Well, hello there. First time here? Welcome. If you’ve stumbled into the middle of my series on youth ministry calendar development and would like to start from the beginning, you can head over here.
If you’re back for more of the series, thank for returning.
Some of you may be thinking, “Paul, you’re pretty obsessive about this calendar thing”. I am and that is because the planning process, in my opinion, is the key to a successful youth ministry. “What!” you say, “Aren’t the keys more like prayer, preaching and pizza?” While none of these hurt, you might have these on lock, it’s the planning that gets over looked.
So, before you put it on the calendar, ask…
Have I Gathered Sufficient Input from Parents, Students, and Volunteers?
Feedback Loop
Involve parents, students, and volunteers in the planning process.
I like having calendar planning sessions with individual groups: parents, students and volunteers because a lot of idea get generated. When it comes to actually putting things on the calendar I ask only a couple from each group to participate.
Why only a few from each group? Because in large groups the actually planning can get derailed by too many voices talking about stuff that has no bearing on the actual calendar. The other reasons I’d rather have representatives from each group is because I can hand pick from each group those who love the youth ministry and who know the inner workings of the youth ministry to prioritize what is important.
The smaller group is where you want to hear honest feedback because it’s done in a less critical way. The goal of the smaller groups is to get a consensus not to have everyone agree about everything.
For the large groups, use whatever works best, e-mails, in person meetings, online polls, etc. to get the feedback on ideas. Take this data and present it to the small groups for prayer and then start plugging it on the demo-calendar, in pencil.
Once the demo-calendar is filled, pass it by your pastor or committee chair (who should probably be in those meetings) and once it’s approved there, start writing on your calendar in ink and start getting the word out.
Tailored Experiences
Use their input to create events that resonate with their needs and interests.
It’s easy to fill up a calendar with just youth events (outreach, discipleship, trips, etc) but a more holistic way, if you can do it, is to design events on purpose for not just different kinds of students but for your volunteer team and parents as well.
Here are some examples
Parent Inclusive Events
Father and Son events (Father’s Day, hunting season)
Mother Daughter events (Mom/Daughter date night, Spa Night
Family Nerf war
Age Specific Events
High School Bonfire
Middle School dodgeball
Retreats for each
Gender Specific Night
Guys night/Girls Night Out
Camp outs
Volunteer Nights
Volunteer Appreciation Sunday w/Lunch
Training Nights
Go Carts and Taco Night
Specific is better than general. Custom is better than generic. This is not to say there shouldn’t be large group night, but if everything is a large group deal, the opportunity to make the event even more special and detailed is missed.
Shared Ownership
When people feel invested in the planning process, they are more likely to support the event
This where you have to let things go. You as a leader cannot, should not be responsible to make everything happen. If you are in charge of everything, it’s your youth ministry. If parents, volunteers and students have roles and responsibilities, it’s their youth ministry.
I can remember having a concert one time, it was a semi-known local artist and instead of me calling the artists to confirm, I had a student call to confirm. They were stoked about the opportunity and excited to talk to the artist. I had the same student be the artist’s assistant when they arrived since they were now familiar with each other. This student owned the event.
I took some students to Winterjam, a big Christian concert, and there is a segment of the show where they ask the youth leaders to come behind the stage and meet the artist. I’ve met dozens of artists so I asked two of my oldest students to be the youth leader. They’re eyes got big, like, “Really”. They felt respected and honored to represent our youth group.
I have dozens of stories where, during the planning process, I gave away roles and responsibilities to a parent, a volunteer or students that simply made the event better. Place people where they are gifted and don’t worry about “the thing” being perfect. The point is, you are doing exactly what the Apostle Paul encourages all leader to do,
And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ Ephesians 4: 11-13 ESV
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