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Set your small church up for success! Learn how one morning of ministry planning can actually give you more time, less stress, and greater impact.
How My Church Went From “Flying By The Seat Of Our Pants” To “Ahead Of The Game” In One Day!
Imagine it’s four weeks away from the most important church holiday of the whole year, Easter. The leadership team sits around the table, and someone says, “What are we going to do for Easter?”
Great discussion and great ideas abound. Plans are finalized, and a flurry of work happens to get it all done. Easter was great, but it was exhausting.
Then, the team takes a quick breath while rushing to the next activity that has to be scheduled, planned, and executed. Whew!
Sound familiar?
This ‘fly by the seat of your pants’ style of operating was typical for my church. Don’t get me wrong, everyone is great! The team jumps in there and gets the job done. But it’s busy, stressful, tense, and time-consuming.
What If There Was A Better Way To Plan Ministry Events?
That’s when I discovered the idea of planning your church calendar for one year in one day.
Seriously? A whole year of church events in one day?
There were a couple of raised eyebrows and a few sideways glances when I suggested it. Fortunately, I get to be part of a fun-loving, adventurous crew whose willing to try something new.
This post will take you step-by-step through our process of planning our best year ever!
Before We Got Started
Review & Evaluate Last Year First
A few weeks before our planning session, we reviewed and evaluated last year’s events asking these questions:
- What was the intended purpose of the event?
- What relationships were built at that event?
These questions helped us determine if what we’re doing at church fulfills what we want to do at church.
As a team, we read the article from the Small Church Ministry website on yearly planning. This helped everyone get on the same page
2 Planning Principles To Keep In Mind For Your Small Church
It’s Bigger Than Me (Or You)!
I am not the boss of the calendar.
I wasn’t trying to control or dictate what activities we did or when we did them. We were deciding these things as a team.
The Planning Calendar Is Not Set In Stone
We have a plan, but the plan can be changed.
We can add or delete as the need arises based on what happens at the time.
The Big Day
The morning of our planning session, we ate breakfast together. It would be a long session, so we had to fuel up. Also, the fellowship as a team was a great way to start this endeavor. Then, after a prayer, we got started!
Here’s where we got into the nitty gritty:
Having each month spread out side by side on tables, we could see the whole year before us. Armed with sticky notes and markers, we had a different colored sticky note for each category. Each person on the team had a different category to fill in.
Start With The Known Ministry Events
Include Regular Worship Services
First, one person filled out a sticky for the regular services for Sunday and Wednesday. One sticky at the top of the month for Sunday and drew a line down the rest of the Sundays for that month. Then, the same for Wednesday.
Add Holidays & School Breaks
Then, another person filled in the regular occurring holidays while another person filled in the start times and breaks for the local school system. Another person filled in the monthly teacher’s meetings. I crossed out the times we know services are canceled (during fall and spring break, between Christmas and New Year’s, etc). I also noted when staff members were going to be out for family trips and such.
Toss In The Church’s Special Events
Next, we discussed the events that always happen at church. We know we’re going to do ‘Cocoa & Carols’, ‘Tables of Love’, and ‘Graduation Service’, so we plugged in all the events when they usually happen for the whole year.
Then The Magic Began
This is where the magic started to happen. As we came across an activity that we sometimes do or when someone had an idea for a new activity, we wrote it on a list. Once all the regular events were scheduled, we discussed the items on the list.
With the philosophy of “work smarter, not harder”, we came up with some great ideas. When the topic of the Fall Festival came up, we talked about the intended purpose of the Fall Festival: Who’s it for? When’s the best time for it? Was it beneficial? Etc.
We also asked the questions: Do we want a Thanksgiving meal shortly after the Fall Festival? Do we want several events like that back to back? So, we decided to have one big event at the beginning of November that included the Fall Festival and the church Thanksgiving meal all rolled into one.
As we worked our way through the new events list, we had key conversations like, “Do we want to do a Christmas play or an Easter play this year?” “Should we do both?” Looking at the calendar filling up before us, we realized that doing both would be really difficult. However, if we just did an Easter play, we could plan to get a super early start (something we’ve never done) and really do an excellent job.
By the time we got to July 2021, all the events and activities were planned, the calendar was full, and we were exhausted!!!
It took every minute of 2 ½ hours.
Ministry Planning For Your Small Church Goes Further Than The Calendar
Now that the team understood what we just accomplished, and it finally made sense, I explained how our calendar can be used for so much more in our ministry efforts.
I described the implications of using this calendar as a tool to guide us during the whole year:
- A planning session for the youth ministry
- A planning session for the hostess team
- Hijacking events to get more ministries involved
- Sermon planning
- Worship team planning
- Utilizing the Ministry Funnel to move people into more growth
- Media team marketing and advertising
- The list goes on and on!
Utilize A Shared Google Calendar For Your Small Church
After the meeting, I plugged all the events and activities into the church’s Google calendar. Now, everyone on the team can see what’s happening.
And After The Big Day?
When I asked the team how they felt before and after our planning day, here’s what a few had to say:
Before the planning session, I was concerned that we might forget about an event. We typically fly by the seat of our pants, and it usually shows as we are usually running around crazy trying to get everything prepared quickly. Afterwards, it felt like a weight was lifted knowing that nothing would slip through the cracks.
– Lead Pastor
Before, I felt nervous and overwhelmed that over a year of planning was about to happen … After, I felt relieved, prepared, and ahead of the game.
– Worship Leader
Boom! Ahead Of The Game!!
Planning Results In Less Stress & Better Ministry
That’s what I’m talking about!!!
Because we got the planning out of the way, we’re going to do a better job of organizing, which will make us better at executing with less stress, which will result in better ministry to people.
We’re all so excited about the next year and what we’ll be able to accomplish for the Kingdom!
Work Smarter, Not Harder
Do you want to learn how to “work smarter and not harder” with your ministry team? Get better at planning and organizing? Do you want to get “ahead of the game” so you can be more effective in ministry?
Then, click the link to hop over to the Facebook community: Creative Solutions for Small Churches to share your thoughts and get more support from other like-minded people who have a passion for ministry!
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