Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (00:29.856) Well hey what is up everybody I am here with none other than Andrew Ostrander did I say that right? Yes! It doesn't feel like it's that difficult but it feels like it might trip some people up you know what saying? Andrew Ostrander (00:47.413) You nailed it. Thanks. I've gotten Ostrander more than I've ever gotten Ostrander. So you're in the right. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (00:57.918) Really? Yes, okay, nice, good. My gut, my intuition was right. So you and I, met through a youth ministry leader cohort and we were in that together on calls together and stuff like that. But I started just kind of noticing and paying attention to you and your social media, because that's really the only way to like... pay attention to some thing from someone who lives over a thousand miles away. And so, but I started noticing, I was like, I like what this guy's doing. And so that's why you're here. Talk to me, you know, we're gonna talk a little bit about your social media, but before we do, why don't you let like the people know like, who are you, where are you at, how long you've been in youth ministry, all that, you good stuff. Andrew Ostrander (01:29.518) the Andrew Ostrander (01:46.712) Yep, so you've already touched on it. I'm Andrew Ostrander and I'm currently the director of student ministries at Waukerusa Missionary Church in a super small town, Waukerusa, Indiana. This is month seven or eight of my role in youth ministry. I had volunteered for multiple years beforehand, but I actually came from the education world. So I was a fifth and sixth grade teacher for three years before this position opened up and Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (01:53.396) Nice. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (02:05.055) Yeah. Andrew Ostrander (02:13.206) was very clearly that God was shoving me through this doorway in youth ministry. And so that's how I ended up where I am. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (02:17.426) Nice. Yeah, so you didn't even go to like school for youth ministry or whatever. And so here you find yourself now kind of like thrust into it. Before we hop into like the particular social media stuff, tell me what's been like the biggest shift or the biggest surprise or the biggest just difference that you've noticed between your two kind of careers if you put them side by side. Andrew Ostrander (02:42.85) Yeah, I think there's a glaring amount of similarities that people wouldn't expect between education and ministry, but those are definitely there. I think the biggest difference or thing that we weren't fully prepared for, I was to the point where after God had clearly guided me here and I knew this is where I needed to be, I was ready to switch jobs. But then the act of switching churches is what really hit us hardest. I had grown up and attended one church for much of my, all of my upbringing. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (02:59.637) Yeah. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (03:02.912) Mm. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (03:10.098) Yeah. Yeah. Andrew Ostrander (03:12.396) And then most of my adult life after college. And so that was just such a huge change of pace and where you're so used to being on Sundays, you're no longer there on Sundays. So I think that was the biggest. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (03:20.256) Mmm. Yeah. Yeah. One thing about it too, like, I mean, I've always said this, but like when you move and you're in ministry, like you don't just like move jobs, but like you move everything, like everything up roots, including your community and your, you know, your church, your, family, like your church family, all that type of stuff. So yeah, that's, that is so true and probably super relatable to, you know, most youth pastors. okay. But then go ahead. Andrew Ostrander (03:47.79) I know you've experienced that even way more than I have, so you can relate. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (03:53.2) Yeah, yeah, definitely can. But if you're not used to it or know it, right, you're like, whoa, it is a little culture shocky or whatever, for sure. So, okay, then tell me then what sort of spurred you, led you towards what you're doing with your student ministry social media? Maybe first of all, what shone a light to you that was like, I should do more than just post announcement graphics on my social media feed. Andrew Ostrander (04:21.868) Yeah, so I was never a super avid social media user. Twitter and sports Twitter was where I was at in college and after. But I had just always seen the church. Like you said, it's like a hey, Wednesday nights coming up tomorrow, that type of thing, or ice skating this Friday. Join us for week three of this series. even even I was like, wow, that's not not that that's dumb, but I was uninspired. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (04:30.665) Yeah. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (04:37.844) Don't forget, yes, yeah. Yeah, no one cares about your series, yeah. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (04:47.944) Yeah. Andrew Ostrander (04:50.986) And so when I started here, I was interested in social media. But then as you touched on the way that we met through that cohort, you had given a specific lesson and not to stroke your ego or build you up. But it's a lot of credit towards you and just how you guided that. It's really stuck with me when you said, we know that the students are there and it doesn't matter how we feel about it or if we like it. Why are we not meeting them where they're at? Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (04:51.026) Right. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (04:59.029) Yeah. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (05:03.904) Hahaha Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (05:13.215) Yeah. Hmm. Hmm, yeah. Andrew Ostrander (05:18.722) And so that was just a huge challenge to me of making engaging social media of some sort and really just trying to get students to buy in. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (05:23.946) Yeah. Yeah, yeah, and you know, like the cohort was an interactive deal and you know, the kind of like lesson or whatever that I led on all that was made for exactly that. But I'll link down below an episode that's like really similar to like that conversation that we walked through on that. So if any of you are like, what was that? Like you can check that out down below. But so now you, that was your inspiration sort of. And everyone does things a little different, know, and I my like ebook and stuff like that I give tips and whatever like what exactly Did you like or what have you sort of like stumbled into like doing that's like been working really well For like you and like your particular like church student ministry social media Andrew Ostrander (06:13.944) Yeah, so when talking about the sports social media background that I've interacted with, I never ran anything as myself, but I've just interacted with that a ton. And so one of the podcasts I had previously listened to talked about the difference of short form and long form video. And so I had really, and you had touched on it as well, the importance and prevalence of short form video. So that's really where we started to focus in and without having any... Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (06:18.302) Yeah, yeah, yeah. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (06:23.402) Sure. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (06:30.665) Mm-hmm. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (06:37.568) Mm-hmm. Andrew Ostrander (06:42.964) studio or recording equipment. Yeah. We really appreciate and love the space that we have. It's not set up for having a quiet, conducive recording area for anything longer or even anything specifically for social media. And so we really went on the interview style, man on the street style videos. And so when I transferred over here, one of my former students also came along with me as a now volunteer. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (06:43.976) Right. Space. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (06:52.864) Right, right. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (06:58.73) Mm-hmm. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (07:03.017) Yeah. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (07:09.733) cool. That's awesome. Andrew Ostrander (07:12.118) And so I knew that I wouldn't have the capacity on Wednesday nights to record and do all of these. And so I proposed to him of a weekly routine of when students are welcome into the doors, but we haven't started programming, that I give him a question of the week and he goes around and asks random, funny, sometimes not as funny questions just to hear what students say. And the results are pretty amusing. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (07:18.154) Yeah. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (07:25.321) Yeah. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (07:32.766) Sure. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (07:36.287) Oh, bro, there's so much good in that, right? So like a couple of principles I heard. Number one, like, cause this is one of the common pushbacks I feel like I hear is like, I don't have time and you acknowledge that, right? You, you knew your limits already, but you were like, that's okay. I'm going to hand this off to somebody else. So like in and of itself right there, genius, like get it off your plate. You're promoting it, facilitating an opportunity for it to happen. However, so like that's leadership, but you're getting out of the way and delegating and letting somebody else kind of like own it, which is just fantastic. And then the second is like you said, like you didn't let the constraints of what you felt like your space offered or maybe didn't offer like stop you. And that's again, another like thing that I think is so good because we oftentimes like, I don't have, you know, the best equipment or the, you know, bougie is set up or whatever and it's like, who cares? We all carry around a camera in our pockets and the ability to use that to make content that ends up where students are, like you said, so, good. So tell us a little bit of what are some of your favorite questions or what have been some of the things that have maybe taken root culturally within your student ministry that people are like, that video was hilarious because X, Y, and Z. What are some of the... The funniest ones you've had are the ones that have gotten the most talk about afterwards or just even been like, yeah, the most amusing. Andrew Ostrander (09:07.736) Yeah, the first one that we actually did, so I had wanted to do it after you talked about social media and I was just figuring out what I wanted to do. And then my wife and I were out to dinner with two of our volunteers, our sponsors, and we got into controversies or like conspiracy theories that this individual was bigly bought into. And so that actually stemmed our first question of, you believe in aliens? And so I think that question has provided the most like, Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (09:13.896) Yeah. Okay. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (09:20.156) Okay. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (09:25.728) You Yeah. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (09:33.248) that's so funny. Andrew Ostrander (09:38.2) people would pause and then they automatically had the answer that they believed in, but could not explain why or why not that they believed the way that they did. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (09:40.224) Right, so funny. Yeah. yeah, that's funny. So then how, like, what are you doing for that? Like, tell me what exactly, you know, your volunteer is doing. Is he using his camera? Is he using any gear? you know, get kind of nerdy on us. Like, what actual stuff are you doing to capture it, record it, and then maybe even like edit it? Andrew Ostrander (10:08.12) Yeah, so it's about to be like the lamest set of nerdy equipment that we use. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (10:12.468) That's okay. Here's the thing, before you answer, this is what the boat, almost everyone is in. And that's why I love it, is because you're not letting whatever constraints you have stop you, you're just going for it. And yeah, it might just be a cell phone camera or whatever, but that's okay. Just do it. So yeah, let us have it. Andrew Ostrander (10:33.015) so the compilation of questions that we've come up with is stored on my phone notes app. And then we, sat down and decide what question we're going to ask that night. And then it is just a cell phone camera. And so I had gone online and was looking out for mic options quickly realizing that most of them were super expensive. So we have, I think it was like a $10 pair of the, lav mics and it's so cheap and old that Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (10:38.857) Yep. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (10:45.077) Yeah. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (10:50.174) Yeah. Andrew Ostrander (10:59.616) My phone is the only one that we can use because it has the lightning connector. And so he takes my phone and those $10, $20 lav mics. And that is how it gets recorded. We just figured out how to change video settings to try to increase the video quality a little bit, but that took a couple of months before we got to. then editing is something that I set aside time for every week. So I've been using Final Cut Pro on my Mac and that's, go through and edit and. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (11:02.464) nice. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (11:07.456) A $10 microphone, Okay. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (11:17.16) There you go. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (11:23.88) Yeah. Nice. Yeah. And so then are you doing, are you just sending him around all throughout the program? Like is he doing it ahead of time, after, both? Like what's sort of like his schedule as far as like the interview person? Andrew Ostrander (11:29.464) change scenes how I want to. Andrew Ostrander (11:42.318) Yep. So we have like a team volunteer huddle every Wednesday night. So we're there until 6.15, 6.20. And then by that time, a lot of the students are here after our doors open. So he goes out from 6.20 until we start programming at 6.35, 6.40. So he only really does it for 15 or 20 minutes. So some weeks it's pretty limited if it's a longer question. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (11:46.196) Mm-hmm. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (11:51.124) Yeah. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (12:01.76) Okay. Yeah. Andrew Ostrander (12:08.11) but it just has that time where students are roaming and choosing what to do before programming starts to get those interviews in. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (12:08.117) Yeah. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (12:13.192) Yeah, so okay, so now my question is, do you have students who seek him out now every week wanting to answer so that they can be on social? Andrew Ostrander (12:22.993) Yes, I have certain students that I see their video every single week after he records. I'm pushing like, hey, let's try to get some others. But there's clearly students that are super excited. And I see the students that run away from him as soon as they see the mic out. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (12:32.435) Yeah, yeah. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (12:36.648) Sure, yeah, Yeah, that's been my experience too, right? Like we do a social challenge every single week and we try to like batch record as much as we can, kind of like you. And almost every week as I like look at the footage after I'm like that kid's always in there, you know? And that's fine, right? Like that's fine for them to want to do it because it's whatever, it's how they connect and how they want to connect. Have you noticed any like... in-person benefits to what you're doing on social? Like anything that has camaraderie, even just creating conversation because of a certain video or topic or whatever, or the, I don't know, even like the feel and the vibe because you're filming something to go online. Has there been any in-person benefits that you've noticed? Andrew Ostrander (13:23.16) Yeah, I think absolutely. think the specific content or question that gets talked about for that day and then after programming a little bit, but then that conversation dies down. And there are a lot of different factors that I think have played into this, but since adding it and rolling it out and how our ministry has adjusted the pre-service time a little bit, students are really excited to be there and excited to interact whether or not it's with a camera in front of them. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (13:27.156) Mm-hmm. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (13:31.602) Yeah. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (13:45.758) Yeah. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (13:52.794) Interesting. Yeah. Andrew Ostrander (13:52.812) And so there's just been that shift of that vibe of being willing to be open or just hanging out together. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (13:59.88) That's cool. like that's a really that not even when I started on this whole journey and podcast, whatever, that's not even a thing that was even like on my radar, you know, but I've noticed that too in our in our context. And it's it's really cool to hear that for sure. What would you say like is anything that you're maybe like thinking about for the future? Like this is kind of your current rhythm and iteration. Are you like content with it and you just want to keep doing this or what if you had the capacity would be something that's maybe on the horizon that you've been thinking about or maybe wanting to do. Andrew Ostrander (14:38.254) So there are multiple different things that where I'm wanting to take it. And so I've created a weekly posting schedule that I want to figure out either for the end of the school year or just really gear up to do it next school year. We're redesigning a little bit of our space to better meet our needs. And part of that, I'm really trying to push or find a spot to create a more studio like area so that we could do longer form or like five, 10 minute videos. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (14:43.199) Yeah. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (14:51.518) Okay. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (14:54.952) Nice. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (15:02.814) Yeah. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (15:07.401) Yeah. Andrew Ostrander (15:07.724) while the interviews are happening elsewhere. And so there are lots of different places that I'm wanting to take in it, just seeing whether or not any of them are possible. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (15:10.089) Nice. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (15:15.888) Yeah, cool. So cool. What do you mind? Like, are you able off top your head or pull it up? Like, what is your proposed posting schedule that you want to aim for, you know, start the next school year? Andrew Ostrander (15:29.1) Yeah. So it would just be the weekdays because I know like content limits and I try to set time aside to network. Monday, we want to be doing a message Monday. And so that's just a one, two minute Devo, primarily probably just adults. And then I have a student intern. And so just whatever word is laid on our hearts or minds for that day for Monday, Tuesday would be one of our interview style videos. So that's the ones that we're currently posting most frequently. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (15:33.353) Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, it's great. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (15:41.362) Okay. Yeah. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (15:47.689) Nice. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (15:51.796) great. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (15:58.463) Yeah. Andrew Ostrander (15:58.994) the Wednesday one would be dependent on having a space to record it, but I want to do like a Wednesday word from a student. there again, pretty similar to Monday minute or two, Devo reading scripture style video Thursday, my intern and I have been recording, what we think are funny videos when we have internships together. And so Thursday would be that type of video right now. We're asking chat GPT to create a video for us and we just. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (16:05.522) Nice. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (16:09.289) Yeah. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (16:19.072) You Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (16:23.85) Yeah. Andrew Ostrander (16:28.106) acted out. So those will be Thursday and then Friday. My idea would be for the slightly longer form video like drafts or tier list type things if we have the capability of doing that. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (16:28.927) Yeah. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (16:37.842) Nice. Nice, cool. Okay, so like last little thing here. What would you say to anybody who was like you, you know, you're not even a year yet into like student ministry and all the demands and all the things that like come with the job are there and you know, have to. manage it, schedules, manage relationships and personalities, and they just feel overwhelmed by even the thought of social. What would just be your encouragement to other youth pastors out there who are maybe on the fence or not sure if doubling down on creating social content is for them? Andrew Ostrander (17:18.626) Yeah, so I think a couple of things come to mind. The first one you kind of touched on, it's a mix of starting small and passing it off. So my church leadership, my bosses are huge on a leader doesn't have to do everything. Like we're to the point where it's better if you're training up other people to do it than doing it yourself. So start small or find someone to do it for you on your big programming nights. But then also find whatever part of social media sounds fun to you. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (17:25.382) Mm-hmm. Yeah. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (17:33.119) Yeah. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (17:37.812) Yeah, it's great. Yeah. Andrew Ostrander (17:48.288) start with that. Like I've loved editing so far up to this point because I'm amused by it. And so find whatever part of the process you enjoy and really just start and focus there learning how to do that so that it's more fun for you. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (17:49.151) Hmm. Nice. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (17:59.794) Yeah, yeah, that's so true. Okay, is there anything else about what you do social media-wise that I haven't really asked you, but you're like, this is important, I wanna make sure I share that too. Andrew Ostrander (18:14.382) I think we've touched a lot on it. It's been fun. The personal connections that I form through it. So my volunteer that does the Wednesday night, we get to talk and reflect and discuss it a lot. And then my relationship with my intern has taken a huge upswing because of we're just hanging out together and making stupid, fun youth videos together. so like you asked about the in-person effects, even just on Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (18:25.78) Yeah. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (18:29.386) Sure. Mm. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (18:39.007) Yeah. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (18:42.654) Yeah. Andrew Ostrander (18:43.754) on my personal and my perspective. It's had a huge impact on relationships that I get to form because of these seemingly what a lot of people would view as pointless or menial impact videos. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (18:46.942) Hmm. Yeah. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (18:53.64) Yeah. No, that's really, that's actually really like profound. And I really appreciate you saying that because I do think it's more than just, you know. satisfying social media algorithms or feeding the beast or you know, that's what I call it. Like you gotta keep feeding the beast. But I like that you're saying like, there's been some, you know, relational equity that kind of comes out of that. And that really is the ultimate goal. Like if you look at the inception of social, like it's social, right? In nature, like that's where it came from. And so if it's not at least, you know, playing a part in that within like the context of your local community, like you might be missing out on it, but it's, The fact that you're doing it is creating a good vibe and good energy. that's, I think, one of my main goals always in social is not like to go viral on our church account and have a bunch of views and all that stuff. Like really it's to serve our community like best, you know? And then if it goes viral or if it gets a lot of views or whatever, like that's great, but that's like a secondary. thing that I'm looking for. Primarily it's just like I want to serve the students that God has entrusted to me here and disciple them as best I can through the means and avenues of social. So it's great. Okay, so last thing, people want to know if they want to see what you're doing, they want to see some of the stuff you're doing, where do they go? What can they go follow and go check out online or whatever? Andrew Ostrander (20:23.042) Yeah, so right now I'm posting on two separate places, the YouTube channel, Walker's Student Ministries, and then the Instagram, which is either Walker's Student Ministries or Waukee with a Y Student Ministries. I would have to go shuffle check. I'm not sure that was created. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (20:35.936) We'll link them both down below. We'll get it locked in. So if you're like, I don't know how to WakaRusa, the type text down below will be spelled hopefully correctly and it'll take you where you need to go. Nice. Andrew, anything else before we cut you loose? Andrew Ostrander (20:47.438) You Andrew Ostrander (20:53.646) I think just obviously with the people that you have or the following you have, it's either of interest to them or could be something that they're already doing. I think it is really just super important to try one. The first video I made lasted me for three weeks because you just had enough to work with from it. And so it feels like huge undertaking. It's not as bad as what I initially went into it expecting. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (21:01.152) Mm. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (21:05.6) Mm. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (21:11.838) Yeah, yeah. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (21:16.748) Yeah, no, that's a really good point. It's a new skill for a lot of people. So it is gonna feel a little bit overwhelming. But like you said, once you kind of get into it, you might learn something like, like editing, like you said, and you'll find a new skill or at least something else that you enjoy. So it's awesome. All right, guys, well, for Andrew, this is Nick. We're signing off and talk to you next time. See ya. Nice dude, that was great. Super helpful. I'm really excited. I'm really excited. Andrew Ostrander (21:43.598) Thank you. Yeah. And it is a huge testament to you. know, like, it was in there, but just that. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (21:50.688) Yeah, yeah