Youth Ministry Booster
Creating Champions in Your Youth Ministry: We are feeling Olympic today!
Can the magic of the Olympics transform your youth ministry?
Join us as we celebrate Summer Olympic Month with a spirited debate comparing the allure of summer versus winter games. We'll dive into the exhilarating speed of track and field races, the unique thrill of the biathlon, and the intensity of events like speed skating and swimming.
From international sports showdowns in hockey and basketball to our whimsical dreams of hybrid sports like Mario Kart bobsled, this conversation will keep you on the edge of your seat. We'll also share our favorite Olympic events like the 4x100 relay, shot put, javelin, and diving, and ponder the idea of more frequent games to maintain the thrill.
But the fun doesn't stop there. Discover how the Olympic spirit can invigorate your youth ministry with team games that foster camaraderie and friendly competition. We’ll discuss organizing cohesive events from smaller activities, integrating new students, and ensuring a variety of games to highlight different talents. We’ll also delve into strategic evaluation, emphasizing the importance of assessing involvement, leadership, and spiritual growth beyond mere attendance numbers. By gathering feedback from all stakeholders, we aim to refine and enhance our initiatives, making them even more impactful for our community.
Can the magic of the Olympics transform your youth ministry?
Join us as we celebrate Summer Olympic Month with a spirited debate comparing the allure of summer versus winter games. We'll dive into the exhilarating speed of track and field races, the unique thrill of the biathlon, and the intensity of events like speed skating and swimming.
From international sports showdowns in hockey and basketball to our whimsical dreams of hybrid sports like Mario Kart bobsled, this conversation will keep you on the edge of your seat. We'll also share our favorite Olympic events like the 4x100 relay, shot put, javelin, and diving, and ponder the idea of more frequent games to maintain the thrill.
But the fun doesn't stop there. Discover how the Olympic spirit can invigorate your youth ministry with team games that foster camaraderie and friendly competition. We’ll discuss organizing cohesive events from smaller activities, integrating new students, and ensuring a variety of games to highlight different talents. We’ll also delve into strategic evaluation, emphasizing the importance of assessing involvement, leadership, and spiritual growth beyond mere attendance numbers. By gathering feedback from all stakeholders, we aim to refine and enhance our initiatives, making them even more impactful for our community.
A snack. Hey, what's up? I am Zach Workin and I'm really excited to talk about something today. We never get to talk about it because it takes forever to get here. Chad, it's Summer Olympic Month. We're here, dun-dun-dun-dun, take the pedestal. Do-do-do-do, are you?
Speaker 1:a fan no, not a fan, oh, big fan, big fan. Okay, summer-winter, which is better, putting you on the spot? Winter's better, winter's better. Really.
Speaker 2:Winter for me. If I have to, no way, no, I love there's some events that I love, but there's just there's a lot of running in laps. I don't know A lot of lap running in the summer.
Speaker 1:Well, so is it's. Just like skiing.
Speaker 2:Did we start at the top of the mountain or halfway down? Yeah, but this hold on, hold on one of the things, though.
Speaker 1:Okay, speed, sorry, this I need. We're going here the speed skating races versus, uh, swimming, no bro, swimming is rock solid they've got blades on their feet and they pass over each other. The swimmers don't need blades, they're that fast.
Speaker 2:Oh, dude, I don't know, international hockey is so much more fun than international basketball. I I said what I said, ah fair yes, but dude, the summer for you summer no doubt.
Speaker 1:Yes, summer track and field is so solid now there are some things I I do.
Speaker 2:I will say I wish they would do some more shooty events in the winter because, like just the biathlon, that is the wildest sport ever.
Speaker 1:The biathlon is amazing. It's like what if we skied but hold on halfway through we're gonna shoot and then see a quarter, yeah no, that's where I feel like if they would do, winter would be your favorite.
Speaker 2:If there was a snowshoeing archery, like if they went ahead and just took all of the shooty things, or if there was like bobsled javelin just down the track down the track, like at the very end, hit the target, like. Or if there was like luge shot, put just whoop or whatever, just something like if the winner's hallmark was like guys, forget all these people with their badminton in the summer. We're going to add shooty stuff to all the things that are like fasty stuff Done.
Speaker 1:You're in, see, I would like to see a bobsled with a little bit wider, yeah, and you put multiple like sleds on the track at the See. I would like to see a bobsled with a little bit wider, yeah, and you put multiple like sleds on the track at the same time. Oh, okay, like just a race to the bar, a Mario.
Speaker 2:Kart bobsled.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:That's a good blue shell, now. Yeah, so we'll talk in a little bit, because we have youth ministry friends, we're already imagining new hybrid sports anyway.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah. So we're, going to pitch some out. But for you, summer olympics it's here. We are going to france, we're doing the thing well. What are you most excited about this summer?
Speaker 2:uh, I always like to watch the track and field stuff. Yeah, uh, favorite track and field event or top top three, like what are the?
Speaker 1:ones. I'll always watch the 100 meter and the 200. They're pure, pure. Well, I just want to see who's who's the fastest well, so to that credit.
Speaker 2:I really enjoy the 100. I love the 4x 100 I love that team handoff thing and the american girls look oh yeah, really strong um, I always like to.
Speaker 1:I normally won't watch the whole thing, but I always want to see highlights, a shot okay, yeah, yeah, just those big beefy bull like oh yeah uh, that's always super fun.
Speaker 2:See, I always like the javelin because it just feels like that should be banned, like that's just like how, how does that one, that one either ends and it's like, oh, like javelin to me is the summer equivalent of like hockey for casual fans, where it's like, yeah, they're playing a game we sure would love to see a wreck you know like it's the nascar of the summer olympics of like I mean I would need this to go.
Speaker 1:What if? What if? Um, I'll watch all of the swimming. I like to catch the diving when I can, yeah that's fun.
Speaker 2:Diving is always really fun you like the races, the races are fun.
Speaker 1:oh yeah, the races are awesome. Okay, I'm trying to think. There's probably some others that I'm not thinking of off the top of my head.
Speaker 2:The hurdles are fun. I always like a hurdle race.
Speaker 1:I'm not a big.
Speaker 2:Oh, just pure speed for you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's just pure, it just feels.
Speaker 2:I'm here for winter, but I'm here for all the Olympics. I'm here for all of it. I do have a little bit of a beef, though. We talked about this before. I wish that we had them a little more often.
Speaker 1:I wish we had every Olympic every two years, so that every other year I see, but I think if you do it too often because it's still long, think about it. Everybody not I say everybody, a lot of people when olympics first starts, we're all going to be excited.
Speaker 2:Yeah, first few days we're going to be watching a lot opening ceremony by the end of those weird puppets the part of the thing that's always my favorite by the end of it.
Speaker 1:Everybody's like wait, olympics still going on we're all back at school, why.
Speaker 2:Why are they still doing this like we?
Speaker 1:we got to get back to our jobs yeah, it gets into those weird sports that you're like this is an olympic thing.
Speaker 2:Yeah well like horse dancing I think they call it dressage, but yeah, that is my favorite, um, so one of the things that, uh. So we have a couple suggestions if the iOC ever happened to watch this.
Speaker 1:And they're asking, they're asking.
Speaker 2:They're asking? They're like what are two bearded dudes from Oklahoma's thoughts on the Olympics?
Speaker 1:Well, since you're asking what are youth pastors saying? What are?
Speaker 2:youth pastors saying about the Olympics. Well, a lot of youth pastors do Olympic games anyway, which we've got some suggestions.
Speaker 2:Number one the commentators need to be as hilarious as possible. Number one the commentators need to be as hilarious as possible. I know that this is the most serious thing, but it also has some of the most casual viewers, so treat us with the same. If you haven't seen the Snoop Dogg clips of him commenting on dressage, you maybe think of that. I just think there needs to be two channels for the Olympics. There needs to be folks that are the straight-laced commentators. They are calling it as is.
Speaker 2:And then I need Nickelodeon or whoever, to pick it up Snoop and Kevin Hart. Snoop. Kevin Hart, John Cena just hit us with stand-up comedians talking about. This is what's going on.
Speaker 1:That would be fantastic.
Speaker 2:And just own it Again. We're never going to get good at watching the Olympics. It only happens every four years, Like literally, name me. 11 Olympians Can't do it, but we all have this understanding of the sports. Why is he faster than the other one? I don't know. Because he is right, Like we all got strong opinions, but the commentators own him. Your suggestion we need a reference point. Okay, In every sport. Because you watch In every Olympic sport. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:You watch the 100-meter dash right Right, right, right right and the guy in last place you're like why is he so slow?
Speaker 2:Get him out of here. Trash, yeah, yeah, on 11-1,. Get out. He's the ninth fastest man in the world, but in this moment, garbage five weeks back. Yeah, come on, yeah. Wow, well, broken ankle.
Speaker 1:Come on, yeah, yeah I need to see I.
Speaker 2:It doesn't need to be somebody out of shape okay, I was like hold on, because like I don't want you to volunteer us into this, because if I watching like just you and I trying to run the 4X100. God you fast. I stopped. Take a break. Gatorade break.
Speaker 1:No, but give me the like middle-aged dad that's still in shape, okay.
Speaker 2:Used to play college ball. Now he just works out.
Speaker 1:sometimes I don't even think I want that kind of athlete.
Speaker 2:Oh, okay, okay, used to play college ball.
Speaker 1:Now he just works out sometimes. I don't even think I want that kind of athlete. I want your average Joe that could finish the event. Okay, so I want, yeah so, the marathon. I'm not going to watch that whole thing, but I'm going to tune in to see how far back Kelly. A marathon, yeah, yeah, yeah, that just ran it for the first time like I want to see how they did.
Speaker 2:She's run a marathon, uh, but not an olympic right.
Speaker 1:Okay, but just give me a reference point, okay, because if, if you're especially like the water, oh yeah, yeah, yeah, a hundred meter, you know, like freestyle swim.
Speaker 2:And those races. Even the last place is just body-wise so close.
Speaker 1:But if it was like, and also Lane 8. Yeah, james, who's at his local YMCA every 6 am?
Speaker 2:He's been a lifeguard for 18 years and just loves the water. Just loves the water he's swimming in like board shorts, right yeah.
Speaker 1:Then he's just the reference yeah, and so then it gives you. They're like oh wow, those dudes are really fast yeah, when they get lapped.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, they're like oh, wow those dudes are really fast when they get lapped yeah it's a straight shot and they still get lapped. Yeah, that's fair. The third one that we talked about, I think the third one is let's just go ahead and own countries each getting their own mascot. Like give us, because the athletes change so much, right and the Olympics is ours.
Speaker 1:We have the Eagles.
Speaker 2:I just think, listen, sports and the Olympics is ours. We have the Eagles. I just think, listen, listen, sports teams have them, countries should have them. Let them out there on the field. And then what a great little halftime break. Have some of the mascots do some of the activities right, like NBA. How fun is it to watch the mascot dunk competition right.
Speaker 1:How crazy.
Speaker 2:People are cheering for their countries anyway. Why not have these animalian things be part of what we're cheering for Again? Athletes are going to come and go, but Eddie the Eagle, we can all get behind Eddie the Eagle Amazing, we're here for him. Man Edward's not done us wrong.
Speaker 1:I also think that there are some sports that need some defenses Okay. What do you mean by defenses? I just feel like we could spy some of it up. Oh okay, like if you incorporated some defense in some of these sports. Say more where you got one in mind.
Speaker 2:Um floor exercise gymnastics just like people coming in and tackling. Just watch out now.
Speaker 1:The defense doesn't have to be aggressive, but maybe it was just five guys that randomly walked across the mat at some point.
Speaker 2:You've got to watch your surroundings. You've got to be on guard. Something may happen. God, was this a kid that just walks out in front of the vault? And you've got to sid a little sidestep.
Speaker 1:Whoa whoa, whoa. You've got to get around him and then do your vault.
Speaker 2:How much better would like the 1600 meter be, or like any of the steeplechase ones, if they just let kids on the track, they're just back and forth. It's just like a school zone and a traffic guard, because, I mean, most of them are training anyway.
Speaker 1:It's just like a school zone and a traffic guard, because I mean most of them were training anyway. Yeah, yeah, it's just a little bit of defense, okay, I mean you can't have too clean of a race Swimming events. Okay, you had some guys in snorkel gear just trying to grab their feet.
Speaker 2:Okay, so we've got Super Mario Bob Sled, super Mario Kart Bob Sled, yeah.
Speaker 1:And just piranha plant, piranha plant swimming events. Well, it would feel a little bit more like Legends of the Hidden Temple, you know, like those guards would jump out and you don't know when they're going to jump out? Oh don't got my medallion. Oh, and he's going. An easy first place victory. Oh no, he's tripped up by a small child.
Speaker 2:Locked forever in the shrine of the silver monkey. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Locked in the shrine Seems good, Dude, if your Olympic victory is taken away by somebody dressed as a temple guard. Oh, it's so good. You've worked for nine years of your life. It only comes around every four years, but the out-of-work actor kevin just popped in, just scooped you thank you for giving me some backstory.
Speaker 2:He's been working hard. Big fan of the olympics, didn't know how he was gonna fit in I'm so sorry we're having to take a break.
Speaker 1:Okay, all right, get us back on track. So we want to talk about this today.
Speaker 2:It's the season it's the summer, um, but I I know that for many youth ministries like this is always a little fun integration, because it could be fun game time, like if there was ever a time to abandon ship. Let's play some fun games. Let's dig some all these book goodies out. I know that a lot of our friends, through some online shops and downloads, have some graphics and game things for you. We'll send some links at the bottom, but I think, again, it's every four years or every two, depending on summer and winter.
Speaker 2:However, you celebrate that there is a real chance to own some just funny, silly team games. Like, if you haven't thought about it already, there's still plenty of time. The Olympics run for like seven weeks, um, but to have a few midweeks in a row, especially back to, especially the summer, cause it's back to school. Put them by either random assignment or by grades, give them a country, give them a flag and do some fun little iterative youth ministry games. Like take all the little games that couldn't stand on their own and make them the Olympics right.
Speaker 2:Like, yeah, like the Chubby Bunny or the Dinosaur Arm Candy game is kind of dumb on its own, but if it's like one of 13 games you're going to play over the next three weeks and only one kid per game, like if Devin is playing this game, he can't play the other ones, that's a fun level of like strategy and teamsmanship. It gets your lead, gets your leaders to wear windbreakers and cheer them on. Like this is a great season. It couples in, it dovetails is a great season. It couples in it dovetails. But take all the dumb little games and do the thing that youth ministry can do well, which is package them in a presentation that gets folks connected. Because here's my new conviction. So we've been working on a writing project. It'll be out later this year, one of the things for relational ministry I've come around. This has been full circle.
Speaker 2:I think friendly competition begets friends. I used to be against it too. I was like church is spiritual. We do fun things because fun is the connection. I think competition at a friendly level is some of the things that maybe for our students that are already wired that way from sports teams and online gaming and a variety of other places find some ways to build in the friendly, fun team things and commit to it. Don't throw it to the side or make it the afterthought in a season like back to school ramping up whatever is the big push for small groups right before it find a friendly competition into it.
Speaker 1:That's good. I love the aspect of team Cause I think a lot of times we just do those like standalone things on Wednesday night or Sunday morning which 11th grader is the meanest kid? Yeah, but I think I think building the teams beforehand, giving them some identity. You can even put new kids into teams as they come, all of those kind of things.
Speaker 2:Yeah, if you miss a week, that's great, We'll just listen. Man, you're part of Team Canada now.
Speaker 1:Well, I think that this is a way to I mean, you can set it up, even if it's a smaller group of, like middle school girls, middle school boys, high school boys, high school girls, and have four teams. But the big thing that I would really add, especially if you're going multiple weeks, just like Olympics, make sure that those games are very different. Yeah, because you're going to let students shine. That may be more academic, yeah, or maybe more physical, all of those kind of to have a better, well-rounded team. We started, though, talking about just the whole criticism of like this is how we would do Olympics different.
Speaker 1:Sometimes I think this time of year, along with games, as we're talking about the fun element there's a big element of what we do, of just evaluating our overall production, of what we do on Sunday morning, wednesday night. So we're right, I think at that time of year For most student ministries we often think of our schedule from school year to school year, and so summer almost feels like the end of the year. It always felt like that way.
Speaker 2:To me it's a big payoff after a fall spring into the summer, absolutely, and it felt like fall was like the beginning of student ministry year.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So if you're going to give one piece of advice to youth ministers looking at the next year and evaluating what would be some advice, you would give Not just games but overall student ministry. How can we be people that evaluate better?
Speaker 2:Man. So part of our bigger conversation, I think, is always having the full scoreboard in mind, like, if you haven't tracked enough and I'll link our episode about different numbers to track, most of us don't track enough, so at one level, if you haven't already, I would encourage you to put the things in place where you're tracking more than just who was there and who wasn't there, like and there's, there's a whole list of things that we'll share with you related to, like, involvement, leadership, spiritual things beyond. Just they're not there, right, um, so being able to look at a broader score card, scoreboard for how we're doing, um, but I think I would probably tell folks to evaluate is what was maybe the thing you were hoping. So what was the goal from this to that and looking for was there a shift?
Speaker 2:Sometimes in ministry we talk about and I've heard it from you man this is a middle school heavy year. We graduated a big class. I was at a camp this summer with some friends in Georgia and they graduated an incredible class of seniors, and so they know, going into this fall, there's going to be a hole, there's going to be a leadership hole, and so one of the things from the evaluation of how great that class was will be a little bit of the perspective of what we need to be leader filling in like we need to not just be like lamenting like that well, they were really great, but okay, we see an opportunity and I think that's what being able to like look back, look forward, is to be. If, especially, the more we're looking at, the more we're acknowledging, the more we're measuring is what are the opportunities we?
Speaker 2:have because of what has changed. You know, did man like I don't know what happened, but like all these girls brought all their friends, like I think we might need to launch out a whole separate, like girls thing or whatever, or like we talked about a couple of weeks ago, man, we've had a huge surge of high school or middle school.
Speaker 2:I don't know if we're ready to split, but there might be a season that we're kind of putting some time into this, or oh man, we lost the two kids that made the worship team happen. We're going to have to really get into this, or or or something happened at camp and kids got really excited about this or that, or they want to know more, and so noticing the shift and allowing some of the shifts to create opportunities, I think is really important.
Speaker 1:That's good. I love you're talking about looking at the bigger picture, because I think so often we can get stuck in the like week to week and that's really hard to evaluate and knowing like what is important and what we value to be able to build around, because some of the things that we do that, honestly, that you felt like didn't work this last year, may still be really valuable things to run after. But we've got to be able to evaluate like okay, this thing in parent ministry or whatever right is really important and we need to do it well. It was not well attended, and so I've seen so many people throw things out because it wasn't well attended one time, instead of evaluating and going okay, we think that a type of event is really valuable. What do we need to do to help attendance instead of just running it back? Right, we often run it back hoping for different results instead of actually fixing what was broken.
Speaker 2:The content may have been right, but the time of day may have been off Right, or it may have been, you know, sandwiched in the wrong things.
Speaker 2:Like, sometimes it's not all or nothing. Like evaluation is what are the adjustments? Like, I mean, I know that we had a season of conference of for one-day events, there's only so much expectation you can have for a radius of drive time and then an end time, because the realities of picking up kids from school, beating traffic, it's just different for a one day than it is for a multi-day, because they're not coming to the thing, they're commuting to it, and that's a huge shift in realizing some of those. Again, I think most of our evaluation woes are when we are evaluating what we did and not how it impacted those that were and weren't there.
Speaker 2:You can only prepare what you can prepare. Sometimes we only know how things are going to go once they've been prototyped into a live environment. Like, you may have said great things and design great things. You may have sent enough communication, but it didn't work because of when it happened, not what you were hoping to do, which I think is your next point of maybe we need some more voices than just ourself. Well, so I think the your next point of maybe we need some more voices than just ourself.
Speaker 1:Well, so I think the decisions we make, I think there are stakeholders, and what I mean by stakeholders, these are key leaders, key students, maybe even at the time Key students, key volunteers, it's parents, it's fellow staff, senior leadership, these should be the people that you trust to give you accurate feedback and not just good yeah Oftentimes.
Speaker 2:We had a good time. The least helpful statement.
Speaker 1:If you're just trying to get feedback from the kids that are always there, the ones that are happy we can get in this little echo chamber and this is where I see a lot of student ministries stagnate they just hear from the same kids that are really already bought in they're going to be there no matter what we love coming to the D now, right at spring break, because our parents never go out of town.
Speaker 2:Okay, but for everybody else that does.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we also have those kids that are kind of French.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And, I think, trying to build relationship and also not weighing everything there, right, but to know and like to be realistic of like, I think, even with ourself, and I think that we need to understand that for every youth minister there's a certain type of kid that's going to naturally be drawn to you, right, and that you are naturally comfortable at talking with ministering to all those kind of things. You've got to be aware of, man, our student ministry doesn't seem to connect real well with the athletic type kid.
Speaker 2:I do programming or leadership or whatever. We are just not wound that way.
Speaker 1:And I think that this is why, when to come back to like the olympic kind of game, it's important that we're even building out those games for all different types of students yeah, yeah, um and to be able to even look at our programming throughout the year and say, man, for that kid that is already spiritually mature, how do we help them grow even more? Yeah, or to begin to disciple themselves? Or, for the kid, that's not, how do we introduce them to the gospel? And so we've got to think through it at all different levels, for all different types of kids, and I think the trap that we fall into is we try to make everything, that we do all of those things and we have no target whatsoever, right, and so then it's just this jumbled mess where you're trying to do everything but you're not really doing anything. Well, yeah, instead of doubling down for seasons or specific, like Sunday night is for this, yeah, like Sunday night is for this, and we're going to unashamedly go after this, knowing that we've got all of these other things, that may be a better fit.
Speaker 1:It allows us to recruit different type of leaders, to do different things, to connect with different students and to realize that there's not this like one-size-fits-all model. It's all model, but it takes a community of believers that are built different, gifted different, wired different to be able to minister and to reach students all across your community. That's also true not just with preference, but it's true with important things like race, ethnicity, those type of things inside of our churches that are in urban areas, that your church may be surrounded by a heavy Hispanic population if you also aren't represented with those leaders that understand that culture and can connect with that student, that when that student walks into your church they feel like they belong.
Speaker 2:Well, cause they? They see themselves there.
Speaker 2:I mean this is. I mean we cheer for team USA cause we live in you, yeah, usa, like I cheer for team Canada sometimes cause that's Canadian, but but I mean we we need to see ourselves there, to imagine ourselves belonging there. And I think again, as you stated, this is not any one category, but across the board, to the point that I would encourage you to recruit leaders who are intentionally different than you. That is one of the things and we'll talk about it when some of our writing stuff comes out later. That is one of the things and we'll talk about it when some of our writing stuff comes out later.
Speaker 2:There is an intentionality to relational ministry that I think you have done intuitively. We ministry folks have done intuitively that we need to start being far more intentional about who we're bringing alongside. I know that to say that sounds like I'm asking you to do more, but hear me say it this way the invitation to be more intentional is to invite others, so you are burdened less Like this. This is, I think, actually the joy, and the growth of ministry is not how can I squeeze more out of myself, how can I become so efficient that I can effort an extra 10%? You aren't an Olympic athlete. Ministry is not an Olympic sport where we are trying to get an extra 8% out of your top speed. It is a team sport in the ways in which we are trying to put the right people together to do the work.
Speaker 2:Snap hey, everybody. Thanks for listening to this episode of the Youth Ministry Booster podcast. We'd love your feedback, rating and review, whether that's on Apple Podcasts, spotify or if you watched on YouTube. We would love to hear from you. We'd also love to come alongside you, check out youthministryboostercom or send us a DM on the social medias at Youth Ministry Booster with your ministry-related questions for support and team building. You are not alone in this. We are on your team as you work to build your team in student ministry.
Speaker 1:Thank you.