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21 Dec 2023

Mariners JHM Weekend in Review: Vol 2

By |2023-12-22T08:35:49-08:00December 21st, 2023|Mariners Youth Ministry|0 Comments

Weekend Teaching Series: Christmas at the Movies (series premiere, week 2 of 3)
Sermon in a Sentence: This Christmas, you never have to be ALONE.
Service Length: 65 minutes

Understandable Message: This week Tammy continued our Christmas t the movies series – holiday favorites as illustrations of the Scripture/them we’ve chosen for the series. This week… Home Alone!

Scriptures Used: Ephesians 4:32, 2 Corinthians 5:17, Colossians 3:13

Element of Fun/Positive Environment: We started with the Dancing Christmas Beast countdown, played Anything for a Buck: Christmas Edition since it was our triple llamabuck weekend (what are those? I posted on it earlier this week here), and of course did the Impossible Shot for first time guests and the student who brought them. Super fun!

Music Playlist: Joy to the World, My King Forever

Favorite Moment: We had some GREAT clips from the movie, which always make the movie sticky and memorable. I had played 3 clips from the various versions of the movie, but then when the Grinch’s “heart grew 3 times that day” there was a montage clip of all 3. So good! 

Up next: Christmas at the Movies: Home Alone (week 2 of 3, Tammy speaking)

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20 Dec 2023

Adding Speaker Notes In Sidekick

By |2023-12-19T15:00:10-08:00December 20th, 2023|Sidekick Hero Blog|0 Comments

Every youth worker has been there. You just finished teaching, your students start to leave, and you realize… I DIDN’T EVEN SAY THE MOST IMPORTANT THING!! Or maybe you’re telling stories from 1 & 2 Kings, and you’ve been practicing all week to make sure you don’t get Elijah and Elisha mixed up… but then, the moment you open your mouth, you keep saying one when you mean the other, and somehow you’ve even added a third pronunciation into the mix!

Thankfully,   Sidekick includes a super-useful feature called Speaker Notes that will make experiences like these a thing of the past.

Adding Speaker Notes to a   Sidekick presentation is super simple! To find out how, just watch the video below, or scroll down to see step-by-step instructions.

Adding Speaker Notes to Your Slides

Viewing Speaker Notes During Your Presentation

It’s really that easy! Thanks to  Sidekick, you’ll never have to worry about forgetting to tell that one story, or losing your place in the middle of a message ever again!

Pro Tip:

You can actually add Speaker Notes to ANY SLIDE in a  Sidekick presentation. That means you can add all those important details about Camp to the Speaker Notes for your Camp Announcement Slide. That way, you’ll never forget the registration deadline ever again!

Or, if you have students or volunteers who host your announcements and game, you can add Speaker Notes (like “Don’t forget to smile and introduce yourselves!”) for them as well!

 Sidekick to the rescue!

Be on the lookout for upcoming posts on how to do the following:

  • 🎵 Adding Songs to Sidekick via SongSelect
  • 🔀 Moving Sections and Slides in Sidekick
  • 🖐️ Adding Additional Users to Your Workspace
  • ‼️ And more!

If you’d like to see the other blog posts in the “How Do I…?” series, you can do so here: How Do I…?

If you’re using Sidekick and you run into any issues, or if you just have a question, please feel free to reach out to our support team at: [email protected]. Or you can check out other helpful articles and walkthroughs at the Sidekick Help Desk by visiting https://help.sidekick.tv.

Finally, if you choose to use the new Sidekick… let us know how you do it and what types of polls you do because we want to highlight you. Our goal is to highlight a youth worker every week with different ways they’ve used Sidekick to help their students engage. If you’re interested in being recognized as a Sidekick Hero, just click the big red button below:

If you’re using Sidekick and you run into any issues, or if you just have a question, please feel free to reach out to our support team at: [email protected]. Or you can check out other helpful articles and walkthroughs at the Sidekick Help Desk by visiting https://help.sidekick.tv.

Finally, if you choose to use the new Sidekick… let us know how you do it and what types of polls you do because we want to highlight you. Our goal is to highlight a youth worker every week with different ways they’ve used Sidekick to help their students engage. If you’re interested in being recognized as a Sidekick Hero, just click the big red button below:

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19 Dec 2023

And the Winner of the Ugly Christmas Sweater Contest Is … Chosen Using Sidekick, of Course!

By |2023-12-19T08:25:06-08:00December 19th, 2023|Mariners Youth Ministry, Sidekick, Sidekick Hero Blog, Youth Ministry Hacks|0 Comments

Our Mariners Church Student Ministry Volunteer 🎄Christmas Party🎄 was last night (’tis the season), and the Ugly Christmas Sweater Contest is always SO fun … but choosing a winner has never felt quite right. Sure, there’s the “audience applause” gauge, the crowd favorite, and then there’s me—always biased to the Star Wars-themed holiday gear, naturally.

🤔 If only there were a way to have people cast their ballots so we get an actual popular vote of the people, by the people, and for the people.

Enter: Sidekick.

(click image to enlarge)

(click image to enlarge)

AND IT WORKED LIKE A CHARM!

We picked our 6 finalists and had them hit the stage. Then everyone whipped out their phones for a serious and scientific showdown…

Some of the best parts about Sidekick Live Voting are:

  • You can only vote once (no cheating)
  • Voting is anonymous (no hating on people who voted differently than you)
  • You can choose whether or not to show voting results in real-time (you can build suspense)

For our event, here’s how we set up our Live Voting Presentation Settings:

We toggled the “Show Live Results” to OFF so we could gather all the votes in secret. And then, only after all the votes were cast did we dramatically reveal the winner.

AND IT WORKED PERFECTLY!

It was close … but we all knew the real winner that night: Sidekick.

Just kidding… well sort of. Sidekick was the tool that helped us easily solve the annual debate of who won the ugly Christmas sweater contest. So in a way, because of Sidekick, we all won. Perfection!

How will you use Sidekick +Phones this week in your ministry?

Josh

If you’re using Sidekick and you run into any issues, or if you just have a question, please feel free to reach out to our support team at: [email protected]. Or you can check out other helpful articles and walkthroughs at the Sidekick Help Desk by visiting https://help.sidekick.tv.

Finally, if you choose to use the new Sidekick… let us know how you do it and what types of polls you do because we want to highlight you. Our goal is to highlight a youth worker every week with different ways they’ve used Sidekick to help their students engage. If you’re interested in being recognized as a Sidekick Hero, just click the big red button below:

If you’re using Sidekick and you run into any issues, or if you just have a question, please feel free to reach out to our support team at: [email protected]. Or you can check out other helpful articles and walkthroughs at the Sidekick Help Desk by visiting https://help.sidekick.tv.

Finally, if you choose to use the new Sidekick… let us know how you do it and what types of polls you do because we want to highlight you. Our goal is to highlight a youth worker every week with different ways they’ve used Sidekick to help their students engage. If you’re interested in being recognized as a Sidekick Hero, just click the big red button below:

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18 Dec 2023

Take a 30 Minute Christmas Break

By |2023-12-18T11:23:23-08:00December 18th, 2023|Youth Ministry Ideas|5 Comments

Christmas is a crazy season for any pastor! You’re more than likely in the middle of planning or executing 12 different Christmas services or parties. You have either received or are ready to send 1 billion Christmas cards. There’s a high probability that your church office is packed with baked goods. These are either ones you plan on giving out or have been dropped off at the church for you and other staff. 

Your to-do list is miles long, and it might feel like you are drowning in all the responsibilities of the season. 

Oh yeah, and we get to celebrate the birth of Jesus. 

In all of the planning and the crazy and busy season, it can be so easy to be all about serving others, planning events, and getting all the Christmas done that we don’t get an opportunity to practice what we preach.

Let me challenge you to do one thing. 

Sometime in the next week, give yourself 30 minutes of uninterrupted time with God. Do whatever refreshes and rejuvenates you. Listen to worship music. Read scripture. Sit alone in silence and pray. Go to coffee with a dear friend and share all God has done over the last year. 

Whatever it is, plan 30 minutes where you reconnect with God in this crazy, busy season! 

I know you’re serving. God knows you’re serving. 

You can’t serve out of an empty cup. 

Give yourself just 30 minutes sometime this week to pour a little back in. 

You never know what God might do with the time you invest in reconnecting with Him! 

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18 Dec 2023

Creating a Live Poll with Image-Based Questions

By |2023-12-19T15:04:21-08:00December 18th, 2023|Sidekick Hero Blog|0 Comments

Creating and running a   Sidekick presentation with a Live Poll that uses Image-Based Questions is super simple! Just watch the video below, or scroll down to see step-by-step instructions.

Creating a Live Poll with an Image-Based Question

Presenting a Live Poll with an Image-Based Question

It’s really that easy! And, of course, you can add multiple Live Polls with Image-Based Questions to any presentation in Sidekick. And, what’s even cooler is that because the QR Code is unique to your entire presentation, you don’t have to show the QR code before each question. Just show it once at the beginning, and you should be good to go!

Pro Tip:

Sure, adding Image-Based Questions to a Live Poll is a pretty simple process, but trust me, your students can do this faster than you 🙂

Don’t get me wrong. You could probably make 5 image-based polls in about 15 minutes, but a student could probably do it in 5 minutes, tops. Plus, if they’re building the presentation, they’ll have a sense of ownership that they wouldn’t have if you made it yourself.

Be on the lookout for upcoming posts on how to do the following:

  • 🎵 Adding Songs to Sidekick via SongSelect
  • 🔀 Moving Sections and Slides in Sidekick
  • 📙 Adding Speaker Notes in Sidekick
  • 🖐️ Adding Additional Users to Your Workspace
  • ‼️ And more!

If you’d like to see the other blog posts in the “How Do I…?” series, you can do so here: How Do I…?

If you’re using Sidekick and you run into any issues, or if you just have a question, please feel free to reach out to our support team at: [email protected]. Or you can check out other helpful articles and walkthroughs at the Sidekick Help Desk by visiting https://help.sidekick.tv.

Finally, if you choose to use the new Sidekick… let us know how you do it and what types of polls you do because we want to highlight you. Our goal is to highlight a youth worker every week with different ways they’ve used Sidekick to help their students engage. If you’re interested in being recognized as a Sidekick Hero, just click the big red button below:

If you’re using Sidekick and you run into any issues, or if you just have a question, please feel free to reach out to our support team at: [email protected]. Or you can check out other helpful articles and walkthroughs at the Sidekick Help Desk by visiting https://help.sidekick.tv.

Finally, if you choose to use the new Sidekick… let us know how you do it and what types of polls you do because we want to highlight you. Our goal is to highlight a youth worker every week with different ways they’ve used Sidekick to help their students engage. If you’re interested in being recognized as a Sidekick Hero, just click the big red button below:

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15 Dec 2023

New Feature Alert: Duplicating Slides!

By |2023-12-15T11:47:12-08:00December 15th, 2023|Sidekick Hero Blog|1 Comment

We’re super-excited to announce the release of one of our most requested features:

DUPLICATING SLIDES!

This will be really handy for those times that you import a song from CCLI SongSelect, but then you need to make multiple copies of the chorus slides! And what’s even better is that it’s a really simple process.

To see step-by-step instructions (along with a screenshot of each step) for duplicating a slide in Sidekick, just click the plus (+) button next to each step below:

If you’re using Sidekick and you run into any issues, or if you just have a question, please feel free to reach out to our support team at: [email protected]. Or you can check out other helpful articles and walkthroughs at the Sidekick Help Desk by visiting https://help.sidekick.tv.

Finally, if you choose to use the new Sidekick… let us know how you do it and what types of polls you do because we want to highlight you. Our goal is to highlight a youth worker every week with different ways they’ve used Sidekick to help their students engage. If you’re interested in being recognized as a Sidekick Hero, just click the big red button below:

If you’re using Sidekick and you run into any issues, or if you just have a question, please feel free to reach out to our support team at: [email protected]. Or you can check out other helpful articles and walkthroughs at the Sidekick Help Desk by visiting https://help.sidekick.tv.

Finally, if you choose to use the new Sidekick… let us know how you do it and what types of polls you do because we want to highlight you. Our goal is to highlight a youth worker every week with different ways they’ve used Sidekick to help their students engage. If you’re interested in being recognized as a Sidekick Hero, just click the big red button below:

Read More
15 Dec 2023

Meet A Sidekick Hero: Todd Handell

By |2023-12-14T13:02:39-08:00December 15th, 2023|Sidekick Hero Blog|1 Comment

From Doug: I still remember the day I met Todd Handell at one of our DYM100 conferences several years ago. Great smile. Baby face. The look of fear (“what kind of conference is this and why did my pastor sign me up?” type look), and a heart of gold. Since that conference in 2017, Todd has been to two more DYM100 conference and it’s always great to see him. He’s a longtime DYM Gold Member, he’s been a Sidekick Beta Tester for us, and he’s given us so much great input that I asked him to share why he’s excited for Sidekick in 2024. He’s currently serving at Lexington UMC in South Carolina (where he’s been for 2 years), and he’s in his 10th year of youth ministry. He’s a good brother and our 2nd Sidekick Hero.

5 Ways Sidekick Will Help Me in the New Year!

As a youth worker, who is responsible for presenting his own presentation from the stage, Sidekick has been an absolute game-changer for me. I’m in my 10th year in youth ministry, and I’ve never seen anything like the new Sidekick! I’ve loved the opportunity to play around with Sidekick 2.0 as part of the Beta Test Group and I’m thrilled to now have a new tool at my disposal that will save me time and make me so much more effective.

(click image to enlarge)

Here are 5 ways I believe Sidekick will benefit me and the way I do youth ministry in 2024:

1. It Saves Me TONS of Time!

Until now, I feel like I’ve been stuck in 1990 because I’ve been using PowerPoint as my presentation software. I just wasn’t able to afford anything else. But the truth is that it’s just so difficult to change things on PowerPoint. But now, it is so easy to just drag and drop images into Sidekick! Plus, I love that you can make the presentation ANYWHERE and then log in from somewhere else and the presentation is right there. I used to dread making PowerPoints each week, but now I love making Sidekick presentations–the continual updates that the DYM team is implementing keep making every week a new and fun surprise.

2. No Longer Stuck Behind the Laptop!

I currently present everything myself from a laptop hooked up directly (via HDMI) to a TV screen on stage with me (see pic). BUT NOT ANYMORE! With the ability to use Sidekick’s remote feature from my phone, I am able to move around freely throughout the crowd and not miss a beat! Plus, I’ve been super impressed by how quickly the screen responds when I click the button on my phone! This allows me to interact with my students more during my message and the games.

(click image to enlarge)

3. From Distraction to Interaction!

I’ve been fighting phone battles with my students for years… but not anymore! With the ability to create LIVE POLLS, students’ phones have just become a very cool engagement tool. Whether it’s used for icebreaker questions as students arrive or trivia questions during a game, they have LOVED the ability to interact with what’s happening on the screen! Even my students who don’t have phones have partnered up with their friends who do, so everyone gets to participate!

Todd prepping a poll for youth group…

(click image to enlarge)

Using Sidekick to run a game for his group…

(click image to enlarge)

4. One-Stop Shop for the “Do-It-All” Youth Pastor

I’ve learned that I can’t do effective youth ministry alone… I need volunteers! But I’ve encountered weeks where volunteers don’t show up, and everything falls on me (I’m hoping at least one youth worker can relate to this). Sidekick makes it so easy to present everything myself. It’s been super easy to integrate games, worship lyrics with the CCLI SongSelect (thank you for including this DYM!!), and slides for my message. In our meeting space (our gym), we don’t have a tech booth, so presenting from the stage is our only option, and Sidekick makes it so much easier. I’m so excited for the upcoming features like “Pick Me” and “Wheel Spinner” to be added in January. Those additions will only make my presentations/programming even more effective.

5. So Easy, My Senior Pastor Can Do It!

I haven’t asked my senior pastor to present using Sidekick yet, but I’m positive he could–it’s so easy to use. When I first heard about the new Sidekick, I was a little nervous because I thought, “Oh great, another tool/program/software I will need to learn.” But I’ve been super impressed with how easy it was to figure out and implement almost immediately. Plus, I love that it is web-based, so it’s all built into a browser! There’s no software to download and nothing to take up more space on my hard drive. Everything is extremely user-friendly, not to mention all the tools like this blog and the how-to-videos that DYM has created to help youth workers win. Just drag and drop elements into the presentation, hit “present,” and BOOM, it’s live!

In the words of my friend Buddy the Elf, “The best way to spread Christmas Cheer is singing loud for all to hear.” And let me be the first to tell you that Sidekick gives all youth pastors something to cheer about! I’ve been telling all my youth pastor friends about Sidekick 2.0 so they, too, can experience the wonderful gift of this new revolutionary tool for youth ministry. Join the crew, check out the brand new Sidekick, and become a Sidekick Hero like me. You won’t regret it.

If you’re using Sidekick and you run into any issues, or if you just have a question, please feel free to reach out to our support team at: [email protected]. Or you can check out other helpful articles and walkthroughs at the Sidekick Help Desk by visiting https://help.sidekick.tv.

Finally, if you choose to use the new Sidekick… let us know how you do it and what types of polls you do because we want to highlight you. Our goal is to highlight a youth worker every week with different ways they’ve used Sidekick to help their students engage. If you’re interested in being recognized as a Sidekick Hero, just click the big red button below:

If you’re using Sidekick and you run into any issues, or if you just have a question, please feel free to reach out to our support team at: [email protected]. Or you can check out other helpful articles and walkthroughs at the Sidekick Help Desk by visiting https://help.sidekick.tv.

Finally, if you choose to use the new Sidekick… let us know how you do it and what types of polls you do because we want to highlight you. Our goal is to highlight a youth worker every week with different ways they’ve used Sidekick to help their students engage. If you’re interested in being recognized as a Sidekick Hero, just click the big red button below:

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14 Dec 2023

Controlling Your Sidekick Presentation from Your Phone

By |2023-12-14T09:41:36-08:00December 14th, 2023|Sidekick Hero Blog|0 Comments

Controlling your  Sidekick presentation from your 📱Phone is super simple! Just watch the video below, or scroll down to see step-by-step instructions.

Step-By-Step Instructions:

To see step-by-step instructions (along with a screenshot of each step) for controlling your Sidekick presentation with your phone, just click the plus (+) button next to each step below:

First, you’ll need to start your presentation and go full screen by following this first set of instructions below:

Then, once your presentation is running, follow the instructions below to control your presentation from your phone:

It’s really that easy! And, of course, once you add any element to a slide, you can use your mouse to move and resize that element so you can place it exactly where you want it on your slide.

Be on the lookout for upcoming posts on how to do the following:

  • 🎵 Adding Songs to Sidekick via SongSelect
  • 🔀 Moving Sections and Slides in Sidekick
  • 📙 Adding Speaker Notes in Sidekick
  • 🖐️ Adding Additional Users to Your Workspace
  • ‼️ And more!

If you’d like to see the other blog posts in the “How Do I…?” series, you can do so here: How Do I…?

If you’re using Sidekick and you run into any issues, or if you just have a question, please feel free to reach out to our support team at: [email protected]. Or you can check out other helpful articles and walkthroughs at the Sidekick Help Desk by visiting https://help.sidekick.tv.

Finally, if you choose to use the new Sidekick… let us know how you do it and what types of polls you do because we want to highlight you. Our goal is to highlight a youth worker every week with different ways they’ve used Sidekick to help their students engage. If you’re interested in being recognized as a Sidekick Hero, just click the big red button below:

If you’re using Sidekick and you run into any issues, or if you just have a question, please feel free to reach out to our support team at: [email protected]. Or you can check out other helpful articles and walkthroughs at the Sidekick Help Desk by visiting https://help.sidekick.tv.

Finally, if you choose to use the new Sidekick… let us know how you do it and what types of polls you do because we want to highlight you. Our goal is to highlight a youth worker every week with different ways they’ve used Sidekick to help their students engage. If you’re interested in being recognized as a Sidekick Hero, just click the big red button below:

Read More
14 Dec 2023

Mariners JHM Weekend in Review: Vol 1

By |2023-12-22T08:37:11-08:00December 14th, 2023|Mariners Youth Ministry|0 Comments

Weekend Teaching Series: Christmas at the Movies (series premiere, week 1 of 3)
Sermon in a Sentence: This Christmas, let the love of JESUS rule your heart, and don’t be a GRINCH!
Service Length: 66 minutes

Understandable Message: This week we kicked off our Christmas series – we’re doing 3 weeks and 3 different Christmas movies as illustrations of the Scripture/them we’ve chosen for the series. I got to kick off with The Grinch, and used clips from all 3 versions of the movie, including my childhood favorite, a clip from the live-action Jim Carrey version, and finally a really fun clip from the 2018 CGI remake as well. The message itself was fast-paced and fun, with 4 different clips showing the life change of the Grinch from the beginning to end. The main difference of course, was that the Spirit of Christmas changed the Grinch’s heart, but it is the Holy Spirit who changes our heart. I included several Christmas actions to take to bring more kindness and love to our homes/schools this holiday season.

Scriptures Used: Ephesians 4:32, 2 Corinthians 5:17, Colossians 3:13

Element of Fun/Positive Environment: We started with the Dancing Christmas Beast countdown, played Anything for a Buck: Christmas Edition since it was our triple llamabuck weekend (what are those? I posted on it earlier this week here), and of course did the Impossible Shot for first time guests and the student who brought them. Super fun!

Music Playlist: Joy to the World, My King Forever

Favorite Moment: We had some GREAT clips from the movie, which always make the movie sticky and memorable. I had played 3 clips from the various versions of the movie, but then when the Grinch’s “heart grew 3 times that day” there was a montage clip of all 3. So good! 

Up next: Christmas at the Movies: Home Alone (week 2 of 3, Tammy speaking)

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13 Dec 2023

Presenting Full-Screen In Sidekick

By |2023-12-12T13:00:42-08:00December 13th, 2023|Sidekick Hero Blog|0 Comments

Presenting full-screen in Sidekick is super simple! Just watch the video below, or scroll down to see step-by-step instructions.

Step-By-Step Instructions:

To see step-by-step instructions (along with a screenshot of each step) for presenting full-screen in Sidekick, just click the plus (+) button next to each step below:

It’s really that easy! And, of course, once you add any element to a slide, you can use your mouse to move and resize that element so you can place it exactly where you want it on your slide.

Be on the lookout for upcoming posts on how to do the following:

  • 🎵 Adding Songs to Sidekick via SongSelect
  • 🔀 Moving Sections and Slides in Sidekick
  • 📱 Controlling Your Sidekick Presentation from Your Phone
  • 📙 Adding Speaker Notes in Sidekick
  • ✅ Live Voting in Sidekick
  • ‼️ And more!

If you’re using Sidekick and you run into any issues, or if you just have a question, please feel free to reach out to our support team at: [email protected]. Or you can check out other helpful articles and walkthroughs at the Sidekick Help Desk by visiting https://help.sidekick.tv.

Finally, if you choose to use the new Sidekick… let us know how you do it and what types of polls you do because we want to highlight you. Our goal is to highlight a youth worker every week with different ways they’ve used Sidekick to help their students engage. If you’re interested in being recognized as a Sidekick Hero, just click the big red button below:

If you’re using Sidekick and you run into any issues, or if you just have a question, please feel free to reach out to our support team at: [email protected]. Or you can check out other helpful articles and walkthroughs at the Sidekick Help Desk by visiting https://help.sidekick.tv.

Finally, if you choose to use the new Sidekick… let us know how you do it and what types of polls you do because we want to highlight you. Our goal is to highlight a youth worker every week with different ways they’ve used Sidekick to help their students engage. If you’re interested in being recognized as a Sidekick Hero, just click the big red button below:

Read More
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