Keep the Fire Going All Year: A New Offer for Our Steubenville Atlantic Groups
If you were with us at Steubenville Atlantic this year, you know the feeling we're talking about. The worship that didn't feel like it was on a schedule. The Confession line that kept growing instead of shrinking. The conversations that broke out among teens who, a day earlier, barely knew each other's names.
I remember that feeling well, because I spent four years as a Youth Minister in Lower Sackville, and I know how good it is, and how quickly it can slip away once we get home.
For my first two years, we built our youth group program from scratch. Every single night.
That meant sitting down, usually later in the week than I'd like to admit, trying to figure out what we were going to talk about, how we were going to talk about it, and how to make it land for a room full of teenagers with very different levels of interest. Some weeks it worked. A lot of weeks it didn't. And every week, whether it worked or not, it took hours I didn't really have, with a volunteer team that was small, generous, and already stretched thin.
It wasn't sustainable. we loved our teens and we loved the work, but we were spending most of our energy on content instead of on the people that content was supposed to be for.
Then We Found YDisciple
Everything shifted when we started using YDisciple.
We stopped scrambling for material every week. The video content and discussion guides did the heavy lifting, which meant my volunteers didn't need a theology degree or a Sunday-night crash course to lead a real conversation. They just needed to show up.
And that changed what I actually got to spend my time on. Instead of writing lesson plans, I was building relationships. Instead of worrying whether Sunday Night's talk was going to land, I was sitting in small groups, actually meeting our teens where they were at, which is the part of youth ministry that matters most and the part that's hardest to do when you're also trying to be a curriculum writer.
This is exactly the gap I see in my new role after a weekend like Steubenville Atlantic. Your team just watched what happens when teens feel known and given room to be honest about their faith. The hard part is building a structure that can hold that feeling every week, with a small volunteer team, without burning everyone out by November.
The Offer
Because your group attended Steubenville Atlantic 2026, you can get YDisciple for $35 CAD/month, instead of the regular $70 CAD/month rate.
This isn't a trial or a stripped-down version. It's full access, at close to half the regular price, for as long as your group wants to use it.
How to Get Started
If this sounds like something your group could use this year, we would love to chat and get you set up with your discount and a direct line to YDisciple's coaching team, who can help you launch your first small group even if this is completely new for your parish.
Send Alex an Email to set up a meeting
Resources for you
This is YDisciple (Video): https://vimeo.com/420431838
From One Pastor to Another with Fr. Chad VanHoose (Video): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bh9l3SRzX34
More Sample Content from YDisciple (Video): https://www.youtube.com/@YDisciple/playlists
One Last Thing
We know how much work it takes to organize a trip like Steubenville Atlantic; the fundraising, the paperwork, the late nights making sure every teen had a ride home. Thank you for doing that work. Whatever you decide about YDisciple, we're grateful you brought your group this year, and we hope the fire it lit keeps burning long after the summer ends.
Questions about this offer? Reach out to me at astapleton@halifaxyarmouth.org or 902-429-9800 ext. 411.
