To my YouTube Subscribers, here is your free cartoon to use as you please. For those who are not subscribers, watch my show The Tuesday Panic below and then download the cartoon.
Onward.
As I say in the title, I was a pretty bad procrastinator. I would leave things to the last minute and then cry about the fact that I had no time. That wasn’t true. I had all the time in the world and I “wasted it”. We’re all given 24 hours in a day and we have to use them wisely. Here are a few preparation tips I live by:
1. Make a template of what your youth meeting will look like.
Create a template or worksheet you fill out every week with the elements you most normally plug in (Games, Worship, Communion, etc.) to your mid-week meeting or bible study. If you know you are doing a series on friendship you can plan your four weeks of “get to know you games” already. A template is only a guide and not a god. If you feel like the program needs to change mid-meeting, change it, but at least you had something to change.
2. Prepare your message first.
Some argue about which comes first the chicken or the egg. Others ask what comes first, the scripture or the idea. Some have an idea and then look for scripture to back that up. I believe, that if we are well read in the scriptures, an idea will line up with what we already know, we only need to re-read the text and make sure we are literally “on the same page” with God. If you get your message down, the rest of the meeting can all fall apart if need be. Games can flunk, the worship can sound awful, and the tech can stop working but if the message is bad, in my opinion, the rest of the night was a waste.
3. Take care of the details
My details may not be your details, but the small details matter. My details inlcude
a) Print off attendance sheets
b) Make sure I the offering baskets are near by
c) Make sure I have e-mailed my notes to my IPad
If I forget any of these, it seems to get me started on the wrong foot because instead of greeting guest and making small talk I am at the copy machine making copies or consumed with my computer instead of making eye contact and engaging with our teens. Preparation isn’t just a want to it’t have to if you desire to be effective and not distracted.
If you get past procrastinating, you won’t have to watch videos like the one make every week for those who do procrastinate, it will be a luxury.
care of to be confident in your program?
Are you a procrastinator? Vote below or leave a comment.
[polldaddy poll=7152651]