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13 Feb 2025

9 Easy & FREE Youth Group Game Ideas

By |2025-01-18T14:17:27-08:00February 13th, 2025|communication, Games, Hybrid Ministry, Parents, Podcast, Technology, Youth Ministry Ideas|2 Comments

This is your ultimate “Oh Crap! I forgot the game” video!

Get all 9 of the games talked about in this video, from downloadyouthministry.com for COMPLETELY FREE!

All I ask for is a simple subscribe, it costs you nothing!

Ready to see my top 9 favorite games of all time?
Let’s check it out!

And if you’re interested in seeing more of what the Hybrid Ministry Show has to offer, I’d love to encourage you to check out more!

11 Feb 2025

10 Game-Changing Tips for Empowering Your Youth Ministry Volunteers

By |2025-02-11T17:19:19-08:00February 11th, 2025|Podcast, Training|0 Comments

Are you tired of feeling like you’re running your youth ministry solo, even with a team of volunteers? It’s time to unlock the full potential of your volunteer force! In this eye-opening episode of the DYM Podcast, youth ministry gurus Doug Fields and Matt McGill share their hard-earned wisdom on how to truly empower your volunteers. Here are the top takeaways that will revolutionize your approach:

  1. Ditch the Stereotypes: Your best volunteers might not fit the “young and cool” mold. Embrace diversity in age, personality, and skills!
  2. Invest in Relationships: Building a loving community among your volunteers is just as crucial as training them.
  3. Balance Training and Care: While training is essential, prioritize shepherding and caring for your volunteers.
  4. Set Clear Expectations: Confusion isn’t empowering. Make sure your volunteers know exactly what’s expected of them.
  5. Trust Your Team: Give your volunteers real responsibility and authority (within reason, of course).
  6. Encourage Self-Direction: Foster an environment where volunteers feel empowered to take initiative beyond structured programs.
  7. Create Feedback Loops: Help your leaders improve through self-evaluation and constructive feedback.
  8. Provide the Right Tools: Set your volunteers up for success with user-friendly curriculum and practical resources.
  9. Welcome Innovation: The best ideas might not always come from you – be open to your volunteers’ creativity!
  10. Lead with Grace: Remember, mistakes happen. Approach challenges with understanding and compassion.

By implementing these strategies, you’ll not only lighten your own load but also create a thriving, dynamic volunteer team that takes your youth ministry to new heights. Remember, as Doug Fields wisely puts it, “Confusion isn’t empowering” – so start clarifying, caring, and empowering today!

Ready to dive deeper? Check out wisdomministryconsulting.com for personalized coaching, or head to trainmyvolunteers.com for top-notch training resources. Your dream team of empowered volunteers is just waiting to be unleashed!

 


 

 

 

6 Feb 2025

Rules for Teens – Building Real Relationships in a Digital Age

By |2025-01-07T06:08:20-08:00February 6th, 2025|communication, Hybrid Ministry, Parents, Podcast, Technology, Youth Ministry Ideas|1 Comment

Social media has transformed how we connect, fueled by the rise of smartphones and evolving platforms.

In this episode, I attempt to define social media’s roots, from its early pioneers like MySpace and Facebook (and 6 Degrees?!) to today’s dynamic apps like TikTok, and explore how to use technology as a tool to foster authentic relationships.

Plus, I’m going to share practical tips for building deeper connections and introduce a Phone-Free Family Planning Guide to help balance digital and real-world interactions.

Let’s dive into this together!

And if you’re interested in seeing more of what the Hybrid Ministry Show has to offer, I’d love to encourage you to check out more!

30 Jan 2025

⚙️5 Questions for Parents to Ask Their Teens About Phones

By |2025-01-21T05:27:39-08:00January 30th, 2025|Hybrid Ministry, Parents, Podcast, Technology, Training, Youth Ministry Ideas|2 Comments

🎙️ Tech Talks: Equipping Parents to Guide Their Digital Natives is your ultimate resource for navigating the wild world of screens and social media!

This week’s episode is designed to spark meaningful conversations between parents and teeangers!

This episode drops 5 practical questions to help parents and teens tackle digital habits together.

Host a Parent & Tech Workshop, or just send this out in your next parent email!

🚀BONUS: there’s a downloadable worksheet, perfect for your next workshop or family night.

If you’re interested in more Hybrid Ministry content, I’d love to connect, click an icon below, let’s get this thing started!

20 Apr 2021

One Main Reason Why We Doubled Last Year

By |2021-05-17T16:41:34-07:00April 20th, 2021|Leadership, Podcast, student leadership, Youth Ministry Hacks|82 Comments

This is not a quick fix thing or something you do tomorrow and everything will change type thing. This is something we started in the fall fo 2019 and has taken a year to catch and we have seen it take off. It’s something we probably get asked about more than anything else.

And we saw our ministry doubled because of it. At least, this was what I think was one of the main reasons why.

If you talk with most students about the idea of what evangelism is, most students find it overwhelming. How do we go out and tell all of our friends about Jesus who don’t know who He is? Most students think they need to be bold and stand in the middle of their quad at school and start preaching the gospel in the middle of lunch. Or they think they need to be able to speak from stage. Or they believe they need to stand on a corner and do some street evangelism. Sounds overwhelming. 

When it comes to this simple idea of “who is your one”? It breaks down this really big concept of evangelism for students into something way more doable and way more realistic in their minds… and let’s be honest, way more effective. 

I would say, if I had to pick one thing to see the growth our ministry has seen over the last two years, the idea of “who is your one?” Has been one of the biggest keys. 

What is it? 

“Who is your one” is this idea that each student who believes in Jesus is really intentional about, caring for, reaching out to a friend they already have who they know does not believe in Jesus.

This is not original all to me, it’s Biblical and I even really started to grasp and implement it at my last church, but we have seen it take off at Sandals Church Youth.

Even if you think about your own friend group, you know someone you already have a relationship with and they don’t know Jesus. The idea is that you would spend time with them, be there for them, let them know you are praying for them, invite them to church, talk to them about faith or lack of faith and just be a good friend to them. 

All in hopes they would know you and your faith and because of your relationship with them they see your relationship with Jesus and want it as well. 

If you look at Jesus, there were many times he called out people and wanted to spend time with them one on one, inviting himself over to their house for food and just to be around people who were “not like him”. It’s a much more relational approach to evangelism that I believe students can get behind and function from. 

This is way more doable when we can get students to understand that the best evangelism is done knee to knee and eye to eye in relationship. A student who has a friend they already know and are friends with with the intentionality of inviting them to a 1st Wednesday or a real community of a small group is a great combo and strategy to show who Jesus is about. 

We have seen when students grasp this concept and have just one person they focus on loving and caring for and praying for all year in hopes they know Jesus and get involved in church, it’s been so effective. 

How did we make this a thing in our ministry?

We did a few things to make this a big deal and I will let you know up front… it takes some time and it takes repetition. 

  1. We did a whole vision series at the beginning of the school year (you can go to move.sc/youth to SCY and We Are SCY to go back and watch) which set up these big concepts of why we want to focus on them this year and challenge our students what to do in regards to 1st Wednesdays and Who Is Your One?
  2. At the end of that series we made little business cards with “My one is __________” on them so they filled it out and they got to keep it so they can see it every day and they gave another one to the small group leader for accountability. 
  3. We had training about those very things at the beginning of our school with our leaders to help them understand how they can help their students in their small groups. 
  4. We added an update of “How are you doing with your one?” In the curriculum that all small groups go through at least every other week for the first year. 
  5. We told and shared stories from all our campuses of someone’s “one” coming to church and getting involved in small groups and starting a relationship with Jesus. Stories are powerful and we should have back pocket stories ready to share at any moment. 
  6. Celebrate students and leaders who take this on and do it well. Celebrate them personally but also publicly. Everyone wants to be celebrated and what gets celebrated gets repeated. 
  7. At some point during every service, “Who is your one?” Needs to make an appearance. How you set culture is that everyone needs to hear it all the time and needs to be reinforced over and over for people to gab onto it and make it a part of the culture of your ministry. 

I really do believe taking this concept and giving students a chance to really own it has changed the way we approach this idea of reaching students who don’t know Jesus. Because let’s face it, students are better at reaching other students. They are better at reaching their own friends then we are. But we can do our best to set them up well to do so and help them feel a burden for their un-churched friends in hopes they have a passion to reach them in the name of Jesus. 

The cool thing about “who is your one” is that in reality, you don’t need a building, you don’t need a huge event, you don’t need to be cool or anything like that. You have a friend who is being intentional and has a burden and you provide a safe atmosphere where students feel comfortable to invite friends because they know it’s going to worth it if they show up. Community and relationship is powerful and we have the opportunity to show them the best relationship of all with Jesus. 

@justinknowles3


Searching for Youth Group Games? Discover thousands of turn-key resources at Download Youth Ministry.

21 Mar 2020

This Week’s Podcast Network

By |2020-03-21T10:21:34-07:00March 21st, 2020|Podcast|0 Comments

A collection of shows to help you win in youth ministry. The network is led by the longest-running podcast in youth ministry history, The DYM Podcast!

Here’s a quick rundown of the shows posted this week as well as some thoughts on each.

  • Send an episode to your volunteers!
  • Share an episode and a question on social media.
  • Ask a question through the podcast network here.
  • Listen to an episode with your student leaders.

 

 

Practical ideas for families stuck together indoors for 8 weeks straight!

You’re stuck with your kids. Now what?

Ideas and tips for parents who might be losing their minds.

Listen to Parent Tips

 

 5 Thoughts on COVID

Sam Petterson breaks down some thoughts you should be thinking!

You need this podcast today.

Listen to YM Lab

14 Mar 2020

This Week’s Podcast Network

By |2020-03-13T08:21:44-07:00March 14th, 2020|Podcast|1 Comment

A collection of shows to help you win in youth ministry. The network is led by the longest-running podcast in youth ministry history, The DYM Podcast!

Here’s a quick rundown of the shows posted this week as well as some thoughts on each.

  • Send an episode to your volunteers!
  • Share an episode and a question on social media.
  • Ask a question through the podcast network here.
  • Listen to an episode with your student leaders.

 

 

Coronavirus and Youth Group

What’s your church’s plan and reaction to the pandemic?

How can you use this crazy time to innovate in ministry?

Listen to the DYM Podcast

 

Frustration and Celebration

How do you confront rumors in the church?

When and how do you celebrate ministry wins?

Listen to the Morning After Ministry Show

 

3 Meetings to Hack Your Ministry for the Better

Do you regularly meet with God for YOU?

Are your leaders in the loop?

Listen to Youth Ministry Hacks

 

Greg Stier, Good News, and Your Kids!

Look for opportunities for you to naturally talk about your faith?

Are you sharing Jesus when your kids are around?

Listen to Parent Tips

 

YM LAB OVERLOAD!

Three episodes in one week!

Allison Williams on budgets, Josh Griffin on innovation, and Zac Workun Live at YS!

Listen to YM Lab

12 Mar 2020

Special Podcast Episode: Coronavirus & Youth Ministry

By |2020-03-16T12:45:57-07:00March 12th, 2020|Mariners Youth Ministry, Podcast|0 Comments

Doug, Josh, Katie & Jessica all get together (6ft apart of course) to process the coronavirus and the process for many to think about canceling youth group and church. Raw and open, largely unfiltered conversation about youth ministry & what to do for the next few weeks. We’re in this together – grab a ton of freebies and articles and podcasts to help during the pandemic.

11 Feb 2020

Team Incentives For Sign Ups

By |2020-02-11T12:40:16-08:00February 11th, 2020|Games, Podcast, Youth Ministry Hacks, Youth Ministry Ideas, Youth Pastor Life|25 Comments

This video is one we have made because we did a big ol’ incentive campaign for our first ever Youth Winter Conference. The idea came because since we have never done this event before and we had no pictures, no video, no context in order to promote it. So we thought in order to help students understand how series we believed in this event, we came up with incentives for when a certain amount would sign up, our team would do something in return.

I got the idea from Frank Gil when he talked about how he got 80% of his group to sign up for camp on day one (listen HERE). Well, we had way more sign up than we had thought and I don’t know if it was because of the incentives or not but either way it was fun to come up with and almost as fun to do.

Our incentives went as follows:

  1. We would choose 10 VIPS who got to bring a friend out of the first 100 that signed up. They got special treatment for the 3-day event.
  2. We would eat hot peppers and film it. See the above video.
  3. One of our youth leads had a great mustache so he would dye it blue.
  4. The male youth leads would wax their armpits. Video to come.
  5. I would get a tattoo. I chose 4 images that were fun, and we let students choose which one I would get.

I love it. It’s been super fun to have this interaction with our students and it’s even better because of most of this doubles as great content for our youtube channel.

More videos to come.

@justinknowles3

30 Jul 2019

More Than Dodgeball Ep. 11 | The GIVEAWAY Episode

By |2019-07-30T13:16:54-07:00July 30th, 2019|Podcast|0 Comments

 

More Than Dodgeball is the show for youth workers by youth workers. What would happen if two youth pastors with decades of experience created a show with segments that could be stolen for your youth ministry? Find out in this episode of More Than Dodgeball. ==============================================

Subscribe to The Download Youth Ministry YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMQq…

Don’t forget to hit the bell icon so you’re the first to find out when we add a new episode!

============================================== Connect with DYM: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DownloadYM Twitter: https://twitter.com/downloadym Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/downloadym/ Website: https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/

Connect with Doug: https://twitter.com/DougFields Connect with Josh: https://twitter.com/joshuagriffin

Get $10 for FREE from the DYM store here: https://www.downloadyouthministry.com…

Send your XXL Youth Ministry T-Shirts to: DYM 29883 Santa Margarita Pkwy Rancho Santa Margarita CA 92688 ==============================================

#youthministry #youthmin #morethandodgeball

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