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Summer can either empty out your youth ministry calendar or expose what was never sustainable to begin with. We sit down with Hannah Helwege from New Life Church in Colorado Springs to get specific about what actually works when school gets out, sports and theater shift, and families finally have breathing room. If you’re a youth pastor trying to build summer programming that keeps students engaged and keeps leaders healthy, you’ll hear practical rhythms you can borrow immediately.

Hannah serves in a multi-congregational church where each congregation has real autonomy, which means student ministry can be shaped around local schools and real family schedules. We break down her baseline weekly plan for middle school and high school, why they meet when they meet, and how she thinks about consistency versus flexibility. Then we zoom out to the bigger summer moments like conferences, serving opportunities, and CIY MOVE, including how she’s using camp as a launchpad for incoming freshmen and a capstone option for seniors.

The heart of the conversation is follow-up. We talk about testimony nights right after returning, one-on-one and small-group conversations in the weeks that follow, and how to mobilize volunteer leaders so students don’t come home from a “mountaintop experience” and get dropped back into isolation. We also cover long-range planning outside the summer rush, simplifying teaching to create margin, and protecting Sabbath with a church culture that treats rest as obedience, not a luxury.

Subscribe wherever you listen, share this with a youth pastor who’s building their summer calendar, and leave a review with the one summer rhythm you’re committing to this year.


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BTE 5.15 Summers Off vs. Regular Programming: Part 2 with Hannah Helwege and Lane Moss

Ouch. There's no H left in me. I pinched it right out. Ouch.

Ow. You just pinked the H out of yourself.

That's quick. Well, I'm impressed. Thanks. How quick you're able to pick out the H's. We just totally exclude them.

I got blood blisters. We can give Ozark the credit for that. Yeah. You're kind of stark. If there's any kind of if there's any kind of life lesson or life skill I learned at Ozark that has stuck with me, it's it's learning to very quickly misinterpret things on purpose. All right, guys.

Let's let's do this. We are doing it. Save it for the pod. Hi, I'm Brad Warren. This is Beyond the Event, a youth ministry podcast presented by Christ in Youth, where we help you maintain momentum between the mountaintops. This is our final episode.

Last one. Is it okay that I talked in the intro?

Season five. Of course it is. You can talk whenever you want. You outrang me. Uh last episode of season five. Um it has been way more than two weeks, and I apologize for that. Uh, but our last episode that we published was with Tyler Lane. Talked a little bit about how they do their summer programming. Today we're talking to Hannah Hellage, who is at New Life Church. Is that right?

New Life. Yeah. Yeah. New Life Church in Colorado Springs, Colorado. And uh before we do anything else, I would like to brag on myself. Can I do that? Of course. I wish you would. Okay. I've never done this before. This is what it's like to like yourself.

This is crazy. This is what John A. Cuff was talking about.

Um on our last episode, I was talking to Tyler Lane. You've heard me. What a guy. Um, I get to see him on Monday. Uh and he talked about his attendance during the summer typically dropping off from about 260 students to about 180 students. And I said casually, oh, so like a 30% dip. Just like toss that out. Just toss it out there. I don't know anything about numbers, which I think I said on the episode. I was like, that could be that could be embarrassing how off that is. So nobody checked me on it. And then we made a joke about you know who on staff would know instantly who had like what 180 divided by 260 is. If you were to pick somebody who had to tell you that right now, who would you pick? John Luzetter. No. Ryan Claiborne. Maybe, but no. Oh, I'm out. Joel Yates?

Oh, yeah, juice box. Juice box. Oh juice box yates. Yeah. Yeah.

Well, Joel gave me this pink post-it note where he did the math after listening to the episode. And do you know what the actual percentage is? I'm going to go with 30. 30.27%. It's incredible. Nicely done.

Rounds down to 30, baby. Nice job. Thank you. I'm quitting to become a mathematician.

I'm not going to tell him that we chatted him out. He'll get to hear it.

That's right. Yeah, we love Joel. He yeah, yeah, we do. Is he the kindest person on our staff?

I mean, he's he is the most akin to a golden retriever on our staff, I think. Which is to say, yes. Yeah. John Luzadder, by the way, John, he was a he's a state champion mathlete in high school.

That's actually true. Yeah. So funny. I did not know that. If I gave you four guesses to guess what he has a state ring for from high school, where in that line of four would be now.

Um that's a great question. I w I want to say like a I don't want to give him too much credit. I don't know. I don't know. I need to think about it. I need to go, I need to think. I'm not so familiar with my dog breeds. Like a Scotty dog.

Like a little Scottish terrier? Yeah. Yeah. I think they're pretty yippy. Are they he's not yippy. He's not really yippy. He's like an English Bulldog.

Yeah, he's like an English Bulldog, yeah.

Like he's got that face and then he doesn't talk that often, but when he does, you hear it.

You know? And he's always right, just like an English Bulldog.

Just like an English bulldog. That's what they say about English Bulldogs.

Um, Lane, it is nearly summer. We are we the we're uh on the cusp. The the summer is nigh, as they say. 100%. Um, and we it has been a tradition. Um, I don't know if you even know this or not, but it has been my tradition to have you on the last episode of every season of this podcast.

It's partially because I'm not gonna lie, I get a little bit fried on podcasting. I believe it. Um, by the end of the year. You do a lot of it, yeah. And you're just like the best person to talk to, and it makes it so easy. So thank you for being here. It's my joy. Um I love to do it. This is your what number, summer?

What's gonna be different about summer 14 than has ever happened in any other move summer before?

Um, I don't know that I can speak to any other move summer uh period. Yeah, the other 13. Yeah, yeah. Okay, okay, okay. Um well, certainly um the the fact just the sheer number, uh, we're doing 43 events. Is that all? Yeah, that's all. Uh so 43, which is a sizable jump from where we were. We're doing seven new, seven additional events to what we did last year, but we're doing eight new locations and and and adding locations is more work even than adding events. Uh sorry. So so the team's been really busy like putting all that stuff together, making sure that we've got all those um potholes all uh filled in and smoothed out. And then um, but then also, yeah, which also that's that means we're gonna be north of 50,000 attendees, which is incredible. Um, and just a shout out to youth ministry all over the country that's just like working really hard and doing really great in the way that the Lord is moving in the lives of young people is really, really sweet. So, so just if nothing else, that volume has led to a lot more just like contracted personnel and our team is growing um in that regard in a way that's really sweet, but we feel great about it. Um, like suspiciously good about it, you know? Um, so I'm I'm thrilled. Can't wait.

Yeah. Um we have like almost 90 full-time staff members.

Yeah. And that's not to mention, I mean, there are, you know, the we'll we'll have 20, I think 20 directors this summer. Um, eleven of those are contracted, 21 assistant directors, 19 of those are contracted. Um, that's not to say anything for the um event coordinators and you know, the amount of contract. I think we're contracting 11 or so um of the 20 uh event coordinators and so production managers. So they're yeah, production managers. So there so there's so many. There's our team is so much bigger than than people that are full-time CIY employees. You know, the team is so much bigger than that. There's um just so many and event staff. Yeah. I mean, they're about to roll in. They're about to roll in eight teams this summer. Our lives are gonna change for yeah that day. Um can say if we've been changed for the better.

But we have been changed for all I know is I've been changed for good. Yeah. I read that somewhere.

Proverbs. That sounds right. Yeah, that sounds right. Uh anyway. Um, listen, we're gonna go have a great conversation with Hannah Holage. Um, do you want to talk before we do that? Um, and if you don't, it's okay. We can cut this. I did not, I did not prep you for this. This is this is improv. Okay, great. Um, would you like to talk a little bit about youth ministry coaching?

Let's do it. Yeah, so CIY is doing a fun new thing.

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