Ministry Coach: Youth Ministry Tips & Resources

How to Get Ready for the New School Year (Youth Ministry Planning)

• Kristen Lascola • Episode 249

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Now is the time to grow a healthy, thriving youth ministry...if you'd like to work with us, check out GrowYourYouthMinistry.com *** Whether your youth ministry meets during the summer or you take a break, it's imperative that you get your youth ministry ready for the new school year!  In this episode, we have 5 things you must do to prepare for the beginning of school to help your student ministry start the right way! 

It doesn't matter if you're a seasoned youth pastor or just starting out, these practical strategies will help you make a smooth transition from summer mode to school year youth ministry with purpose and momentum. Set your student ministry up for success this school year!

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We love hearing from you all and we do our best to provide powerful and insightful youth ministry content on a weekly basis to be that coach and mentor you may not have, but desperately need.
If you have an episode idea, please E-Mail us at MinistryCoachPodcast@gmail.com!

If you have it on your heart to support this ministry, please consider going to our Patreon page at: www.patreon.com/ministrycoach

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You may also enjoy these episodes:

(#040) How to Start a Student Leadership Team in Youth Ministry

(#203) Create a Student Leadership Team that your Youth Group WANTS to Be a Part of!

(#110) Ultimate Guide for Fall Kickoff Events for Youth Ministry - 20 EVENT IDEAS!!

(#064) What's the BIG DEAL About SMALL GROUPS in Youth Ministry?

(#052) Small Group Leader Training for Youth Ministry


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Speaker 1:

Today we're talking about five ways to get your youth group ready for the school year.

Speaker 2:

Welcome to the Ministry Coach Podcast, where we give you weekly tips and tactics to help you fast track the growth and health of your youth ministry. If this is the first time we're meeting, my name is Jeff Laskola and this is.

Speaker 1:

Kristen Laskola. Way to get through the intro on the first take, Jeff One try, nailed it. You guys don't know this, because obviously he edits it.

Speaker 2:

but you do know it, because I usually put all the screw ups in the end, though. We don't always get through that intro seamlessly, and now we did Most of the time, we don't, hey? This is our 249th episode, which means two things. Number one, it means the next episode is 250, and number two, it means we're going to be doing something really special, so make sure you tune in I don't even know what the special thing is, you?

Speaker 1:

absolutely know what the next thing is oh that, oh that, oh wink, wink. I promise I forgot. Yeah, you'll love it. You'll love it. Promise, promise. But today we are not doing that, but hopefully you still love it.

Speaker 2:

Let's get right into it. This is all about what you need to be doing for your youth ministry before school starts, correct?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yep. So how to get your youth ministry ready for the school year? I know that's a bad word right now and don't tell your students you're listening to this. They don't. They're in denial. School's never starting again. They don't want to hear about it. But as we're what about halfway through summer right now, it's a great time to start thinking of. All right, summer shall come to an end, there will be fall and these work. Whether or not we're going to talk about five today, and whether or not you meet during the summer or not, they apply and they're super helpful. Side note, just my opinion. If you don't meet during the summer, maybe reconsider that for next year. I think you guys have heard me say that before. Even though numbers dip just be present with who's there.

Speaker 1:

Don't lose your momentum. I hate the stop start, stop, start. You know. But just my opinion, you're in charge. Do whatever you want.

Speaker 1:

Number one this used to sneak up on me every single time until I finally just had to start writing into my calendar around Christmas time launch your student leadership or student discipleship whatever you call it team. Oh, I would be like, oh my gosh, it's going to be September. I haven't even put out an application yet. So if you are going to do a student leadership or discipleship team, I think it's a great idea to have it kind of follow the school year and then take a break for the summer. That can go on a break for the summer just to give new students a chance to start on a fresh team. And you know it gives just you a break because it is an extra commitment and I don't think it's really necessary during the summer to have student leadership. You can do different types of Bible study or discipleship models that are just kind of a summer thing. I still have students who will do their jobs because they just like to or want to or they're just in the habit, and some are like heck, yeah, I need a break, I'm done like running tech or whatever. So I think the best thing to do is the first weekend service that you have in August you should do your student leadership or discipleship presentation. So this is I have like a PowerPoint pro presenter kind of thing where I talk about.

Speaker 1:

Ours is called SOS stands for students of service. What is SOS? Who can sign up for SOS? Why would you want to sign up for SOS? What are we doing in SOS? And I kind of pitch it to them like this is an extra thing, that's optional, but if you're looking for an extra way to kind of go to the core of this youth ministry, not just be like a face in the crowd, but you want to be like wait, why is that kid up on stage doing hand motions? Or why does that kid get to do tech? Or why is that kid you know singing in the worship band? Well, those are all SOS kids and you could do that too. And so you teach them how to sign up and then you give them about a month to turn in their applications and I have mine due the last week of August, and then our first meeting is in September, and so that gives them time to think about it, talk to their parents about it. I require a reference form, you know.

Speaker 1:

So they get their reference form to a neighbor, a teacher, a coach, a family friend, whoever's going to be filling it out more than enough time to do all more than enough time, which is why you know if you've ever watched the episodes on student leadership before I don't accept any late applications, so it's not just like I don't know, I just all of a sudden decide I want to do it. It's like, ah well, your first signal to me, theoretically, is that you turn this in on time, and you know, we kind of make that the gateway to get in. And then we have our meetings the first Friday of every month, september through May, and September where we are is still super warm, probably the warmest of all the months. So we do a pool party to launch it and kind of like that beginning of school, end of summer fun thing. To launch it and kind of like that beginning of school, end of summer fun thing.

Speaker 1:

But just don't sleep on that, because I feel like that is something that you might not have in your rhythm, that all of a sudden summer is ending and you're like, oh shoot, we need a student leadership team, and at the time of this recording it is July 6th and so it's really not that long that we have to make sure we have our PowerPoint presentation, make sure we have the applications printed and stapled in packets and email the parents, let them know hey, here's an opportunity I'm going to be talking to your kids about. You know, if you're interested, make sure they pick up a packet. You know that whole thing, and the parents have to sign off on it as well, and you just need time to do all of that and you could be in summer mode and totally forget, which I did for years and years and years. So sometimes I'd forget so hard that we wouldn't be able to start SOS until October, because it was like I was just summer loving.

Speaker 1:

And all of a sudden it was like whoops. So start your student leadership team. Number two things to do to get your youth group ready for this school year is do some sort of small group kickoff event. Now, this is super applicable if you're one of those youth groups that take a break during the summer. But even if you've been meeting all summer like me we still have small groups throughout the summer. But this is more applicable if maybe've been meeting all summer, like me. We still have small groups throughout the summer. But this is more applicable if maybe you were meeting but you weren't necessarily doing regular small groups.

Speaker 1:

Maybe you're just kind of getting to know people, or maybe your incoming class doesn't promote till the end of summer. I know a lot of churches that do that. We promote the first weekend in June. I feel like a lot of churches don't promote. We promote the first weekend in June. I feel like a lot of churches don't promote till the end of summer, and so then you would be starting these fresh small groups. But even if you're like me and you've been meeting all summer and doing small groups all summer, it's still kind of fun. You could just pitch it as like a fall kickoff or something like that. But if you're doing a small group kickoff one thing we've done that's been fun in the past kickoff what does that remind you of football, fall football, whatever. So it's a football themed thing.

Speaker 2:

Big kiss boring the best time of the year, apparently, people like football, so whatever.

Speaker 1:

So people would wear their favorite team jerseys and then we would play like ultimate football. Have some stadium food, like special stuff, like nachos or cotton candy or snow cones or something like that hot dogs and then, or you could do small group competition.

Speaker 1:

you could make sure they're meeting in their small group that night, some kind of like small group bonding activity or just simply getting to know each other. If this is the first time it's launching, I think the end of summer, beginning of fall, is a perfect time to launch small groups if you haven't done them already. And I think at our church we say that small groups are the hub of our ministry. You know, we say things at our church like church happens in circles, not rows, meaning you just don't like you're not really doing church if you just go and you're sitting next to someone, but it's done in circles, like Bible studies, fellowship, knowing each other, discussing things, and that's how the church actually happens.

Speaker 1:

It's not just receiving information. And so we make a big deal about small groups. So we want to frame that and let the students know like it's not just like all right, here's your small group assignment. Listen up, sixth grade boys are going with Johnny. You know it's like if it's so important and if it's our discipleship model and if it's the hub of our ministry, let's make a big darn deal about it. You know, and make a whole party and make it exciting.

Speaker 1:

And as small groups are coming and we want students to know this is the model that our church believes in for how to like, how your faith develops. It's a tool of like you're not just going to be a spectator here, you're going to know people, You're going to be known, you're going to talk about stuff, you're going to ask questions, you're going to grapple with things. You have to participate. You don't just get to sit, receive and leave. You know, like the church is meant to be more than that, and so you build the excitement around that so they know this is a big deal. So small group kickoff is it could be like I said if you're already doing small groups, just make it your fall kickoff and then find opportunities that night to make it like a small group bonding experience.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 1:

So small group competition. You know, the teams for ultimate football could be small groups, whatever.

Speaker 2:

And we actually did a whole entire episode, if you want to check it out, of 20 event ideas for fall kickoffs. So if you want to check that out, it's down in the description.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, it was a couple years ago. It was awesome. I don't remember it. I think I need to listen. Yeah, so if you want to check that out, some ideas, it's in the description below.

Speaker 2:

If you're watching on youtube, it probably will come up as a clickable link over or uh well, right about here where? Um yeah, so check that out number three publish your fall calendar.

Speaker 1:

So you should have already done this, like at christmas time, so hopefully it'll just be a bing bang publish your fall calendar at christmas time.

Speaker 1:

Like you should have written your fall calendar at christmas time for this year and now it's just a matter of going over it again, making sure everything's correct and pushing print or uploading it to your website or sending the link to parents, however you're going to choose to get that out. But the fall calendar. So at the end of summer for September, october, november, you should have something in parents' hands so that they know exactly how to get involved this fall. Don't spend so much time thinking about summer that you're neglecting the next season coming up. So, for example, september our event is our all-overnighter. Traditionally, that's when we go out and we do a bunch of events and then we come back to the church and go to sleep and have pizza or watch a movie or something like that, because Kristen doesn't want to do all all-nighters anymore. So we go out for a little bit, in for a little bit. Four hours of sleep, we're good to go. Then, no, october is the battle and that's our competition series.

Speaker 1:

We get in three teams. It's super hype, super Epic, the students. The team that wins wins a trip to six flags, magic mountain, and the whole point is an evangelistic outreach. They're supposed to invite their unsafe friends. We share the gospel, we see kids get saved and then bring their families. Families are getting baptized. I don't know Like it just was working.

Speaker 1:

So that's October and then November we do our leader retreat. That's our event where we've been working hard all summer. Then we've done all these events into the fall and the leaders just go up to the mountains and the crisp fall air, eat pie, hike and play games and that kind of is like our reward at the end of the year, because December is so busy for everyone, like with Christmas and family events and Christmas programming. So we've just found that November is a really great time to do a retreat. If you're looking for warmer weather, obviously you would want to do it a different time of year, but we kind of look at it as an end of year celebration. It's like wow, like let's look back on this year of, like all the cool things we did.

Speaker 1:

And we just feel this almost relief of like oh we did it guys, like what a year, let's do it again next year, you know, kind of thing. So it's up to you. But that's kind of what my fall looks like, just to give you an example. And it's so helpful to start getting that information out and then number these all say one that always happens to me.

Speaker 1:

I need to fix that for number four Okay, I've done this a couple of years. It's gotten harder for me to do lately because now I actually have children that have a first day of school when.

Speaker 1:

I didn't have kids that have a first day of school, when I didn't have kids that had a first day of school.

Speaker 1:

This was easy and epic for me to do One of the best things I ever did and this was so simple.

Speaker 1:

We live in a smaller town that only has a couple junior high schools, so we painted these signs that said happy first day, love chaos that's the name of our youth group and a couple of us would go out to the street corner. We weren't on school property, but we were at the turn where you go from the main road into the school and we would be holding up the signs and like waving and all of that. And it was such a cool experience for these kids on their first day of school to see my youth leaders are here early in the morning greeting me as I go to school, and again, we didn't even have to get permission to go on campus or anything like that. Cars were honking, Parents were taking pictures out their car window, posting it on their Facebooks and Instagrams, and it was like I think it gave everyone the warm fuzzies like, oh my gosh chaos is here, you know, and then kids who didn't know it was kind of a cool thing Cause then they would ask, like who are those people?

Speaker 2:

out there, you know who are those weirdos.

Speaker 1:

And it was so cool. If you draw, if your youth group draws from multiple schools, divide and conquer, like you and I, I think it's weird to go by yourself, like always, like one other person with you, and kind of can station yourselves around or just pick where you have the most kids, um, and you know if you, if you can only make it to one. So you'll just have to figure that out, but it was or alternate years.

Speaker 2:

You don't do which one you go to yeah, exactly, that's a great idea.

Speaker 1:

So just standing out there, it was just such a cool thing to like go to where they're at. You know we're always, as youth pastors, looking for opportunities. How can I like show support where they live, breathe and, you know, not always having to come to us? It was like you should have seen their faces like, and I think you should keep it as a surprise.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 1:

I don't think your students listen to this podcast, so don't worry, cat's not out of the bag but it was just like the surprise of like what are you doing here? You're like the last person I expected to see, so I would like to start it again. If you're a parent who has school age children, it's probably going to be tough for you because you are kind of seeing them off on their first day and walking them to the gate and doing all the pictures and all that.

Speaker 1:

But if you are a 21 year old youth pastor, don't have kids yet. This has your name on it. So number five super youth group. So I think that is a super fun way to kind of wrap up the summer as well. It's the only opportunity that you have to do an extended hour. So during the school year, you know, youth group can get kind of late, especially if you have sixth graders, like an 11 year old, being out till nine or that's late, you know, on a school night.

Speaker 2:

So, and sometimes going the other way if you just started an hour early, parents probably aren't off work yet and may not be able to get there, or sports and dinner and all that.

Speaker 1:

So our students always have two requests we want chaos to go longer. Why does it end at 830? And can it meet multiple days a week? And I'm like, well, no, but I can do, I can, I can do this for you. Let's make a deal during the summer, when you guys don't have school, let's go one extra hour. We call it super chaos. They wear uh, we're going to wear superhero costumes. We're going to do normal youth group, just like how we do it on a regular Tuesday night. But then at 830, when they would be dismissed to go out to pick up, they come back into the auditorium, our main area, and we will spend the next hour Like I always love to kick it off with, like a just dance to get everyone hype.

Speaker 1:

Then we will play a game, then maybe we reopen the snack shack or have some special treat like root beer floats or snow cones, cotton candy, whatever you want to do, and then we play another game and then go to pickup and it's crazy how fast that third hour really does go. It's like in a blink of an eye. But it's just kind of this fun bonus extra night before we go back to school, like we had one last summer hurrah, because we can't do this during the school year. Hey friend, I just wanted 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.

Speaker 1:

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 and then you know, just to kind of wrap up the summer, I think one thing I've found is doing an end of the season like end of summer slideshow, kind of like a mix of video pictures of all the cool things you guys did, to kind of like close, wrap it up and above, like what a fun summer here's some things we did.

Speaker 1:

And then another tip this isn't kind of one of the five, but you know, especially if you're the youth group that has stopped for the summer, really make sure you're staying on top of communication with parents because you are not in their routine anymore and so when you start back up it could be a very abrupt start like oh shoot, we're not used to going, you know, to church on Wednesdays and this is, we've got to reinstate this into our routine and so it's not like on if your youth groups on Wednesday, it's not like Monday morning, you say guess what? We're starting, see you guys in two days. You know you give them kind of the warm up of like, hey, here's what you can expect coming up in September or end of August or whatever you're going to start. Give them lots of weeks ahead of time. I would start communicating at four weeks before your start date. I would start sending a calendar of what's going on or a link to your website and keeping them in the loop and sending a weekly email leading up to that so that they can get that on their calendar.

Speaker 1:

If you need to do a parent orientation meeting at the end of summer because you're a late promoter or something like that. You know, just, you need to kind of like that back to school night vibe. You know you need to start getting people reacclimated to having youth group back in their routine. So, communication, communication, posting on your social media, if you have one, sending that email, if you're using a text service, whatever you use to communicate to parents it's time to kind of like rev that communication up yeah, and it's you know.

Speaker 2:

Sometimes we struggle to get kids to come to certain events. If they don't know about them, they can't plan for them, and so being on their radar as soon as possible is good, so they can plan around the events you know like you always get your summer camp dates out? Wait, I mean, I know we're jumping ahead here for next summer, but you get your dates out way in advance like a year because you don't want them to be like oh well, we already have a family vacation they'll plan around that so all yeah, all the more reason to get your stuff out and communicate as soon as possible and as often as possible.

Speaker 2:

Um, we mentioned the 20 event idea episode. Make sure you check that out. And also we did one on how to start a student leadership team, so make sure, if you don't already have one, you check that episode out as well. All right, we have a community comment of the day. This comes from Kelly Kramer, who says you guys are so awesome as a new youth director. I thank you guys so much for this.

Speaker 1:

You're welcome.

Speaker 2:

Welcome.

Speaker 1:

Kelly Kramer. Thank you so much for reaching out.

Speaker 2:

Hey, make sure you guys check out our episode next week. 250 episodes Over five years we've been doing this. That's crazy. Thank you guys, so much for watching and listening and we'll see you next time. For every week we give you actionable and practical tips to help you with the growth of your youth ministries. All of them Today. Or not today? That is the question.

Speaker 1:

I like that.

Speaker 2:

It's another game episode.

Speaker 1:

It's another game episode.