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Summer doesn’t just disrupt student schedules, it disrupts your ministry’s rhythm. And when families are already juggling travel, sports, camps, and changing routines, adding a calendar full of one off events and long breaks can quietly drain momentum. We wrestle with a simple question: if Wednesday night is the one predictable thing you can offer, why would you remove it?

Tyler Lane, next gen pastor at Valley Real Life in Spokane, shares how his team is rethinking summer youth ministry programming around consistency. We talk about what teenagers actually need when life gets chaotic, how to keep meeting even when volunteer availability drops, and why “unplugged” summer nights can drive more relational ministry than a rigid school year format. Tyler also gets practical about simplifying worship and teaching, planning early, and empowering key volunteers and students to lead so the ministry doesn’t depend on staff doing everything.

You’ll also hear about Engage mission trips and the reality of leading across time zones, plus travel tips that only come from experience. If you’re deciding whether to pause youth group for summer, radically change it, or keep it steady, this conversation gives you a framework, not just ideas. Subscribe, share this with a youth leader on your team, and leave a review. What does summer look like in your ministry right now?


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BTE 5.14 Summers Off vs. Regular Programming: Part 1 with Tyler Lane and Brittany Shoemake

Hi, I'm Brad Warren. This is Beyond the Event, a Youth Ministry podcast presented by Christ and Youth, where we help you maintain momentum between the mountaintops. Today we are starting our final mini series uh for for this season, talking about the benefits of uh of keeping programming consistent through the summer. In a couple weeks, we'll talk um again about the benefits of taking off for the summer or radically changing your programming for the summer. Um today we're gonna be talking to Tyler Lane. He is uh the next gen pastor at uh Valley Real Life in Spokane, Washington. He's a great dude, been on the podcast before. So I'm sure you will love uh what he has to say and getting to hear from him about his heart for students and for student ministry, um, even when things are crazy and busy and you feel like you don't have a grasp on what's going on at all. Um, so we're gonna do that later. First, Brittany Shoemake is here. Hi, Britney.

It's producer Lauren's normal chair. The other chair has disappeared. Oh. And since there's no video, we just decided who cares what chair. That's right. Okay. Yep.

And is way more comfortable than I the chair that you're in, I'm sorry.

I really, really believe that. Yeah. No, I I it's a lot. Oh gosh. Um, anyway, this is uh we're we're getting done with the podcast a little bit earlier this year because in the past we've had episodes that go into like early May, and we're recording, you know, a lot in April, and it's like that was just a little bit crazy. And now I'm so thankful that we did that because it is March 19th, and it might as well be.

I said it may as well be May 19th. Oh, right.

Yeah, it it does feel like that work-wise, but first day of March Madness.

Those don't count. This is the first remote. Who you got?

Uh as much as I would want it to be the Arkansas Racerbacks.

It's not going to be. Uh, I have everything.

Let me tell you, as a Kentucky fan, that John Caliperry in March is not.

How did it feel with the Hogs winning the SEC Championship, though?

Yeah. Um, I have Arizona going all the way back. Great. I think I do too. They have a good team, I'm sure.

Um well, that's super fun. And obviously I have an Arizona bracket, but I also have a Kentucky bracket.

Can you not like go through a season without doing a Kentucky bracket?

I have to. It's just like it, I don't know. I have to have more. It's not even that. It's just like I have to have hope.

In this particular uh situation. So who you got, Pyle?

Yeah. Yeah. No, it's March and I'm mad. That's all. Yeah. Oh. March.

Beware the ire of March. Yeah. Yeah, seriously. Seriously. Anyway.

Also, speaking of John Calipari, um, I have been in both the um the arena at Arkansas and in RuP Arena. And let me tell you, big downgrade for John. Oh, yeah. 100%. Well, I mean Rupert. Ruperena's like one of the premieres. It's incredibly nice. It's yeah, it's wild. It is wrong.

And also, like when I'm saying I've been in the arenas, I'm not saying like I've attended games and sat in the seating. I mean like I have we have done shows in both of those arenas that I have loaded in for, and the facilities are so, so, so much nicer at Rep Arena. It's incredible. So Yeah.

Well, they're connected to like a whole convention center. It's not a good thing. Are you gonna keep making excuses or are you just gonna like admit defend Bud Walton Arena? I I do.

Uh they recently redid it. It has a convention arena.

What did you do? What did you do at Bud Walton?

Um there's a production company that has a contract with um uh with U of A on their graduation ceremonies. And they have rented motors and trusts from us multiple times.

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