• If you have limited time and simply want a free downloadable resource to help with planning ahead, click here.
• If you have a couple of minutes to learn why we encourage this ministry strategy, keep reading. 

When I was a kid, I loved getting our family’s mail. Most days after school, as soon as my mom put the car in park, I would jump out and run to the mailbox to see what had arrived that day – and for whom. Call me nosy, helpful, or hopeful, but one thing’s for sure: I consistently believed that our mailbox was full of possibilities. Every single day.

And the BEST day to get the mail (for me) was the day the church camp catalog arrived. See, I grew up in a denomination that invested thoughtfully into providing all sorts of camps, each and every summer, across multiple campgrounds. So. Many. Camps. And searching through all the options was like Christmas round two.

But what I didn’t realize until I was an adult is how early in the year one has to start summer event planning for camps like these.

If the goal for volunteer leaders is to be a part of a complete team, able to be fully present with children and youth throughout camp… (or VBS or a mission trip or whatever multi-day, multi-layered event is happening)…

And if the goal for parents is for them to experience a well-organized approach where logistics and expectations are clear… Where they feel confident their child will be safe in your care…

And if the goal for children and youth is to be able to spend concentrated time with a faith-filled community, experiencing what it means to follow Jesus…

Then planning can’t just “happen” a few weeks ahead of time. Solid summer event planning starts with worthwhile winter work. Work that isn’t characterized by angst or last-minute prep. Work that might just look something like this…

Step One: Kickstart Your Summer Event Planning

Six months before your summer event, schedule a day away from the office where you can invest a full set of hours solely focused on your camp, VBS, mission trip, or event. (If you’re serving in a role that is planning multiple events, gift yourself a set of multiple hours for each.)  

• For this first step, we’d recommend staying small. This is a time for just you, or you and one teammate, to list ALL the logistics that will make your event successful. (You might even need to start with defining what “success” looks like.) Then, break down each big responsibility into bite-sized tasks.

• Before the end of this day, be sure you’ve clearly identified the first five things you need to do next. These could be inviting additional teammates to take ownership of parts of the big list, blocking out your next day away, or ensuring your families are communicated with sooner rather than later so they can save the dates and their kids can participate.  

Step Two: Finish Five in Fifteen

Diving back into the routine demands of daily ministry after your day away has the unintentional potential to undermine the work you’ve mapped out. DON’T LET IT.

• Sit down for 15 minutes on your next day back, look at those first five things you earmarked to do next, and go ahead and schedule 30-60 minutes for each one over the next 15 days. That’s right, give yourself two weeks to tackle those first five tasks. “Finish five in fifteen.” Because, if you haven’t completed them in that time frame, you’ll know you need to call in some help. 

Summer won’t wait, and neither will all the stakeholders relying on your summer event planning efforts.

You already know – families begin signing kids up for spring sports in January and some summer camps fill up before February. The calendar can get so full that some households have to hire a project manager just to find a free week for their family vacation! (Alright, maybe not. But maybe…)

• Thus, we’d recommend prioritizing these steps as a part of your first five:
  • Organize your big list into categories that are a manageable size for one person.  
  • Make a list of people who you want on your core team. These are high-capacity volunteers who can take on a category. (Remember: don’t say someone’s no for them.)
  • Confirm the dates and location(s) of your event with the larger church calendar and any other organizations you’ll be partnering with. 
  • Craft a communication plan to ensure your congregation, ministry families, and community know what they need to know to participate. (dates, cost, location, age range, etc.).

Step Three: Gather your Summer Event Planning Go-Getters 

Once you’ve invited your core leaders to their specific areas of oversight – and they’ve said yes –  plan a meeting to plan a party.

• These core team leaders will need others by their side, along with resources and supplies. (Some of which you may have already identified). So plan a meeting where this smaller group gets clued in on ALL the details. From the broken-down version of the big list to the overarching goals of the event, bring these folks up to speed on the big picture. 

• Then, create multiple call lists together. Rather than you being the one who calls everyone else, or these 4-5 leaders rushing to call all the same people, spend some time talking through who to invite to which teams. Each leader should leave with their tasks, a call list, and a clear invitation to the next: a planning party.  

Step Four: Throw A Party, Not A Meeting

Raise your hand if you want to attend 7 different evening meetings at church for the same event.

Now, raise your hand if you want to come to one big planning party where the whole team knocks it all out at once!  

You know your people better than we do. But this is a fun and different take on tackling the enormity of that big list. And while we know there are a variety of ways you can empower others, troubleshoot questions, and knock out prep, organizing one big party can help prevent the procrastination and siloing that so often happens with a piecemeal approach to planning.

So here’s a sketch of what that day can look like:

• Schedule the party for March or early April (because, you know, May gets crazy). Invite the full event team, maybe making it mandatory.

• Every party needs food, fun, folks– and a focus.
  (And, of course – you’re allowed to delegate these out, too, if that’s helpful).
  • FOOD: coffee and donuts may suffice for the morning, but providing a hearty lunch and ensuring there are snacks throughout the day will be thoughtful.
  • FUN: this isn’t just a logistical checklist event. This team gets to be a part of planning an incredible set of days where all involved can grow closer to one another and closer to the Lord. So aim for interactive vs. solely informative. Incorporating fun, funny, and light amidst the work that needs to get done will be a gift to many.
  • FOLKS: Make it easy for people to say yes to being a part of this day. Devoting a full Saturday can be a big ask. So consider providing childcare or, at least, try to attend to any potential hurdles that may hinder someone from showing up. 
  • FOCUS: This party is a multi-purpose party that can include prayer, worship, games, and fellowship – and should definitely include the sharing of the event’s theme, introduction of team members, the overarching goals, and breakout groups led by your core leaders (to discuss those big list breakdowns.) This is also a perfect time to provide the necessary safety training and emergency procedures review so that all volunteers are equipped and ready to go.

• Last but not least, the party shouldn’t end until these are accomplished:
  • Everyone knows their roles, responsibilities, and any next steps.
  • A giant (or multiple) “to-buy” list(s) has been created, and the way purchases and reimbursements will be managed for this event is clear to everyone. 
  • There’s closing prayer and growing excitement to see what the Lord will do with all that’s planned.

Step Five: Do it all again next year

Lest you think I came up with these ideas all on my own, I didn’t.
This is simply my version of one part of the genius that is The Ministry Architects Preventative Maintenance Calendar. (Yes, this is the same free download link from above.)

What is a Preventative Maintenance Calendar and How can it help with Summer Event Planning?!?!

A PMC (for short) is a proactive approach to ensuring we don’t waste winter, or any other months. Instead, this tool helps us pace our days in a sustainable way. Put another way, the PMC is a month-by-month guide that maps out a thoughtful rhythm of how to attend to those non-daily responsibilities that often get forgotten or delayed. In a nutshell, it helps make sure things don’t get missed.

Why add one more tool to my toolbox? The others work fine…

For leaders who are already strategic planners, a PMC is still useful. You can combine a few of your hyper-focused guides into one comprehensive behind-the-scenes calendar. And, for leaders who feel great angst around event planning, the PMC is a game changer! You don’t have to let the phrases “last-minute” or “after-hours” characterize this work. The PMC outlines an earlier start to all major event planning and helps you have more control of the pace. 

Ultimately, the PMC is one more resource that can strengthen the sustainability of your ministry and help care for others in your community more intentionally. 

And who wants to miss out on that?

As a big fan of summer camp, parties, mailboxes, and well-paced ministry days, Renée would love to talk. She’d be happy to help your summer somethings be exactly what you hope they will be. Just click here to send her a note and she’ll connect with you soon.

Renée Wilson will tell you the best advice she ever received as a volunteer in youth ministry was “prepare well and love ’em to Jesus.” And that’s exactly why she’s a part of our team. Through her 20+ years of mentoring and ministering with children, youth, and young adults, Renée knows the value of building healthy teams and loves creating approaches around the vision of seeing more and more people come to know Christ.

The post Don’t Miss Winter: The Ultimate Summer Event Planning Guide appeared first on Ministry Architects.

Or maybe it’s the start of summer and you have that one sweet day to take a good look at the family plan and work schedule. Summer trips and graduation parties. The normal rhythm of your kids’ weeks is changing. Longer days and shorter nights. The end-of-school-year / beginning-of-summer events, camps, VBSs, and more. In doing so you’re reminded of all you’re hosting or helping with, and you start wondering…

When will you have time?

The rare moments of sit-back-and-see-what’s-next don’t occur in a bubble. In our fight to control our calendar (vs. letting it control us), we find a double threat. Not only do we have the big things we can’t quit, we also have the tough-to-ignore things. You know the ones: The always present text exchanges. The emails demanding a response. The one-on-one connections we don’t want to cancel. The pressing team recruitment needs. And the seemingly never ending prep for the next seasons, that will be here all too quickly. 

Transitions from one season to the next are familiar and often promise respite. Typically, however, they find us walking into our next thing still tired. Still with packed schedules, and pining for the gift of that fresh start we thought was going to be ours. It seems, more often than not, all we want is a chance to catch our breath and resolve to not let ourselves get to this point again.

Does any of this sound familiar?

If you are anything like me (proud millennial, Enneagram 3 here), you oftentimes overcommit to things that matter to you (and, sometimes more often, that matter to others) and inadvertently become overwhelmed with the very unrealistic set of expectations that begin urgently competing for your time. It doesn’t matter the season. You’ve done it again and again. And while you might find that being “all-things-to-all-people” is possible for a few months, trust me when I say, it won’t last.

At some point, you (we) just have to quit.

But how?!?!
What if I let someone down?
What if I fail??? 

Those are three questions that I did not fully realize my mind was processing incessantly – until I did. The pressure of feeling that countless others depend on you is a challenging reality to navigate. But it is crucial in our long-term leadership development to intentionally, and regularly, re-evaluate where we need to be. 

So how do I start quitting?

If you’re just beginning to incorporate re-evaluation into your seasonal rhythms, it might feel impossible to eliminate some responsibilities. This is particularly true if you think through each item as a forced-choice process of “keep or trash”. There’s too much that exists in the gray and that ruthless elimination may be unrealistic. 

There are, of course, many methods to accomplish the same goal of resizing your time commitments and energy investments. So, here’s one more for your consideration. This is the process that worked for me and helped me further fine-tune my rhythmic week. (The rhythmic week is our go-to guide for mapping out a personal plan for a sustainable day-to-day pace of life.)

One day, I was sitting at my dining room table, overwhelmed enough to grab the nearest writing utensil and two-ply paper (read: sharpie and napkin). I made a list of all my obligations and divided them into three categories: mastery, mingle, and monetization.

Step One: Identify Obligations

To me, something is an “obligation” if it needs my ongoing attention. Or, maybe to start, these are the people, places, and purposes that I commit to giving my attention (whether they’ve actually expressed needing it or not.) When all was said and done, that napkin was full and every obligation in my life had a place in one or more of my categories.

Mastery: What’s just for you?

These are our hobbies: the creative outlets, the rooting for our favorite sports teams, the learning to bake a loaf of artisan bread, or anything else that we enjoy singularly.  We sacrifice these sorts of activities that help us “unplug” from the world for meetings or our more “mission-aligned” invitations. Too often we sacrifice our hobbies because we feel guilty for doing them and saying “no” to other things others see as more important. (We think they’re important, too, but…)  And, yet, of all I accomplish, these are the ones I often enjoy mastering most. What or who do you enjoy most?

Mingling: What’s for you and others?

The hustle of life prevents most people, but especially leaders of others, from engaging in social interests. If you hear nothing else hear this: it isn’t selfish to have friends or have a social life! As we’ve written about before, this epidemic of loneliness is damaging our health. We can blame 2020 on reorienting our personal priorities but we can’t be stuck there any longer. Let us see these years as a time when we can learn to mingle again. Where and when do you simply enjoy just being with others?

Monetize: What needs to be done to do everything else?

Lastly, I had to write down all the endeavors that benefit my loved ones and I financially. These commitments hold a different place of prioritization for our livelihood and need special care when being considered in the sacrifices of your reevaluation of work/life priorities. I have even found ways to monetize some of my passions and social engagements (bonus points if you can, too). What do you do because you have to, in order to do what you want to?

Step Two: Eliminate Drains and QUIT

When you write down all of the things that require time each week / month in your life (I’m talking include grocery store trips, attending the new restaurant grand opening, visiting your aunt in assisted living, checking the batteries in the smoke detector… everything that requires time), the final step is to quit doing anything that has the least-return-on-investment. 

For leaders, this means eliminating anything that drains your energy and consumes your time to the point that showing up in those spaces hinders your ability to show up in the spaces that you can’t and won’t and just don’t want to eliminate.

The goal is not only more control of your own schedule, but to be more in more life-giving spaces, as often as you can.

Will you let someone down once you start saying no or stepping back? Yes. 

But, would you rather quit something that is hoarding your time and hurting your energy for the sake of being able to invest yourself in far more fruitful spaces in a sustainable way? Also – yes!

You can do this!

So, friends, treat this note as your permission slip to quit! You’re allowed to stop the unsustainable pace and saying yes to time-filling tasks. You’re allowed to take your life back right now! All of the external pressures and a past approach don’t have to dictate the decisions you make for your cognitive, emotional, spiritual, and social well-being. We have your back, we are cheering you on, and we are here to help you make this the season you begin to thrive and not just survive. 

Adam Johnson

adam.johnson@ministryarchitects.com

Adam is a senior ministry executive, spiritual leader, strategic pioneer, and Director of Ministries at the historic First United Methodist Church in Jackson, TN. He brings over two decades of experience in diverse church settings and is dedicated to empowering local churches and developing leaders for future growth. Adam resides in Jackson with his wife and daughter, enjoying downtime by supporting the Tennessee Titans and exploring local eateries and antique shops. 

The post Permission to Quit appeared first on Ministry Architects.

It was my student ministry director who clued me in to a process by which I rarely feel under such pressure anymore, and have too much to say instead of too little. 

In part one of this process, we shared how to develop 18-24 months of Sunday morning sermons. This step-by-step approach starts with the encouragement to plan time away from your typical daily rhythms and ends with a complete layout of upcoming Sundays, summaries for each week, and shared documents for you and your team. If you haven’t read part one, click here to check it out.

Here in part two, we’re going to show you how to take all that prep work and build it into a series-to-series and week-to-week rhythm for you and your team. There are three main timelines we’ll work with: one month out, eleven days away, and the final week.

One Month Out: Plan the next series. 

Do this: Review your notes. 
About 4-5 weeks before a new series begins (or church season, if you’re a lectionary preacher) review the calendar and summaries you previously prepared, along with any other notes you made for all the messages in the series ahead.  

Then do this: Schedule a creative meeting. 
Bring together the people who help turn your Sunday sermon into a Sunday experience. Your worship director, choir director, technical director, marketing person or. . . maybe your NextGen Director or head of hospitality is involved. If your children or student ministry mirrors your Sunday theme or elements of your worship environment can further accentuate a message, those leaders should be at the table. Note: this isn’t for every volunteer. Only invite the people who lead and develop the supporting ministries. Share your content, invite creative input, and they’ll equip their teams as needed.

Why this meeting?
The goal is to get everyone on the same page. It also gives a chance for course-correction. Most of all, it takes the pressure off of you to be creative (or the sole creative). You’ll find your team has all kinds of ideas for the series that you’ve never thought of and this meeting mobilizes them to start developing the supporting pieces that make a series memorable.  

Why this far in advance?
It gives your team time. Your worship or choral director might want to develop special music. Your marketing team or secretary can develop graphics and other publications. Your production team can think through staging, video, and the like. It gives them space so they can be creative. It gets ideas marinating for you, too. Depending on the complexity of your services, you might want to schedule this further ahead. Tailor it to your team and what works for you. 

Eleven Days Away: Focus on a specific Sunday

Do this: Draft a quick outline for the Sunday after the upcoming Sunday.
Carve out a time early that week. (I block out Tuesday morning.) Don’t check your email. Don’t go into the office if people pester you. (Or if you do, lock your door and put up a big sign with skull & crossbones that reads, “Do not Enter.”) Look at your executive summary for the week of focus, along with other notes. Then, as quickly as you can, chart out a few (3-8) major moves that bring your central point to fruition. 

I prefer an outline. We’re not writing a word-for-word manuscript. Just chart major moves – how you think you can get folks from start to finish – and the talking points that stand out. Add a detailed explanation if there’s an idea you really want to mine or an important hinge phrase. Bullet point any illustrations, examples, or creative bits that strike you. Organize your outline with some kind of flow. And tap your passion. Don’t try to guess what “people” need to hear. Share what’s impacting you. John Ortberg once said it like this, “What’s most personal is often most universal.” 

If you get stuck, review a couple commentaries or favorite resources. Bible Project, YouVersion, and RightNow Media have a wealth of material. Look for what they highlight, how they move through the material, and notice what excites you. We’re just trying to get our minds jogged and juices flowing. 

A note on commentaries: Prior to this point in preparation, when you’re developing the 18-24 month calendar, it’s helpful to peruse several commentaries. But eleven days away from delivery, I reference a single favorite, maybe two. 

Besides the refocus, I’m picking up my past highlights and margin notes. I also prefer lay commentaries. Some of you may balk, so just to be clear, I’ve taught at the seminary level, thrive on academia, and think sermons need to be theologically and intellectually robust. But I also know time is limited. Good lay commentaries have a knack for boiling things down quickly. Something like NT Wright’s New Testament for Everyone series, Grant Osborne’s Verse by Verse, or the God’s Word for You series are great. Even the older William Barclay New Testament series will still amaze. You’ll find your own favorites. The goal right now is not a mile deep. It’s the lay of the land. Lay commentaries are good at that. As DA Carson says in one of his commentaries (ironically, an academic one): 

“The best of Western seminaries and theological colleges [and I would add, commentaries] reinforce the cultural bent toward the abstract, and fill students’ heads with the importance of grammatical, lexicographical exegesis. Such exegesis is, of course, of enormous importance. But in students who do not have a feel for literature, it can have the unwitting effect of so focusing on the tree, indeed on the third knot of the fourth branch from the bottom of the sixth tree from the left, that the entire forest remains unseen, except perhaps as a vague and ominous challenge” (DA Carson, “The Gospel According to John,” Pillar New Testament Commentary, p.100). 

Good lay commentaries focus on the forest, not the third knot on the sixth tree. Tap the critical commentaries as part of your 18-24 month prep and lay commentaries for outlining a Sunday. 

Then do this: Share your outline.
Gather a team again and share your message outline. This could be the same creative team from the one month mark or a smaller group. Here’s why I like to do this: 

• It forces me to produce. When I’m only accountable to myself, I can easily push off self-imposed deadlines. Having to share my outline with my team forces me to get it done. It’s peer pressure at its best. 
• It invests my team. They’re now part of the message that will define the Sunday experience.
• It motivates finishing. If there are “last minute” details you want to implement – videos, promotional write-ups, other experiential elements – the team can incorporate these strategically rather than feel rushed to make happen. 
• I get feedback!

I put this eleven days out. Why? My team is able to meet on Wednesdays. Yours might be different. It might be a Monday, Tuesday, or Thursday. Who cares? The point is to prep at least two Sundays ahead and share it with a team instead of rushing solo to get ready for the upcoming Sunday. 

When I work two Sundays out, something psychologically shifts for me, too. I’m no longer just trying to get it done to meet a Sunday deadline. Instead I’m free to pace myself and play with ideas creatively.  

A note on this team: Find people who have your best interest at heart, understand your target demographic, and are honest enough to give you constructive feedback. (If you’re looking for a job description for this role, here’s your start.) A smaller group, maybe 2-4 at most, works best. It can be all the same people you met with for series planning, but it doesn’t have to be. It’s also easier when they’re on staff. Trying to schedule this around a volunteer’s availability is tough and often inconsistent. This isn’t your elected board of Elders. You select the people who will be the best help. 

Be prepared. It’s going to get ugly. 
This team will break your heart and infuriate you. You’re giving them your baby and inviting them to call it ugly. You can ask for general feedback, but I like to ask specific questions that get applicable responses:

• How can I make this concrete? 
• What engaged you? What brought you into the story?
• Where did I lose you?
• What do you wish I’d said?
• How would you preach it? 
• What’s your take-away?
• What’s this about? 

(I, personally, don’t think the point of a message is to be reductionistic. At the same time, if you can’t simply describe what it’s about, you might not be focused enough.)

Remember that your worst critics can sometimes provide the best insights. You don’t have to use whatever people say, but try not to be defensive. Pick up on things that will make your message better. 

Also remember that you’ve been doing this a long time and have an experienced understanding of what needs to happen. This team will have suggestions, but you don’t have to take them. At the end of the day it’s your message. To quote Master Yoda, “My own counsel will I keep.” The goal is to make your material interesting, riveting, clear, and engaging. 

At this point you’ve now set a rhythm of meeting every week, but always for two Sundays ahead. 

The Final Week: Eat the Scroll

You’ve charted the big picture. You’ve set up a series. You’ve shared a sermon draft with your team. Now for one final move: “Eat the scroll,” as the prophets would say. 

Do this: Early that week, pull out your outline.
Tighten things up, fill things out, and get it all into a revised form. It’s now in you, digesting. As things strike you later that week, tinker. 

Then do this: Jump forward to the night before.
Look over your teaching again on Saturday before you go to bed. This is a quick read-through. You’re just giving it room to percolate all night. (If you have a Saturday night service, try doing this Friday instead of making the Saturday service your “dress rehearsal.”)

The next morning, do a shower run-through. When you’re in the shower getting ready, run the message through in your mind.

About 15-20 minutes before services start, seclude yourself from all the church hellos. You can catch people afterwards. Now is a time to review the main moves and pray. You’ve done the heavy lifting. Trust what you know. Trust what God will do. Be fully present and share that message which is now a part of you. 

And if you have multiple services, remember that no two messages are the same. Edit in between. Let each find its own legs. 

A Few Final Thoughts…

You might ask, “Isn’t this a lot of work?” 

Yes, it is.

But pacing your prep in methodical, bite-sized chunks takes less energy than the low-grade anxiety that builds from sermon avoidance and the “crisis work” that happens as we scramble to pull something together in the final hour. Food tastes better when it’s marinated. Sermons do, too. Less stressful. More fruitful. More peace for you. Better prepared for them. 

If we can help you set up a preaching rhythm or coach you through this process, let us know. In a future article, we’ll share with you some easy techniques to step away from manuscript preaching to preaching confidently and joyfully without notes.

The post How to Put 18-24 Months of Preaching Prep into Play appeared first on Ministry Architects.

It’s Friday, and it happened again. You’re sitting in front of your laptop trying to come up with something to preach on Sunday. Your mind is blank. Your soul is dry. You’re frustrated and angry for getting to this point again. You were so excited earlier in the week about what you wanted to share. Now, you don’t want to be here, stuck doing sermon prep. It’s the weekend and there are other things you’d rather be doing. All the while your cursor is blinking, “You’ve got nothing. You’ve got nothing.” (There’s a reason they’re called curs-ors.)

Sunday comes around relentlessly. No sooner have we finished preaching and the specter of what to say next week is upon us again. Every pastor has been there. I’ve been there. It’s disillusioning and flat-out frustrating. And we think, “there has to be a better way.”

The good news is: there is. 

Imagine for a moment having 18-24 months of sermons pre-planned. Sermons for each and every week. There’s a system I’ve been using for years that can help you do just that. It’s revolutionized my preaching and brought my weekly sermon prep from dread to joy. Hopefully, it can help you, too. 

There’s nothing magical about 18-24 months. This strategy can be applied to any range of time. I personally like a 12-month cycle, beginning with the start of the school year. The annual rhythm fits my personality and church culture. This approach works with any style, too – whether you’re a solo preacher or part of a team, preaching from a lectionary or using home-crafted series. 

Essentially, it’s all about bite-sized chunks. We’re eating an elephant here. So having a step-by-step game plan is essential. 

Step #1: Get Away to Do Sermon Prep

Schedule yourself off for at least two Sundays, back-to-back. Turn on your out-of-office reply for both email and voicemail. Don’t check messages. Don’t schedule appointments. You’re going on a planning retreat. You could literally get away, or work from your home or local coffee shop. The important thing is that you’re removed from the daily to-do lists for a concentrated period of time. 

Important to note: This is not vacation. Your job for the next two weeks is to craft a preaching schedule. It’s time to clear your head and look ahead. If you fear pushback, encourage your congregation that preaching is one of your main duties and an anchor to church life. Sermon prep needs focused attention and you want it to be good. You might even send an email to the congregation before you go, describing what you’re doing. 

Step #2: List the Dates

For the timeframe you’re planning, make a one-page, two-column list of every Sunday and special midweek service your church celebrates (e.g. Christmas Eve, Good Friday, Lent and Advent services). I like to see a year on one page. This is your preaching calendar. If you run a year-round midweek service that has a different theme than the weekend, treat that as its own preaching calendar. 

Step #3: Note What You Know

Every church has certain topics and events they discuss every year. Events like Confirmation and graduation or topics like stewardship and serving commonly receive some sort of Sunday spotlight. Often, these have predictable dates, too. On your calendar, go ahead and mark these dates first, along with any noteworthy holidays, three-day weekends, and community events. (For instance, if you know the first weekend of the county fair you’ll not gather for worship, mark this down.)

Step #4: Set the Calendar Aside and Sermon Prep

Now that you have your dates outlined, it’s time to start crafting content! Set the calendar aside. We’ll come back to it later. Let’s focus on what you’ll say each week.  

Step #5: Go to 20,000 Feet

This is where I like to begin sermon prep. I ask myself, “What’s an overall theme I can follow for the year?” I find this gives me focus. In this step, all we’re going for is a big-picture idea. Don’t sweat the details.

To get your mind ready for sermon prep, ask questions like:

• Where do I want to take my congregation this year?
• What do I hope God accomplishes here?
• What do they need to hear?
• What’s churning in my soul?
• What am I reading/hearing/learning/experiencing that’s impacting me? 
• What kind of questions are people asking?
• What challenges are people facing?
• What about God do I delight in that I really want to share? 

You’ll be amazed what comes out of this step of sermon prep. Here’s some themes I’ve come up with over the years:

• 13 (the letters of Paul)
• Soul Speak (prayer)
• How to be a Christian and Live out Your Faith
• 40 New Testament Passages You Need to Know
• Sinners and Saints (stories and profiles of people in the Bible and church history)

You’ll come up with your own. Keep in mind that the catchy title isn’t what’s important. All you want at this step is a concept to give you direction in your sermon prep. If nothing else, there are 66 books in the Bible to choose from. That’s 66 years of preaching! (I know. You’re not going to spend a year on 3 John, so maybe less. But you get the point.) There’s more to preach on than you can hit in a lifetime. 

Step #6: Frame Your Focus

In a simple paragraph or two, write down your theme, what it’s about, and why you want to go there. This might take some time. Your answers to the questions above could produce years of content. Or, your time in prayer and contemplation could produce a clear path of direction and you know exactly where you need to go. Whatever you see from 20,000 feet, take the time to clearly define what can be most fruitful for the next 18-24 months.

Step #7: Build an Arc

What comes next is taking that focus and giving it a sense of progression and flow. Here’s an analogy that might help: If your preaching is like a TV season, the prior step summarized what the season is about. This step of sermon prep is about dividing it into episodes. 

If you’re a lectionary preacher, this is easy. With your theme in mind, skim the weekly passages, list what passages strike you (and the Sunday they’re assigned), and make a note of why they’re resonating with you. 

If you like to preach through a book of the Bible, it’s just as easy. Find a way to divide up the book into bite-sized chunks that you’ll hit each week. 

If your approach is topical or series-based, jot down topics you’d like to preach on this year within your theme. Then, break those topics down into a few bullet points each. 

Whichever method you use, the goal is to come up with a list of passages or topics you want to share over the year that speak into the overarching concept you’re trying to communicate. 

Step #8: Sleep on it then Return

Now that you have your starting list, walk away. Give it at least a day to marinate then come back with fresh eyes and see if it still makes sense. Add new ideas, expand on current ones, eliminate what doesn’t work. 

You might also find that you over-emphasized certain things. We all do this. So I like to make sure a ministry year hits four things:

• Prophetic calls (or calls to action)
• Foundational truths
• Felt needs
• Pure gospel

Every sermon can have all four of these, but I find most messages put one of these center stage and most preachers gravitate towards one or two. Look over your list and see what’s lacking. Beef it up in that arena. 

Step #9: Link Your Lists

It’s time to marry your content with your calendar. Take your topics and give each week one of the passages or points you wrote down in your sermon prep. As you map out what each week will look like, remember this is your calendar. You have the freedom to combine thoughts, divide larger points across multiple weeks, and cut what doesn’t make sense. Tailor as you need. The goal is to give every week a talking point. As you do, see how well you can create a sense of progression. You can also let the seasonal mood or tone of a liturgical season guide you.

Sermon Prep Pro-tip: 

No one cares how perfectly your preaching schedule conforms to a calendar. Only you do. Most congregations just want good messages with a sense that we’re going somewhere. So go with solid topics you’re excited about and minimize “filler” Sundays. If you find yourself a little light on content with weeks to spare, do some reading. Play in some commentaries, books, or journals. Skim some YouVersion plans. Hit some online resources. It usually opens up insights to additional topics. And if you find yourself with more messages than weeks available? Then then plan further out. Remember, this is YOUR calendar.

Step #10: Write Executive Summaries

Now that you have a theme, weekly topics, and dates, you’ll want 1-3 sentences describing what each week is about and why you think it’s important. Note any pertinent Bible passages that strike you and feel free to give quick descriptions of what those passages are about, as well. If there’s any creative ideas, insights, or streams of consciousness you want to remember, write those, too. Data dump any ideas. Just don’t feel like you have to come up with a lot. This is mainly for your own benefit. Don’t worry if it’s comprehensible to others.

Step #11: Share the Plan 

Whether you build this step into your planning retreat, or schedule a meeting upon your return, invite others as a part of the process. Share the plan with your co-preachers, worship director, a creative team – whoever needs it and whoever can offer insights. You’re not asking permission or looking to change the flow. You’re inviting them to build on your ideas. Share this in something like Box, Dropbox, or Google Drive. That way everyone can see ongoing changes you make (you’ll always be tweaking this). 

Step #12: Don’t Forget the End Game of Sermon Prep

By the end of the process, you’ll have an overview page, a calendar page, and executive summaries for each week which you and your team can access. Not bad for a couple of weeks of planning! This is your roadmap for the next 18-24 months. You now have a direction to go with a brainstorm of ideas so that you’re never looking at a blank screen again. 

Click here for part two where we share how to use this preaching roadmap in your week-by-week planning. And if you’d like some guided help with sermon prep or setting up your own preaching calendar, contact us today.

The post How to Do 18-24 Months of Sunday Morning Sermon Prep appeared first on Ministry Architects.

People are gathering in the parking lot. Some are sharing the finer points of what they brought up during the committee meeting and others have the attention of the pastors or staff and are talking about things they didn’t get a chance to bring up. And what was gained? People shared the things that already taken place in the past. Committee members were invited to dedicate even more time to the ministry in multiple ways. And the person in charge of the meeting was the only one leaving with a bigger task list. 

It was you. You left with a bigger task list.

This occurs in all denominations in churches of all sizes with leaders of all skill levels. 

If this sounds familiar what follows might be of use to you. There is another way, a better way, that will allow each member of the team to value the time of the meeting, to be effective with their work, and to work in partnership with each other to accomplish something more than any one member could on their own. 

It starts with our approach. Approach your church committee meetings with these three things in mind: Take responsibility. Take charge. Ensure success. 

Take Responsibility

Meetings are most effective when we understand why we are meeting. What is each person’s role on the team or committee? What’s expected of those who are involved in the meeting? This means that there are a few things that need to happen before the meeting takes place.

The members of the team need to have:

1. A clear job description or list of tasks that they are responsible for.
2. A reason or purpose that the team has been established.
   • Is the team responsible for dreaming, goal-setting, and the future of the ministry?
     • If so, let’s be clear and state that that’s the reason the team is gathering.
3. A detailed agenda that you follow for each meeting that will help create rhythm and set expectations for the meeting.

Need an agenda for your church committee meetings?
Check out this one.

When each of these is in place, you’ve taken responsibility. 

Take Charge

Most of the meeting should take place outside of the meeting rather than during. Here’s what that means. Between the meetings, there are a few things that need to happen: 

1. Tasks Under Way: The chairperson should check in on each member of the team. Did they accomplish their task? If so, add that note to the agenda in a section called “Updates.” If they didn’t, still note the the current progress in updates. Do they have a question that needs to be answered? Whatever the response is, add it to the agenda.
   
2. Completed Tasks: If their task is complete, then we’re asking if they’re ready to take on the next thing (whatever that might be…). Add the new task to the agenda in a section titled “Assignments.” By avoiding having these discussions during the meeting, you reserve time for the things that need the attention of the whole team. 
   
3. Incomplete Tasks: If the task has not yet been started, keep it in the assignments section of the agenda. When there’s no progress, there’s no update, and there are no questions to answer. 

With this check-in taking place between the meetings, the chairperson is building the agenda along the way. They’re keeping in touch with what’s being accomplished and what’s stuck. And they’re in the position to help with the task that’s most in need. This is the chairperson’s job description. 

Ensure Success

Success will largely be dependent on the two practices above. By taking responsibility and taking charge, the others on the committee will begin to arrive prepared and ready to discuss what’s already on the agenda. Here are a few additional tips that will help ensure the success of the meetings, and of the ministry, as a result. 

1. Send out the agenda at least 48 hours in advance and ask everyone to come prepared to discuss the input and decisions. 
2. Focus the meeting on collecting input and answering questions that are specific to the tasks at hand and minimize the time spent on any of the other items.
3. Include only task-oriented items on the agenda.
4. Ask each member of the team to solve the problems, complete the task, or devise the plan between the meeting and bring those recommendations to the following meeting. You’ll check in with them along the way. 
5. As the chairperson, spend time each month supporting the members of the team and their success and avoid taking on additional tasks. They’ll feel supported and equipped to accomplish their tasks. 

Moving from minimally productive meeting practices to something that is more rhythmic, predictable, and task-oriented can take some time to see the new results. You’re creating a culture shift and that can sometimes be slow. Give yourself and the team three to six months to really get in the groove of operating in this form. It might mean there are changes to the makeup of your team, but it will also mean you begin seeing the results you’re hoping for from this group of partners in your ministry.  

Finally, here’s the agenda template mentioned above. If you have questions about moving your committee culture from stuck to effective, contact Bryant Johnson.

Photo Above: CC BY 3.0 US Mapbox Uncharted ERG

The post Making Church Committee Meetings Matter appeared first on Ministry Architects.

These Days We Live By the Calendar

Our lives (and work) are full of calendars – family calendars, school calendars, special event calendars, staff calendars, shared calendars, holiday calendars, ad infinitum. There are companies who specialize in calendars, apps that help to manage calendars, and free calendars from fund-raisers. With all of these calendars in our lives, why would we want another one? You want this one, a Preventative Maintenance Calendar, because it will make your life easier!

Face it – in youth ministry we often get focused on special events. And special events can command a lot of our time. They often have lots of energy and demand a lot of energy. Young people get excited about them, many times only living for the next trip and new people to meet. So WE get wrapped up in special events too, and before we know it, we’ve forgotten to submit that curriculum order or we’ve failed to get our recruiting for next year underway or we’ve missed setting participation goals for the next year or… well, you get it. We’ve all been there.

So What Does a Preventative Maintenance Calendar Do?

A Preventative Maintenance Calendar is where you keep track of all those very important but less flashy things that are a part of youth ministry, all of those more tedious, boring tasks that need to be done to grease the wheels of…
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Let me give you a personal example. A “Note” that I keep on my phone is my “House & Yard Calendar.” In that calendar I keep all of those reminders of things that I need to do every year, all of those boring maintenance things that would be easy to skip over but pay real dividends if I make sure that I check them off one by one.

If I do that, I get those deep blue hydrangea blooms that my wife loves, thick green grass in the spring, plenty of firewood for those cold winter nights, and an air handling system that is less likely to break down.

Back in the days when I kept a paper calendar, I used to receive an annual denominational program calendar. It worked well for me – all the important dates of the Christian year were there, preaching texts of the common lectionary were on each Sunday, as well as space to write in all of the events and meetings, etc. But after awhile I began to notice notes up at the top of the page for each month, valuable notes that would guide me to work ahead on things that come around every year, things like preparations for a stewardship campaign, a reminder to start Sunday school teacher recruiting, and a nudge to schedule special offerings. They were helpful reminders to get it in gear, and they were an introduction to better advance planning, especially for the more mundane, routine annual tasks of ministry.

So Take Out Your Calendar and Add In the Maintenance

Pull out your calendar and jot down some important reminders. There will be some monthly routine things, maybe some quarterly things, and of course some annual things. Here are a few things that might fit onto your list:

MONTHLY

• Monthly communication pieces are sent to parents, volunteers, or youth about what’s coming up in events, curriculum, or groups.
• Get major event notebooks to upcoming coordinators.
• Assess what young people are on the fringe of activity, maybe needing a phone call.
• Review the financial picture, assuring that the ministry is being accountable to its budget.

QUARTERLY

• Check that proper curriculum (digital or print) is on hand for the next three months.
• Do a quarterly check-in with parents for input, discussion, and feedback.
• The 18-month ministry calendar gets advanced by three months.

ANNUALLY

• Do an assessment of how well your ministry is accountable to its mission, values, and goals, restating benchmarks for the coming year.
• Submit your budget request on time.
• Evaluate the staffing for your ministry, both paid and volunteer, with an eye toward the future.
• Evaluate the suitability of facilities. Do they really “facilitate” the work of the ministry?
• Recruiting of volunteers for the coming program year is completed three months before it starts.
• Current year volunteers receive a sound “thank you.” And next year’s volunteers receive excellent training.
• The database of youth, parents, and adult leaders gets an update.
• Plans are made for a great program year kickoff.

If you want a sample, go to https://ministryarchitects.com/free-tools-and-resources-category/ where you will find an array of helpful resources to assist you in your ministry.

Conclusion – You Can’t Eat the Apples If You Don’t Plant the Tree

A Preventative Maintenance Calendar is where you keep track of all those very important but less flashy things that are a part of youth ministry, all of those more tedious, boring tasks that need to be done to grease the wheels of…
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If you want to explore more about this kind of ministry maintenance (or home garden maintenance – ha), email me at david.carroll@ministryarchitects.com. I’d love to spend some time talking with you about planting trees and eating apples!

The post Preventative Maintenance Calendar? WHAT?! appeared first on Ministry Architects.

The idea of multi-level strategy here is that from the outset, whether you are just starting out or 15 years in and today is a new day, you are planning for multiple levels of growth simultaneously.
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This means that you are not only looking at your under-staffed nursery and thinking, “Man, if only I had two more weekly room leaders, we’d be set,” but you are also looking at how many more leaders you need if your ministry grows by 5%, what levels of leadership you’d like to add in the next six months, and what role descriptions you need to write even if they aren’t roles you can/should immediately fill. Maybe you relate to younger Brandi in some way (or, Heaven forbid, all the ways!), and this all sounds more than a little overwhelming, but stay with me.

I’m telling you, if you lay the ground work for these things now, you will be reaping the benefits for years to come, and what feels overwhelming and exhausting now will become just a natural part of how you lead ministry well in the…
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So where do you start? There are a lot of great ways to get started with multi-level strategy, just as there are seven great days a week to get started (365 perfect start dates a year!). But where I like to start is with the org chart. Now, the first org chart I ever created made me feel like a terrible person. It definitely felt like I was ranking people I really cared about in order of importance, which is categorically untrue. However, if this is you, I suggest turning your org chart on its side and putting traditionally “higher” level leaders on the left and then moving toward the right until you get to roles like “Assistant Small Group Leader” or “Student Helper.” Now, anyone can (and should) create an org chart, whether you hand write it on a piece of printer paper, build it using SmartArt in Microsoft PowerPoint, or print and cut out all the names of leaders in your ministry and stick them to a poster board in true Children’s Pastor fashion. The difference in multi-level org chart planning is that you are creating two or more org charts for your ministry at one time. To start with, you have the org chart with all the positions and leaders you currently and realistically have in your ministry right now. Then, you have the org chart representing what positions and leaders [TBA leaders included] you actually need for your current ministry to thrive. I actually prefer to begin with the latter.

Start by getting the facts on paper: How many rooms are you using for your ministry? What is the current breakdown of ages? Better yet, what is the ideal breakdown of ages possible in your space and with your child population? Based on your policies and values, how many leaders per room/group would you need for your ministry to be successful? And finally, what leadership positions would you need to create and fill to step out of the tasks that keep you from leading at your highest level (i.e. subbing in rooms yourself, getting the extra glue sticks, troubleshooting the check-in printers (again), prepping the weekly curriculum bins, etc.)? The answers to these questions will help inform your decisions on what roles you actually need in the current state of your ministry and help you to create the appropriate target org chart. Then, you can create the org chart you are currently working with or you can take that target org chart and fill it with the names of your current leaders, placing them in the roles closest to where and how they are currently serving. Disclaimer: For this current org chart, try not to move names into the roles you plan to ask people to fill in the future. This should be a faithful narrative of where you already are so that you can move forward with asks like that accordingly, later. I speak from experience when I say that things written on the org chart feel like they are a done deal, and, let’s face it, sometimes people say no!

The next org chart I would recommend is one that represents growth. Sometimes ministries can absorb some growth with very little changes. The two’s room grows by four children unexpectedly, and you need to add a third leader, etc. But some ministry environments are on the cusp of requiring a complete restructure even if faced with minimal growth. Do yourself a favor and know which one you are so you don’t become that crotchety Kids Director that actually hopes their ministry doesn’t grow! Building a growth org chart will help. Now, you can use the growth stats your church has been seeing if they track these things or if they have been seeing growth in the first place, or you can pick a percentage arbitrarily. I would probably suggest 10% as that number actually represents 20% growth when you look at a standard 10% attrition rate per year, and because it’s an easy number to work with. (Hey, we’re pastors, not mathematicians!) If you are using the 10% marker, you can take the average number of kids you see on a Sunday (please know the average number of kids you see on a Sunday!) and multiply that by 10% (.10). Of the number you just calculated, roughly 20% of that will be nursery (0-2), 30% will be preschool (3-5), and 50% of that will be Elementary. You can use these standards or do the math to see where your church naturally trends, as growth seems to follow the same pattern.

Once you have done all the math (sorry!), look at your target org chart. Can it accommodate this growth? What changes would need to happen in order to do so? Would you need to add leaders? Staff people? Would you need to add rooms? Small groups? What levels of leadership should be in place in order to be proactive rather than reactive? Build your growth org chart based on these answers, and as you start hitting your target org chart, remember to also start padding the areas that lead to this new growth org chart as God blesses you with leaders. It’s true that your church or children’s ministry might not grow by 10% this year, but it’s also true that God is probably more likely to bless a ministry that is prepared for growth than one that isn’t, and it is also definitely true that first time visitors are more likely to return to a church whose Children’s Ministry is over-staffed than one that is chaotic and under-resourced.

Finally, I want to be really honest—using multi-level strategy can often feel like the book If You Give a Mouse a Cookie. If you name what positions your ministry needs, you will need leaders to fill those positions. If you are able to recruit those leaders, you will need to provide them with role descriptions and train them. If you need to plan a training, you are going to need more leadership development budget.

The fact is, there will always be more to do. I encourage you to take these things one at a time and refuse – YES, REFUSE! – to be overwhelmed.
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There are a million resources out there for you (I’d start with this article on recruiting leaders: “Four Tips for Volunteer Recruiting” by Kristin Franke), and remember that God has called you to this—You are not alone when you are called by God.

One thing I would warn you against, though, is don’t look at the biggest church out there for tips. Yes, go to the conferences. Yes, pick all the brains and get all the ideas. But don’t compare yourself or your ministry to North Point. No one is North Point. (Unless you’re North Point, in which case, this is awkward.) But seriously, if you are a children’s ministry of 25 kids or 50 kids, don’t look to churches with 1,000 kids as your model. They didn’t get where they are by having the model they have now, and you won’t get where they are by trying to copy them. If you want churches to look up to, find some churches your pastor respects or has a good relationship with that are simply at the next level. Honestly, they’ll be more likely to answer your emails, and they’ll probably learn as much from you as you learn from them. If you’ve tried that approach and had no luck (and trust me, I’ve tried that and had no luck!), consider joining the next Ministry Architects cohort or simply reading “Sustainable Children’s Ministry” by Mark DeVries and Annette Safstrom if you haven’t already.

Look, ministry is tough, but I believe that you are tougher, and the God that is in you is bigger than org charts, volunteer shortages, and check-in printer issues (again). You are called, you are worthy, and you’ve got this. Go with God, and enjoy the ride.

The post Multi-Level Planning and Strategy in Children’s Ministry appeared first on Ministry Architects.

Well, wasn’t that Easter Egg Hunt that your youth sponsored for the children’s ministry just a blast! I hope you had plenty of “Extra Eggs for Empty Baskets.”

I heard of a neighborhood that had an Easter Egg Hunt that was a lot of fun, too – kids running everywhere, prize-filled plastic eggs hidden in all sorts of auspicious and inauspicious places, even older “children” hunting high and low, shouts of glee upon the discovery of hidden egg treasures, the fun of “cascarones” (confetti-filled egg shells that children crack on each others’ heads). What a fun way to celebrate Easter and to highlight this very special day and season …

… and then it was over …

… and there were candy wrappers and confetti and brightly colored eggshells everywhere. And the morning dew combined with egg dyes to stain stone and concrete. Made me think of Mike Yaconelli’s infamous episode of staining the “Jones Memorial Carpet” in the church ladies’ parlor.

But that is the way that good ministry often is – many times it can leave a mess. The cost of cleaning up is the price we pay for having the opportunity to do ministry in the first place.
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The end of the program year is a good time for some important cleanup.

Ten Places to Pay Attention at the End of the Year

Evaluate – It’s time to climb up in the balcony for a bird’s eye view of what took place in the last year – all seen through the lens of your stated mission. You should ask questions like, “Did this event really reflect what we were hoping would happen in the lives of our youth?” or “Did Sunday night youth group reflect the values that we had in mind?” You’ll be tempted to look forward, but don’t look ahead until you’ve looked back to evaluate.

Review Policies and Game Plans – Many of these won’t change much, but some will out of necessity, e.g. your communication plan will likely change to reflect new modes of youth communication.

Assess Yourself – What are some of the gaps in your knowledge base or professional skills that need some attention? You should be able to address some of those needs through continuing education plans in the coming year.

Evaluate Your Team of Staff and Volunteers – They might need some spiffing up too in the way of training or simply in team building activity.

Financial Accountability – Take a look at how your ministry performed on the bottom line and how accountable you were to the budget under which you were operating. Too many youth ministries make a fiscal mess that calls for a “cleanup on Aisle 7.”

Tighten Up the Rolls – The end of the year gives you a chance to clean up the youth directory and to make contact with MIA youth before they get away for the summer or, worse yet, for good.

Collect Major Event Notebooks – If you’ve done a good job of providing planning information for major event coordinators, it’s time to make sure that all that good information (with new notes included) gets back to the youth office. You can then prepare that valuable information for next year’s coordinator.

Say “Thank You” – Too often we roll right through the year and make a mess of saying, “Thank you.” The end of the program year presents a good opportunity to stop, gather your folks, and give your volunteers a big bear hug by honoring them with a dinner or worship recognition moment.

Redeem relationships – Sometimes the mess is our own, and we’ve left a broken relationship in the wake of a busy year. It’s time to do what you can to bring healing where there is brokenness and to offer a heartfelt “I’m sorry.”

THEN it’s time to look ahead …

Conclusion

When the Easter Egg Hunt, or whatever it is, has absolutely worn you out,

cleaning up is just about the last thing that you want to do. But it’s part of the price we pay, a price that we pay willingly, because paying the price just might give us the chance to do it all again.
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If you want to explore more about what to do when you’ve “stained the Jones Memorial Carpet,” email me at david.carroll@ministryarchitects.com. I’d love to spend some time helping you to clean up the mess, because I want you to have another opportunity to bless the lives of young people.

The post Cleaning Up At the End of the Year appeared first on Ministry Architects.

Christmas is approaching fast. You’ve just completed your annual, well-loved Youth Christmas Progressive Dinner. You’re thinking about that last Christmas present that is yet to be bought, when a concerned parent walks up to you and asks, “Hey, when are registration materials for the February retreat going to be available?”.All of a sudden it occurs to you – I hardly know ANYTHING about what we’re going to do next year!

Maybe that’s a little extreme. At least for your sake, I certainly hope so. (Yikes!) But let’s just suppose that in your youth ministry situation, it applies. You didn’t really mean to forget about planning. But what ARE you going to do in your youth ministry in the coming year?

And what can you do to keep from creating this kind of calendar emergency in the future?

Let’s Get a Couple of Things Out of the Way

As we at Ministry Architects look at thriving youth ministries around the country, they are typically working with an 18-month internal major event calendar and a 12-month external (or public) calendar. It is that far-reaching look that creates the space for effective ministry planning.

Having that calendar in place makes it possible to identify the resources that must be present and the logistics that must be in place in support of the various aspects and events of the ministry. Without that calendar, it becomes difficult to identify how many volunteers, how much money, what kind of publicity, what types of processes, and which facilities, etc., will be needed.

If you are working with an 18-month calendar, you know what a help it is. If you aren’t working with an 18-month calendar, you are going to be AMAZED at the difference it makes.

Check out the Ministry Architects Free Tools and Resources for Youth Ministry where you will find templates for building a Major Event Calendar and much more!

So How Do You Make It Happen?

Start By Opening a New Document on Your Computer (or Pull Out a Piece of Paper… whatever works for you)… and Get to Work!

• EVALUATE THE CURRENT VISION – This is best done with your ministry’s leadership team. The turn of the year is a good time for testing the vision. Maybe you decide that you really like your ministry’s vision. If that is the case, well, that’s great. One less thing. But if you decide that vision needs some work, this is the time to do it, maybe through a weekend summit to review and reconstruct the mission statement, values, and goals of the ministry. (Look for Sample Mission Statements on the Free Tools and Resources for Youth Ministry page on the Ministry Architects website.)
• THROW OUT THE THINGS THAT ARE BROKEN – Yep, sometimes things get broken. And that is plenty reason in itself to ditch an event or part of your ministry. It can be a tradition that no longer works or an event that is just hanging on for dear life. If it’s broken, let it go.
• PLUG INTO THE CALENDAR THE TRADITIONS THAT ARE WORKING IN CONCERT WITH THE VISION. No doubt there are some of those “keepers” that your ministry is just not complete without. You just want to make sure that they are really doing what your ministry is all about. For example, if your ministry is all about the development of spiritual leadership amongst youth, you would never want to sponsor a retreat where young people are not integrally involved in planning, implementing, and leading.
• EVALUATE THE PACE OF YOUR YOUTH MINISTRY. Is everybody exhausted? Is the pace of your ministry just rather frantic? The turn of the year is a good time to evaluate that. Think about some ways that you can create margin in your ministry, a little space between, to give you time to recover or enjoy the fruit of your labor. OR maybe you need to speed up a bit by adding some events, creating more excitement and enthusiasm in a ministry that is dragging.
• IDENTIFY WHAT NEW MAJOR EVENTS (if any) WILL BE ADDED. You have space for only a limited number of major events, so make them great! And make sure that they reflect the character and desired flow of your ministry.
• START THE PROCESS WITH JANUARY AND LAY OUT YOUR YEAR. Start by laying out 12 months, then keep going. Since youth ministries tend to function on an annual rhythm, you can roll right into the first six months of next year. That way you will get to your 18-month internal calendar goal. Remember, you don’t have to publicize 18 months worth, but working ahead this way will give you a tremendous head start on NEXT year!

Conclusion

It’s about PURPOSE and your mission. It’s about PACE in the midst of an annual rhythm. It’s about a PROCESS that you can renew every six months or so. Work 18 months out, and you’ll be well on your way!

The post Turning a New Annual Page: Calendaring for a New Year appeared first on Ministry Architects.

One of the things I love most about Ministry Architects and why I’ve been a consultant with the company since 2008, is the high value we put on intentionality. Ministry Architects designs a strategic visioning process with each church, some parts of it are tried and true and used with other groups, but for the most part, the church receives a tailor-made sequence that helps deepen the church’s roots, casts a clear vision, and establishes a plan towards making dreams a reality. The strategic visioning process typically takes place in this order:

1. The Assessment. The church gets an opportunity to host focus groups and allow the church-members and leadership to speak into current challenges as well as blessings and gifts the congregation holds. Ministry Architects makes recommendations to address the current challenges in concrete ways as well as leverage assets and gifts. This helps create a firm foundation so that a strategic visioning process is built upon something solid with little to no cracks in the foundation.
2. Identity. Who are we and who is our target audience? Answering these sometimes challenging questions helps open up a wider lens. Helping the church create a visioning statement (or a new mission statement) and a list of core values is so important to ensure the church has common vocabulary around who they are and what role they play in their community (neighborhood, city, wider-church community). It will be important that all goals track back to the original mission statement and the spirit of the work reflects the values.
3. Visioning. Dreamers are allowed to let loose and dream “big, hairy and audacious” goals! The participants in the visioning process (often called a Visioning Summit), craft longer term strategic goals and we as the consultant help make them measurable and in line with best practices. A recruited team of volunteers as well as the Vestry, Session, or whatever lay leadership is in place at your church or institution, takes these goals and prays with them, sits with them, and makes sure they fit the church’s DNA and current context. We know that with God all things are possible… and we also know with a good finance committee, we can make sure we are good stewards God’s goodness and imagination we have for our communities!

Recently, I was able to work with St. John’s Episcopal Church in Dallas, TX to launch their strategic visioning process. We’ve partnered with them for 18-months to walk alongside them in this process so it does not feel overwhelming and to provide accountability and resources along the way. St. John’s is a wonderfully unique Anglo-Catholic parish in East Dallas that has seen steady growth over the last few years. It was time to leverage that growth, clarify their identity as the community around them grows and changes, and cast a vision for moving forward. The Rector recently reflected on their strategic visioning process in the weekly e-newsletter. It is so important to start this process right.

Nurturing Faith

by Father David Houk, Rector, St. John’s Episcopal Church, Dallas, TX

It happened. What I wanted to happen at our Vision Summit this past June actually happened.

I wanted the Vision Summit to be an experience of the Body of Christ together, where all of God’s people were able to give input and direction in the formulating of a new mission statement. Instead of a top-down process where the Rector and Vestry describe St. John’s character and mission, I wanted it to be a bottom-up, organic experience where all members and attenders shared what the Holy Spirit was put on their hearts.

And that’s what happened.

In an exercise where parishioners offered up words they felt best described St. John’s, one of the words that kept coming up was “nurturing.” I would have never thought of that word on my own. But it was perfect when I heard somebody else say it, and then another say it, and then another.

St. John’s is a nurturing church. We care for all kinds of people. We are accommodating and welcoming of folks who don’t know our Episcopal traditions. We meet and accept people wherever they are, just as we believe Jesus did the same. Sermons and classes nourish those who are just beginning their spiritual journey as well as those who have been walking with Christ for years. Another way of saying this is that St. John’s is made up of people and priests with a pastoral heart, able to encourage and strengthen faith in a community where no two people are the same.

We’ll be talking more about the mission statement in the weeks ahead. Let’s get to know it, memorize it, and live it together:

Nurturing faith, inspiring hope, and growing in love as we worship God, make disciples, and serve East Dallas and the world.

Email us today if you’re interested in getting started. We are excited to see what God is up to in your community! Hope we can be a part of it.

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