherited a youth program a little over a month ago that often had zero kids showing up. Wow, thanks to God, first and foremost, and to your videos and advice, we have had 10 plus the last two weeks.

Speaker 2:

You guys are my go-to on here. Please pray for our youth group.

Speaker 1:

Awesome. Thank you, michael, I really appreciate that.

Speaker 2:

And we do frequently pray for youth groups out there, either specifically or in general. We are always praying for your youth groups that you are growing, that you are healthy and that kids are getting fed, Love it Well. Thank you guys. So much for watching and listening and we'll see you next time.

Speaker 1:

Are you consistently in the battle of youth group versus sports? Well, today we're going to give you five ways to navigate it.

Speaker 2:

Today we're talking about the battle for your students. Attention, attention.

Speaker 1:

The age old battle the age old. Is that the same age old?