Don't Shut Your Youth Ministry Down For the Summer...Do THIS Instead!

The time to grow a healthy, thriving youth ministry is NOW...let's work together to make it happen! Check out GrowYourYouthMinistry.com for more info *** Youth ministry thrives off of momentum and shutting down for the summer crushes that.  There are so many benefits to continuing youth group through the summer and so many negatives to stopping.  In this episode, we talk honestly about why we’re not fans of shutting things down and how staying consistent can protect spiritual growth, relationships, and momentum going into the fall.  

But what about attendance dips and leader burnout?  Valid concerns...in this episode, we get practical about the two objections we hear most from youth pastors. You’ll hear simple summer youth ministry strategies to make your schedule more flexible and keeping the vibe fun even if the room might feel emptier.  We also dig into what burnout can really signal, from unclear roles to volunteers feeling underused, and how healthy leader care keeps people excited to show up.

If you want to keep youth group going all summer without exhausting your team, hit play, then subscribe, share this with a youth leader friend, and leave a review ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ so more youth pastors can find it.

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You may also enjoy these episodes:

(#108) Summertime Event Ideas for Youth Ministry

(#060) 7 Dodgeball Variation Games for Youth Ministry

(#045) Preventing Your Volunteers from Burning Out in Youth Ministry

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

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Transcript

Why Summer Ministry Still Matters

SPEAKER_01 0:00

If you have the opportunity to meet with your students, to do ministry, to preach the gospel, to be a place of community and connection and spiritual growth in a student's life, why wouldn't you? What if you ran a program in the summer that was burnout proof or that was attendance dipping proof and you were able to still do it and those became sort of the non-issue that you aren't worried about anymore? Does your youth group stop for the summer? You might want to reconsider it after you hear this episode.

SPEAKER_00 0:44

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. My name is Jeff Lascola, and this is Kristen Lascola.

SPEAKER_01 0:55

And today we are talking about how to keep your youth group momentum in the summer because summer's right around the corner, Jeff. It's May. It's gonna be May.

SPEAKER_00 1:08

It is May.

SPEAKER_01 1:09

And it's almost summer. And so I, you know, I meet with a lot of youth pastors, whether that's a one-on-one coaching client, whether that's the people in our YMGA course, and we do our monthly coaching calls, whether it's the youth uh pastors like locally, and there is this sentiment that like I remember when parents first started asking me, so like when's the last youth group for the summer? And I'm like, what? Like, oh, you guys meet over the summer? Like, yeah, of course, you know, why wouldn't we? Right. And I think it's just a common sentiment that youth group takes a pause in the summer. I am not a fan of that model. I don't think I feel like if you have the opportunity to meet with your students, to do ministry, to preach the gospel, to be a place of community and connection and spiritual growth in a student's life. Why wouldn't you?

SPEAKER_00 2:09

Right. Um, but spirituality, spiritual growth stops, like it's only good for the school year.

The Two Big Summer Objections

Simplify Small Groups For Low Attendance

SPEAKER_01 2:14

And then once you're not school, then well, I guess people would say, well, they still have church, go to church. True, but we know that youth group captures a different type of student. Yeah. And youth group is a great extra boost in your spiritual walk because it's different than just a church service. So I am not a fan of stopping it, but I do understand why people are like I understand why that is like the norm for a lot of churches and even encouraged by leadership in churches. Like, why don't you guys take a break? And here's the reasons why these are obvious, but the two most common reasons I hear why people say we want to stop for the summer is number one, attendance dips in the summer. So it's kind of like, uh, everyone's gone anyways. So this is a particularly big problem if your youth group is small to begin with, and it's like, well, we already only have like 10 kids, and then everyone leaves for the summer. It's like me and two students, this just feels silly. Like, I totally understand that. The other thing that people say is they want to prevent burnout for themselves or that the people helping them, I hear that a lot, and valid. Nobody wants anyone to be burnt out, of course. So, what we're gonna do today is kind of address those things and and turn our attention instead of focusing on those problems and then just saying, well, I guess we can't do it. What if instead you ran a program in the summer that was burnout proof or that was attendance dipping proof and you were able to still do it, and those became sort of the non-issue that you aren't worried about anymore. So, number one, I my mind immediately goes to small groups because people are like, Well, I want my leaders to be able to have a break. Same. I would love my leaders to have a break. In fact, anytime they need a break, they're allowed to take a night off, and that's totally fine if they have a birthday dinner for their mom or if they're going out of town on vacation, happens all the time. That's why having two leaders per small group is wonderful because if they're not there, it's okay. So it's not like we go all year and that you may not take a break. It's like take a break anytime. Yeah, like it's gonna be all right. So, but for small groups for the summer, here's what you could do to kind of attendance proof it or small group leader burnout proof it. What if instead of meeting like your specific small groups, um, like these two leaders with the sixth grade girls, these two leaders with the seventh grade girls, you know, and so on and so forth. I only recommend it for the summer for the short stint, but what if it was just like one girl small group, one boy small group? I don't know what gender you are, dear listener. You take one of those and you have one other leader leading the other. Bada bing, bada boom. All you need is one other leader. I mean, depending on the size of your group, you might need a little bit more than that. But really, you could get by with small groups just being you and one other leader if they're small enough. You know, if your group's like larger and you can't just do like one girl small, like at mine, and be like, what? No, this would not work. This is again, I'm talking for people who are worried about their really small attendance. Well, if it's so small you're worried, then you probably can get away with one small group. Like, just to put it in perspective, one of my small groups is 26 students. Then I split that group.

SPEAKER_00 5:58

I know, and it's three.

SPEAKER_01 6:00

One of the leaders has been like chronically sick, and so we can't split it quite yet. But I let it for them like a month ago, and those girls are so good that it was like didn't really. I wish more people had shared, but like they were so locked in, it was not chaotic at all. So, you know, it's kind of a weird fluke that it's working. Do not recommend. But all I'm trying to say is hey, one group that could be like 26 girls, 26 boys, like just for the summer. You might be saying, well, that doesn't sound healthy. Well, yeah, but you're only gonna do it for, I don't know, summer varies by school district, somewhere between six and 10 weeks. Of course, we're the 10 weeks, you know, we get the long one. But yeah, just adjust your small groups to be able to accommodate. Oh, wow, I only had two girls tonight. How fun. What if I texted their mom and said, is it cool? We're gonna like run and get, you know, milkshakes tonight. You can still pick them up at church, but there's only a couple of us, so I can throw them in my car and we're gonna go get milkshakes. Why not do something super out of the ordinary and fun? Which then it actually rewards the students for being there, not like, and this is so tempting to say. And I've said it myself, where is everyone? You know, don't say that. I'm talking to myself. You uh don't say that. It feels so rude, you know. Like, and I know what you mean. You don't mean it rude. I don't mean it rude, rudely, when like I come in the room and there's no one, where is everyone? It's like, hi, I'm here, you know. So say you had two girls and you went and got milkshakes or, you know, a small group, five kids, like, great. Like we could, there's so much fun stuff you could do, kind of spur the moment with people like that or a small group like that. So you yeah, do what works for you, but I feel like there is a lot of wiggle room in the sense of small groups don't have to be exactly how they have been. And if you're missing leaders, it's gonna be okay. You can get creative, and that's the mindset with summer. If it's a hodgepodge of like who knows where, just be flexible with just we're here and we're going to meet and we're going to have fun and we'll adjust as necessary.

SPEAKER_00 8:20

Well, when you're saying like it's maybe not the healthiest thing to combine all your small groups, like, but you know, at least by gender. But what's the alternative? What's healthier? Having all them meet together or just not meeting at all. Yeah, true. So it's like I think you need to take the the lesser of those and just say, well, it may not be ideal right now. Yeah. It's just for the summer, though. If need be, obviously, if you can keep the momentum going and have all your leaders there, then why would you split them or bring them together?

Make Low Turnout Nights Special

Quick Pitch: Youth Ministry Growth Accelerator

SPEAKER_01 8:46

But yeah, yeah, it's just it proofs it proofs it in case your leaders aren't showing up as consistently. Hey, quick question for you. Have you ever felt like you were working really hard in your youth ministry every week, but you don't know what the next step is or how to grow your youth ministry? Well, you are not alone. And that is exactly why we created our course and coaching program called Youth Ministry Growth Accelerator. Inside the program, we're gonna walk you step by step through strategies, systems, leadership principles that help ministries grow, both in size and in health. This isn't just theory, it's the exact framework we've used and taught to youth pastors all over the country and even globally. In addition to the course and coaching, you will also have the opportunity to join a cohort community where you can meet with other youth leaders who are on the same journey to encourage each other, share ideas, and stay accountable as you put things into practice. So if you're looking for a clearer path to grow your ministry, head over to grow your youth ministry.com to see everything that's included. Once again, that's growyouryout ministry.com. All right, let's get back to the episode. And then number two, the program element, I feel like, is what burns people out. Like, oh man, we have to do program, program, program. Well, just here's what I would do, which I already do, and it makes my life so much easier. You pre-plan all your games. And if you're kind of wanting a break for summer, well, then do this. Pick your six to ten favorite games that are low prep or no prep, very simple, that you don't have to put a whole lot of like bells and whistles on that they kind of run themselves. What if it was the summer of dodgeball and you played eight variations of dodgeball? I don't know, but just something that is like a no-brainer for you, your sweet spot of game, so that you don't feel like you have to do this big like hoopla every single week, but just oh, that game easy peasy, not a lot of prep. Here we go. And take the pressure off yourself to like do something creative. And number three, I love like anytime we do like a pool party or a park day or a beach day, I don't have to program anything. I used to try, like, okay, we're gonna play a pool game and I'm gonna go get a watermelon and I'm gonna grease it up, and then they have to jump in. But then what I realized when we were at the beach, the lake, the pool, uh, the park, anything like that, it was well, maybe not the park. I kind of feel like I had to plan games for that, but there was a great big field, so it didn't matter. I felt like the beach, the pool, whatever, it kind of programmed itself. Like we just had our final student leadership team meeting on Friday night at one of our leaders' houses, and he has a jacuzzi and a pickleball court and a pool and a slide, and all we did was show up. Like, I didn't really, I brought food and I said a few words of like, good job, I gave an award away, and then that was kind of that. I didn't have to like, oh, I have so many boxes of tools I'm bringing to this thing. It's like when kids are swimming or playing or whatever, it's like ta-da, the program. So if you want to weave some of those into your summer as well, which congregation member at your church has a great pool and they want to use it for ministry purposes? Well, one and one time only. Yeah, you get one shot. That's it. Okay. So make it count. Or if you live coastal beach, great. Um, or near a lake. Near a lake. We used to do a park day every summer, and we would do like water balloon volleyball, and that was super easy. And then we would barbecue and maybe do like acoustic worship or something. Like it was just so fun, you know? And then the park was big, and the kids would kind of run around and you know, do maybe you just bring supplies like a football, a frisbee, a volleyball, a soccer ball, and let them kind of have at it. And a lot of times in those settings, kids will just start their own thing. So all of these are just to say you could take pressure off yourself for program nights. I think I've mentioned it before. Our high school ministry does swim and study. So every Wednesday night they meet at someone else's house that has a pool and they bring in a dinner. So everyone will pay like five bucks, and then the someone will go grab a ton of in and out that was pre-ordered, or a ton of tacos or panda, or something like a fun dinner. And then this is genius. This is kind of our last idea is guest speaker. So he will have a guest speaker come every single Wednesday night. What if you did that? Now that takes the teaching pressure off of you, even if you maybe you can't find one for every single week because that could be a lot. But what if it was every other week? You had a guest speaker come. Think of like your senior pastor. Has he ever spoken at your youth ministry? That could be a fun little mix-up. A lot of senior pastors were former youth pastors. Why not? That could bridge the gap and heal your relationship with him.

SPEAKER_00 14:11

Or if you have a great executive, or completely damage it and you might be out of a job.

Pre-Plan Easy Games To Avoid Burnout

SPEAKER_01 14:16

Possibly. Just make sure you plan really well that night. You know, maybe you're if you're junior high, the high school person, or vice versa, could come. Maybe one of your leaders or children's workers, you know, one of the coolest things we did is there was a youth group in our town that was like kind of seen as like the other youth group, you know, it was like us and them for a while, you remember? And that youth pastor asked me to come speak at his youth group. And it was such a cool, like olive branch experience where it was like, we're the same church, we're not competing. Kristen's coming to speak at our youth group, and it was so fun. Yeah. And I felt like that was a really cool thing. So are there other youth pastors in your area? Like you might be like, there's no one in my church, but did you ever think of outside of your church, like the youth pastor down the street or the Bible teacher at one of the Christian schools nearby? And they might have a really cool presentation that they would give to their Christian classroom, you know, Bible class, but public school kids have maybe never heard it. So you could ask your local Christian school for a list of chapel speakers. If they have chapel midweek, they get a speaker probably almost every single week. Who are they asking? Could you kind of get in that roster? Like, hey, give me some names. So I feel like that takes like a ton of pressure off of you. And then really, what's left at that point? You showing up and being relational and fun once a week on a Wednesday. Like it's not that hard. So if you're feeling burnt out, figure out which element burns you out. And then, like, maybe you don't do every single one of these, but oh, I'm just so tired of teaching. Great. There's your there's your problem that now you can solve. Oh, I'm just so sick of programming. Okay, let's do some things that kind of program themselves or raise someone ups and up and say, hey, I'll program one night while you program the next. If you have an intern or director or a leader or something like that, you know, like we said, if it's, you know, I just don't have enough leaders. Okay, well, how can we adjust the group so we don't need as many leaders as we typically would? I feel like they're if you want to make it work, you totally can. And I don't know about you, I'm not trying to like say compare yourself, but I've been doing ministry for 22 years. I've never taken the summer off. I've never been burnt out ever. I've never taken a leave of absence or being burnt out. And I've been doing it for 22 years, 48 weeks, wait, no, 50 weeks out of the year. Yeah. Because we take two off for the year.

SPEAKER_00 17:10

Still go through the summer. Yeah. I I've always that that um excuse of like, you know, I still want my volunteers to get burnt out or something. Maybe that's like a proactive kind of idea, like just in case I don't want to get them burnt burnt out, but I feel like if your leaders are getting burnt out, something else is wrong.

SPEAKER_01 17:30

Yeah, if summer is what's gonna tip them over. Because here's what I usually tell my leaders at the beginning of summer is like, hey guys, like as you know, we like this is our job. We do youth group, we don't take a season off. So hey, if you have stuff planned this summer, no guilt. Go for it, go on the trip, go on the vacation.

SPEAKER_00 17:49

Or not even just the summer, like you kind of give them that freedom that, yeah, if there's something that they need to attend or go to, it's not like 100% uh attendance, otherwise you're out. Yeah, you know, and I don't know that that excuse has always kind of boggled my mind because I feel like if that's the case, if that's the case, if you're like, I mean, are they like leaving youth group just being like, man, another rough one? Like, I don't know why I'm doing this.

Let Pool And Beach Nights Run

SPEAKER_01 18:12

And maybe some of them. And so then, yeah, what is the deeper underlying issue? Is there like right now I have a small group that's super disrespectful and it is taxing on the leaders and they are tired. And, you know, okay, do we need to get that under control? Or maybe it's they don't feel like your relationship with them goes a long way too. Of like my leaders, like my he's like my security guard, but he functions kind of as one of our leaders. It was his birthday on Tuesday. Where was he? Youth group. I'm like, I can't believe you're here. He goes, Where else would I be? Like they love it, you know, it fills his cup, and he's excited to see because these are all his friends, the other leaders, and there's just so much, so much relational energy that's been built up, and so they love it. So also, like that's a whole other episode. But how what are we doing to pour into these people and to take care of them because they should look forward to being there, not like uh not again and finding every excuse not to be there. If you notice that with a leader, like you're here maybe once a month. I don't know if this is the best for you, but if they're there the majority of the time and then take a night off to do something else, like whatever, like it's fine. So there should be, like you said, I agree, there should not be a risk of burnout because they know they can go and take a night off any old time. Right. And you don't ask too much of them, but you don't want to ask like too much or not enough, you know, because I think you can get burnout from wasting your time being unused. That's how I get burnout. If I show up at stuff and I plan my whole schedule to be there, and I'm showing up ready to work and serve and participate, and you have nothing for me. I'm like, this it burns me out more than working hard because this is a waste of my time. I hate wasting my time. So we'd never want to put too much on their plate, or maybe you never thought of burnout in reverse of not enough on their plate and they're under stimulated and like I'm not very useful, am I?

SPEAKER_00 20:27

Because you want that, you want that weekend, or sorry, not that weekend, the week, uh midweek that to be a day and a time they look forward to being there. Yes, not a chore, not like dreading, hey, we're canceling for the summer. Oh, thank goodness. Right. You know, like out you'd want them to be bummed.

Use Guest Speakers To Share Teaching

SPEAKER_01 20:43

I mean, so maybe a whole summer. So yeah, I mean, and here's why. Because I feel like I already mentioned in the beginning, like, if you have the opportunity and the chance, like to meet, like Christianity is illegal in some countries. You couldn't meet if you wanted to, and like we're gonna say, uh, no thanks. Well, it's just one night a week. Do something the other nights of the week for yourself, you know. I look at it like this is my job. Right. Like, why would I pause half of my job for three months? That makes no sense to me. So, like, we mentioned that whole thing. If you can, why not? But then the other side of it too is like I feel like youth groups that stop in the summer are constantly rebuilding their momentum in the fall and they have to have this big old kickoff. Like, I love a fall kickoff, you know, like everyone's kind of back in school on to a schedule, your attendance swells up. Let's do something fun, sure. But it's not because we're going from zero, trying to go from zero to a hundred. You know, it's like we've been here, oh yay, and now all of our friends are back and we're all back together, and it feels a little more solid, but I would hate. To like lose what little momentum I had because sometimes I feel like when you drop that, people replace you and then they realize they're fine. Oh, maybe I'm fine without them. I replace it with something else, or oh yeah. Like I just don't want them to be out of the habit, and I don't want them to be out of the rhythm and routine of nope, this is what I do on Tuesdays. Like for our daughter, anything that comes up in life, if it's on a Tuesday night, we all are like, absolutely not. It's not like, well, maybe it's like, no, because that is what we do on Tuesday. Like that is immovable in our schedule. And I obviously am the youth pastor, I know that. But there's a lot of families like that, like, oh, she wanted to take a dance class, but it met on Tuesday. So she said no. Imagine, because so many youth pastors are like say, like, oh, I'm losing to sports. And sometimes it's inevitable. And it's for a season, like, well, we said goodbye to you during softball season and we'll see you again. But a lot of times parents will tell me that, well, we were gonna join the swim team, but it was Tuesday, Thursday practice. So we said no because they don't want to miss chaos. And I'm like, wow, I love that. So when you take that away, people will fill you with something, like fill that spot with something else. And I just don't want it to be like a distant memory of like, oh, I remember when I get into youth group or something like that, or maybe there's another youth group in town and then they would like to go there. I don't care as long as you're at church, but I would be kind of sad like if I didn't get you back because of the relationship, not because of my numbers, but just like I don't know if you've ever had that experience where a student starts going to another church, and like as a Christian, you're happy, like you're going to church. But as their youth pastor, you're sad because it's like, oh, I've I thought we thought we had a friendship. I thought we did. Okay, but I'm happy you're going to church, but also I'm very sad because I miss you. And where why did you leave? Yeah, it's that weird, like, I I know I shouldn't be bummed, but I am kind of thing. So yeah, so maybe if this hits for you like as you're starting to kind of wind down, I don't know. Just try, just try. And if it's horrible and you're like, I knew it, I knew I should have canceled for the summer, everyone was the la la, right? Then don't do it next year. Yeah, I feel like this is what I do.

SPEAKER_00 24:36

I would still use it as a learning process, though. I would, I don't think I would ax it. I just don't think that's a good option. And you know, and unless you're talking about you literally have zero kids showing up and you're like, well, now I'm spending two hours a week, you know, a midweek to do that.

SPEAKER_01 24:51

Use the church credit card, take yourself out for a nice dinner and say I was researching something. I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 24:57

Dinner food.

SPEAKER_01 24:58

I was researching dinner food. So yeah, and it turns out it's delicious. So great. Uh yeah, I mean, I'm just trying to give you like an out to say, like, if you try it and hate it, then you don't have to do it next year, but but you still should but rethink it. I just want to give you some ways to rethink it. I feel like I have to kind of argue people into it sometimes, and I'll say, hey, I don't really recommend stopping for the summer. And people are like, Well, we should. And I'm like, but just try not to and see what you think because you know it could really give you some momentum that you didn't have before, and maybe who knows? Like, to be honest, we have kids. I am begging our town to do something for them in the summer. Like, we go to every VBS on from here to the Mississippi.

SPEAKER_00 25:50

I think a lot of times about the parents, it's like if you're still doing youth group in the summer, the parents are probably like, Thank goodness, at least one day out of the week or something, send my kids.

The Real Roots Of Leader Burnout

SPEAKER_01 26:00

Get them off their iPad, get them off their phone, get them off video games. Parents plan a lot of things, but it's still never enough. So any opportunity for them to get out of the house and do something productive, it's like, heck yeah. Like, I don't know. As a parent, I feel like it's a gift. Even if we're on, ooh, a vacation lasts what, a week? Well, we still got nine to go. And youth group is that night. Like, what else are you competing with?

SPEAKER_00 26:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 26:28

Like, I don't know. It just feels kind of like a no-brainer. I don't know, but I feel like I'm more of the unique position. I feel like most of the people I talk to at other churches are like, oh yeah, no, we stopped for the summer.

SPEAKER_00 26:46

It's pretty common.

SPEAKER_01 26:47

Like, I don't know about that. I didn't even know that was a thing.

SPEAKER_00 26:50

Right, an option. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 26:51

Until I started talking to other youth pastors, and I'm like, what? What do you mean? Like we can do that. So, whatever.

SPEAKER_00 27:00

We did a whole episode a couple years ago and it was all about some fun things, some fun kind of out-of-the-box different ideas to do in summertime. So make sure you check that one out. I'll link it below. We also did the whole dodgeball variations uh episode if you want to look at that one. And then we also, if this going back to if if leader burnout is the is the thing, and obviously you don't want to go down that road, but like if that's a serious issue that you have or worried about, we did do an episode about that to prevent your leaders and yourself from getting burnt out. So all those will be linked in the description below. All right, this is a community comment of the day. This comes from Peyton Fitzgerald, who says, love your podcast, it's so helpful. Thank you, Peyton. We appreciate that. And thank you guys for watching and listening. And we'll see you next time. Don't stop for the summer.