Nick Clason (00:01):
Hey everybody. Welcome back to another episode of the Hybrid Ministry Show. So excited to be with you. I, as always am your host, Nick Clason, along for the ride. And in today's episode, I want to talk about this dude, my kids are obsessed with YouTube. What does this mean for the future? That's what we have on store. So make sure that you stick around. We're gonna talk about Generation Alpha, we're gonna talk about what's unique about YouTube, what I've found through a little bit of research and as well as just give some, as I've done before, some stream of consciousness kind of thoughts. This is what some implications might be for you and for your church moving forward, and how you can rethink the way, potentially the way that you do ministry or the way that you supplement what you do for ministry. Don't want you to forget that we are on YouTube. 

Nick Clason (00:52):
And today I'm going to share a couple of exclusive graphics on the screen, so make sure that you head over there if that's something that you're interested in. Um, you can subscribe to that in the show notes, subscribe like the video. All those things will help. A rating or a review of the show, maybe even a share with a friend. All of that stuff really, really helps us get indexed gets found. And I just wanna say thank you. Like we have had, the last three or four months have been our biggest months by far, by like combined with almost all the other months before that. So we are well on our way to a thousand downloads. So pumped about that, we are almost up to 200 subscribers on YouTube. And so, again, very excited about that. Thank you guys for hanging out. I also want to toss this out there. 

Nick Clason (01:34):
If you're listening, head to the show notes, http://www.hybridministry.xyz, and I'm gonna leave a link for the Q and for a q and a section. If you have questions that you want answered on this show, send them in. What are you grappling with? What are you wrestling through and how can we help be of any sort of assistant answering some of those and just giving some ideas and thoughts about. Again, uh, if you don't know my story, I am a youth pastor, Nick Clason in the trenches at a church in Dallas Fort Worth area. I am doing all the things. I am running the programs. We got Wednesday nights, we got Sunday mornings, and I am also someone who's just passionate about digital and hybrid ministry. Not because I want to forsake the gathering together, but because I want to add supplemental opportunities for you and me and us as a church to show up in the lives of our people, in my case, my students, in potentially your case, your congregation members' lives. 

Nick Clason (02:26):
And so that's the whole mission and desire behind what we're doing here at this show. And so that's what we're gonna be exploring is different social media platforms, church marketing tips, digital communication opportunities, church, social media, and church growth ideas, especially talking about younger generations like Generation Z and Generation Alpha. And so that's in particular what this episode is going to be aimed at is this I idea and this realization that I'm coming to with Generation Alpha. If you don't know Jen Alpha is the, um, most, uh, they are the youngest kids in our student ministry age right now, sixth, seventh, eighth grade. Um, and so we're gonna dive into that a little bit more. Again, so thrilled to have you along in the show. I just wanna let you know one last thing before we dive into the actual content free ebook link in the show notes. 

Nick Clason (03:20):
It will help you and give you your guide from posting a TikTok from zero all the way to finished. Again, thanks so much for hanging out on this, uh, show and let's dive into, dude, my kids are obsessed with you two. What does this mean for the church? First, we're gonna talk about Jen Alpha, so let's go ahead and do that on the other side. All right, so generation alpha, the the oldest generation Alpha was born in 2010. So a little bit of Lucy Goose goosey math that makes them 13 years old. That is what I often do for, um, like age like that. All right, so like someone's 13 years old. I always, if you subtract five, you'll know what grade they're in. That's a little pro tip youth pastor tip that I use. So 13 minus five equals eight. That means that the, uh, oldest Gen Z is eighth grade. 

Nick Clason (04:12):
That means that seventh and sixth grade. So our entire middle school ministry is Gen Alpha. I might have said Gen Z, but I mean Gen Alpha, generation Alpha is basically our entire middle school ministry. So youth pastors, if, if you're a youth pastor like I am, you've been trying to crack the code of Gen Z. Gen Z is high school and in about four years, they're done. We're not worried about Gen Z anymore in student ministry, or we shouldn't be. And you know, some churches are just now grappling with the idea of reaching millennials, bro, millennials are in their forties now. Like I am a millennial. I am 33 years old, I'll be 34 in a couple of months. I am dead in the middle of my working life. I have children and my children are not Gen Z. My children are gen alpha. Um, so 2010 is the bracket. 

Nick Clason (04:58):
So I have two kids, they're born in 2016 and then 2018. So they're square in that Gen alpha range. So a couple of things that are unique about them. 2010, keep in mind about this, right, 2010, for those of you listening, those of you older was the year that the ipo, the iPad was introduced. You might remember that. I remember when I was in college and the iPad was introduced, and when the iPad came out, I thought to myself, wow, who is even gonna use that? That's just an over-inflated iPhone. It doesn't even do anything for you. Now let me ask you this. How many iPads in your life have you owned me? 3, 4, 5, maybe at this point, right? Like at the time it was an ex exorbitant price tag. And I remember when it came out, we all in college, I was in college, all my friends were like, we're not ever gonna get the iPad. 

Nick Clason (05:47):
That's ridiculous. I can do all the same things on my iPhone and carry it around in my pocket. Doesn't even have data then if they did introduce one with data. But I had this really cool opportunity, did an internship one summer in Connecticut, and me and the guy that I was staying with, my host family, we were chatting up one day about the iPad and its functionality. And he worked in Times Square. So I was in Connecticut and he, he commuted down the train an hour into Times Square, worked at a bank in Times Square. And so he had the iPad as a thing to do on the train so that he could work and commute, respond to emails, all those types of things. He got the plan with data, so we're talking about it, whatever. And I get ready to leave after my 10 weeks of staying at their house needing all their food. 

Nick Clason (06:28):
And uh, they give me a going away gift of an iPad, like a brand new iPad. And so I walk into school the next year as almost the only kid in the entire, like sophomore class or junior class, whatever class I was in that had an iPad. In fact, all my friends made fun of me because they, they talked about how like, uh, bougie or how like, um, over the top I was for actually owning an iPad. And there was this hashtag that would go around, it's like hashtag Nick has an iPad. Like it, it was a joke. But my point in saying that is remember when the iPad came out, how long ago that was, how or how recent that might feel to you. That was the same year that the oldest group of generation Alpha kids were born back then when the iPad was created. 

Nick Clason (07:16):
So hopefully that gives you just a little bit of context, a little bit of frame of reference timeline wise about when they were born, when that shift from Gen Z switched over to Generation Alpha. And so my kids, my personal kids are squarely in that Generation Alpha category and they are obsessed with YouTube. And so much so that our Disney plus our Netflix, all those things are not as important as our YouTube premium subscription that we just signed up for. In fact, I'm viewing YouTube Premium as one of my streaming services in my house. And quite frankly, the reason for that is my kids prefer to watch people like Ryan's World or Dude Perfect. Or, um, what's the one Rainbow Friends like on YouTube? So much so that I was like, I wanna get a, um, premium so that I can keep them away from commercials. 

Nick Clason (08:07):
And in one hand, yes, Jen Alpha has a much lower tolerance for commercials than you and I might do, uh, or you and I might have as people who've grown up with traditional broadcast tv, but also like, bro, I'm letting them loose on YouTube. Like I, I want to at least, and I'm in the age with them still where they'll listen to me. They won't be defiant intentionally or disobey intentionally. So they'll watch what I tell them. They're allowed to watch shows that I'm okay with them watching, but I had no control over the ads. And so I bought premium to control the ads. I e get rid of the ads and it's a nice little feature. Um, I, I like it for my phone and stuff like that as well, cuz it's my, my account and then their, so their subsidiary kids' accounts, but they are obsessed with it. 

Nick Clason (08:51):
And so I was, I was just, you know, fighting them again. They're like, Hey, I wanna be on YouTube, I wanna watch you on YouTube. And I'm like, all right, whatever. That's fine. And they're just watching our tv, you know, they don't even really watch it on like their phones or tab, they don't even have phones or, or devices really, but they'll watch it on just like our Smart TVs, our Rokus. And I was like, why are they so obsessed with YouTube? Like what gives, like, why is the deal? And so I just, I wanted to explore that and that's what I wanted to explore in this podcast episode. So let's dive into the next section, which I'm titling, what did the Google machine have to say about this? Let's check it out. 

Nick Clason (09:26):
All right. Like any good millennial parent, I did what we've all done before, right? And I had this idea, and so I asked Google, Google, why do my kids like YouTube so much more than any other shows? And here's what, um, the first result spit out, it said, YouTube allows kids to explore their interest on a whim deeply, easily. And with great entertainment from week to week. Kids can go from, uh, routinely watching videos about plant-based diets to learning a new language. And so basically what I was saying is like that YouTube has just a vast array, a vast library of ideas to allow people to kind of explore. And that's one of the things, especially with Gen Z, I think we started to see that shift. I think that's gonna be even just as true, maybe even more true of generation alpha in the land of they get to tailor make their experience. 

Nick Clason (10:17):
And I think that that right there is going to be a massive shift for churches. I don't think that we should compromise on our standards or our, the truth of the gospel or the truth of the message of Jesus and the fact that he redeems us from our sins and gives us an opportunity to have salvation found in him. But we oftentimes equate that truth of the gospel, that truth of Jesus with, uh, like, like church has to look this way. And if you're not coming to church every single week in person for 52 weeks a year listening to a pastor's sermon first and above all, and then maybe secondarily and ancillary finding community. But first you gotta make sure you go to that worship service. I mean, it's a very fun prolific approach. Uh, we've, we've all learned that marketing the concentric circles Rick Warren. 

Nick Clason (11:07):
And I don't know that that like funnel approach is, or that like large groom gr large room gathering experience is the top of the funnel anymore. I think the top of the funnel is what I'm trying to, to propose to all of you digital and hybrid options and digital and hybrid ministry. And then if someone is interested in custom making their experience, they may not find, I'll just be honest with you, like, and don't crucify me for this, but like, I would rather listen to my pastor sermon o on a run or on my way to work than sit and listen for an hour just to a talking head. Like, I love my pastor, but like I can put it on 1.5 speed. I can get just about all the same experiences out of it. There's really no, and for me, I, I'm always, almost always late cuz I'm, I'm working on something ahead of time cuz my job is to work at church and I'm leaving early cuz I have to get to something else to run something else. 

Nick Clason (12:02):
I'm not talking to almost like a single soul in the auditorium. Like the one element that I really can't get is live praise and worship. That is the one thing that I, I don't think like Spotify or something else digital can replace. That being said, like I do really want that connection, that community. Like that's really important to me. And, and I would almost argue, especially for our younger and next generations, like they want that real authentic like opportunity for connection and community. They want that more than they want a large group gathering auditorium. So I say that to say we have the message of the gospel, but we've equated the, the why or the mission and we've tied it very tightly to our method. And we've said the mission and the method are one and the same. And if you don't love coming to church at eight 30 to listen to a sermon, you don't love Jesus. 

Nick Clason (12:57):
And while again, I think that there are benefits of that, and I think that that's like in a lot of churches, that's the way things are done. And I think that that's not a bad thing necessarily. I do think that in this like create your own experience world, how are we gonna reach people that can literally get on YouTube and watch whatever they want, yet we say, but you gotta do it this way over here. Like how much longer is that experience going to last? And so continuing on YouTube is the second largest search platform in the world, like right behind Google and it's owned by Google. So not only is it the second largest, and it's like, it's not like it's trying to compete with the first one, right? The first one powers the second largest search engine in the world. Some people say it's the third largest. 

Nick Clason (13:43):
And and they would put Google images in between. Again, all three top three owned by Google. 400 hours of content is uploaded to YouTube. Every get this, every minute, 400 hours of content is uploaded to YouTube every single minute of every single day. That is bonkers to me. 1 million, or I'm sorry, excuse me, not million with an m, billion with a b, 1 billion hours of content are watched on YouTube every single day. Crazy. All right, this is from an article. Um, I got a couple different articles that I use to, to get some of these stats from. I'll drop those in the show notes. Um, so check those out. But television viewing figures from across Europe, this is a European art article, are in decline. Children and young adults now watch a third less broadcast television than they did in 2010. So like I said, that graph is up here on the screen if you're watching on YouTube. 

Nick Clason (14:41):
If not, head on over to the show notes and you can check that out. But what I want you to know is that there, that YouTube is changing the game in television and I'm wondering what implications might be for church. So let's dive into some potential church implications on how generation alpha and generation Z consumption of YouTube might be changing things for the church in 2023 and moving beyond. All right, so what are our church implications? What does YouTube and the rise of it have as far as churches are concerned? What are the implications? I mean, here's the thing about churches, right? Like church is a social entity in a lot of ways. And like I know we're like, no, no, no, it's about Jesus and it's about relationship with him and it's not religion, it's relationship, all those things. That's fine. But at the, at the core of the day, like at the end of what we're talking about here, like when people feel connected to a church, it's because they feel connected to the belief system, probably, hopefully first and foremost, but then secondarily the community that they've found there. 

Nick Clason (15:39):
And so if students, people, kids, parents, adults, anyone are not connected to the rest of the people, the rest of the larger organization of the church, they're not gonna stay in the church. And so the reality about this, this is very simple, this is very basic. I'm not trying to say anything honestly, really profound to be a part of a church. You're either a part of it or you're not a part of it. Like that's it, right? There's really only two options. You either feel a part of it or you don't feel a part of it. And there's all sorts of in between about people who maybe feel in the margins are trying to get a part of it, can't get a part of it, are not really trying to get a part of it, and are not really connected. But other people maybe like their parents are super connected. 

Nick Clason (16:16):
There's all sorts of stuff in between. But at the end of the day, you either feel connected or you don't feel connected, okay? And like I said, there may be some gray, some nuance in there, but if you're not feeling connected, the reality is this, is that, is that your like tie to your church, your interest in your church is not gonna be that elevated based off of what we typically offer. And so how are we going to find ways, find inroads into our people's lives, potentially through YouTube? Uh, I said this a while back, 70, I think three or 79% of, um, people have at one point in time watched some sort of explainer how to video on YouTube. That's a great spot for churches to just start. How to read your bible, how to find accountability, how to pray short form, long form, long form clipped into short form. 

Nick Clason (17:07):
There's all kinds of opportunities there. And you're probably thinking, I don't have time for this. I get it. That is where like there has to be a, a vision and a mission like fueling behind this idea. Like we are going all in on this because this matters to generation Z and generation Alpha and the younger people in our church. It may not be the biggest like priority for your top givers and donors in their forties, fifties, and sixties, but it matters to the younger generation. So how can we do that? Recently I was talking to a church and the funniest part about this is that, um, we had met where we had a planned meeting on the calendar with two youth pastors from another church in town. And they walked in as me and my boss and my other coworker associate were all, um, filming a TikTok video. 

Nick Clason (17:57):
And it was one of those tos where it was like, do you know it or do you not know it? And the the theme was high school musical songs, and if you knew it, you went to one side of the, the frame on the camera, and if you didn't, you went to the other and they walked in on us doing that. Uh, but of course that led to a conversation like, what, what were you guys doing? How often do you post a TikTok? What's your philosophy and strategy behind it? But they told us that they were a youth ministry with 800 kids coming at one point in time and they don't have those numbers anymore. And so we like, that got me thinking like, again, the 800 kids that were a part of the church back in the day, why are kids less and less interested in church? 

Nick Clason (18:35):
And I think it's because there's more and more opportunity out there for them. And a lot of times our response to that is, well then we need to get kids off phones. We need to get kids off social media and get them back in church. And that could work, like, that could modify their behavior to make that happen. Um, but are they really there? Is their heart really in it at that point? Um, and the then the question I thought of was like, well then what was the commitment level of the 800 back in the day? Was it just the best, most poppin social gathering to come to? Or was it, um, they felt forced, they felt expected, they had not as much, you know, distraction opportunity as they do now. And so maybe the, the quality of those 800 though, the quantity was there, the quality wasn't maybe now same thing. 

Nick Clason (19:26):
The quality is there and the quantity is not. How do you raise, how do you raise both? And I think one way that you can raise both is to lean into this hybrid ministry. How can you on YouTube with 400 hours uploaded every minute with 1 billion, um, what was it? 1 billion, 1 billion hours of content watched every single day with 1 billion hours of content watched every single day. How can you lean into that, um, as a church and show up where it matters most in people's everyday lives? What matters most is not showing up on YouTube. I want to be clear, but what matters most is showing up in people's lives on a regular and consistent basis and maybe in the unexpected zones, i e not just the times you're expected to show up Wednesday nights and Sunday mornings. Well, hey everyone, thanks so much for hanging out on this episode. 

Nick Clason (20:19):
I hope that just this kind of brain dump thought process, like live reaction to me exploring why in the world do my kids like YouTube so much? What does it mean for our churches helped? I still don't really know the actual why. I think it just gives them like their own control, their own algorithm selection. The algorithm shows them more and more of what they wanna watch and I think that they enjoy that. You know, um, some of the other streaming platforms are trying to sort of adapt that sort of algorithm ai thought process into what they're doing. I mean, so the reality is like they're still losing right to YouTube, like they're still losing to YouTube. And so, um, I just think that that trend is worth noticing. And uh, one of the reasons I notice it is, is threefold. One, I'm, I'm the church communication guy in our student ministry. 

Nick Clason (21:04):
Two, I'm a youth pastor, so I interact with generation Alpha on a regular basis. Three, I'm the dad of generation alpha kids, like little, little kids, um, who are going to shape the future generations. And so those three things I'm noticing, and I hope that in immunos in them you find that advantageous and useful for your church to not grow outdated and stale, but to continue to grow young and and relevant to the students, kids and younger people in your congregations. Again, thanks so much for hanging out. Hey, I do wanna give you an update In episode 48, I talked about a shift in my content, what I'm doing now, and I did recently notice an uptick in my engagement and my views by focusing more on, on quality overt quantity. Um, and so again, I said in that episode it came down to just a margin or just like a capacity issue. 

Nick Clason (21:54):
Um, and so the fact is, I have noticed that going up, going up and I did talk several episodes back about a posting service kind of tanking my YouTube shorts views, my YouTube shorts views have finally bounced back. And I'm so grateful for it and I think it's because I, I fed it more quality content that people would hopefully interact with and engage with more frequently. So I just wanted to give you that update. I've always told you I'm gonna keep it real with y'all here. And so that's just me trying to do that. Hey again, thanks so much for hanging out and uh, we will talk next time and don't forget, and as always, stay hybrid.