
Thanks for joining me as we talked about Mapping Out Your Ministry Year! Below you’ll find a brief overview of what we talked about, along with links to the downloads I mentioned! Have more questions? Email me at brittany@deeperkidmin.com.
The Lord guides our steps, but we can be good stewards of the time he’s given us through intentional planning. Planning ahead allows for a more balanced and sustainable year in ministry, and it doesn’t have to be complicated or overwhelming. So grab your calendar and a pencil (because we never plan in pen), and let’s jump in!
1) Personal time management leads to ministry time management.
We have to manage our own time well if we want to manage our ministry’s time well. As much as I wish it were endless, time is limited. And your time as a kidmin leader is limited too. So how can you make the most of it?
- Know yourself. When do you work best? What motivates you to be productive? What distracts you?
- Plan your time. So much time is wasted from not having a plan for your time. Even if it’s just a short list on a sticky note, at the end of each day, make a list of what you want to get done tomorrow. That way, you don’t spend a lot of time up front just figuring out what you need to do. You can jump right in, and it helps your brain focus on what needs to get done instead of where to start. (Psst – I really like using Asana as my digital to-do list, and Trello helps me stay on track with big tasks and brainstorming. If you’re more of a physical pen and paper person, check out my Get-it-Done Post It Note Printable!)
- Track your time. If you want to use your time more wisely, you have to know where your time goes. Your church may ask you to track your time or hours anyway. Mine didn’t, but I like using Toggl to keep track of my time. I categorized the different tasks I spent time on (Sunday prep, special events, meetings, etc.) and kept a log of how many hours I worked. This not only helped me analyze where my time was going and work to balance it better (spent lots of time in meetings this week, it’s OK to cut down on meetings next week), but it also helped me give myself permission to STOP working at the end of the day. My to-do list may not have been done, but when that timer said I had been productive for 8-9 hours, it was OK to stop and push those tasks to tomorrow. (The trick is really making sure you’re actually productive during the time you track!)
- Block your time. Blocking your time or your days of the week can help you be more productive and help your brain focus on the tasks ahead. Think of blocking like theming your days; each day of the week could have a different theme/focus for the day. For me, Sundays were church (obviously) and administrative tasks like setting up emails, social media posts, and evaluating the morning. I liked to use Mondays for brainstorming, vision-casting, and big-picture planning. Tuesdays and Thursdays were reserved for staff meetings, outings with kids and volunteers, and other errand-type activities. Wednesdays were my days to fully prepare for and focus on Sundays. Then I could take Fridays and Saturdays off. Blocking your time or at least your days gives each day a unique purpose and breaks up a sometimes monotonous week.
- Protect your time. Protect the time off you have and time with your family. They are your first ministry before your role in kidmin and you have to protect your time with them, even if it means you have to say no to something. (And it’s OK to say no to something.) Don’t tell the families in my ministry this, but at one point, I had to schedule meetings with myself on the calendar so I would actually take the time I needed to rest and recover. If someone asked to talk or meet with me during that time, I could just say I had a meeting and wasn’t available. Doing this helped me remember to take time for myself so I could be refilled and refueled. Hear this, kidmin leader: you are not obligated to be on call for the families in your ministry 24/7, and times of rest are not unproductive. God took time to rest and so should you.
- Just like we have to be good stewards of the materials and resources God has gifted us, we have to be good stewards of our time too. So know yourself, plan, track, block, and protect your time so you can be the most effective kidmin leader you can be.
- VIP Meeting – A VIP Meeting is a once-a-month meeting with yourself that gives you space to be still, dream, plan, and brainstorm. It’s a vital check-in for your goals and helps you stay on track with the most important things in your life and your ministry. Download a free VIP Meeting Planning Guide here!
- Action Step: Write down right now – What are your most productive hours of the day? OR Tentatively block out your week, giving each day a different focus.
2) Start with the big picture.
Planning your calendar year ahead of time helps you see the big picture of what you’re doing in your ministry and stay on top of things. When you know what’s coming 2, 3, or even 6 months down the road, you are better able to delegate, plan, focus on your goals, and use your time wisely. So grab your favorite calendar (print or digital), use the steps below, and plan away!
Identify your goals. Look at the vision of your ministry. Use that as a pasta strainer to filter all the ideas and events you hear about/think of. Then set goals that help you accomplish your vision, and create calendar events that help you accomplish those goals. Our goals give us the direction and the boundaries for our calendar.
ACTION STEP: Write down 3 goals (and their 3 action steps) for your ministry for the next year.
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD OUR FREE MINISTRY GOAL SETTING GUIDE
Get (and keep) a calendar. You can’t plan the year ahead if you don’t know what the year looks like. Whether it’s in print (Blue sky calendars are my favorite) or use a digital calendar with Google. Consider scheduling time for your staff to meet twice a year for the sole purpose of planning, managing, and balancing the calendar.
Start big. Write down all the big, important, we-do-them-every-year, this-isn’t-going-to-change-unless-the-rapture-happens dates first (Easter, Christmas, church-wide events) so you can plan around those. You can host a service project any time throughout the year, but if you plan an egg hunt in October, you might get some pushback. Look at the year as a whole and identify key times/dates/seasons. Each event on the calendar must help meet a specific goal and have a specific purpose.
Know the seasons of busy-ness for the families in your ministry. As much as we’d love it if the families in our church only had our events on their calendar, the reality is they have commitments (a lot of them) outside of our ministries. My families have asked for no extra events past the first weekend of December until after Christmas and from the beginning of May until after school gets out. Those are two months that are jam-packed with school activities and extracurriculars, so keep your families’ other schedules in mind. This will help prevent you from spending time and energy on an event that no one shows up to.
Vary the type and purpose of your events and consider all the categories. Have a healthy variety of events like outreach, family events, service projects, etc. and be sure to include events for every age group.
What big events are happening around the world this year? This will help you keep relevancy in mind when planning your calendar. For example, during the Olympics, we like to host a field day type event for families.
Don’t stress about the details yet. You don’t have to have the event actually planned to know what kind of event you want to have. Stay focused on the big picture. Say you want to do a kids service project next November – great! That’s all you need to know right now. Just pencil in service project on your calendar and start planning more details later.
Don’t overload! Keep it simple. You don’t have to have an exciting event every single weekend. One outside-of-Sunday event a month was our rule of thumb and it was the perfect amount for the families in my ministry.
Add in other ministry dates too. Remember that you’re not the only ministry in the church (even if you are the most important wink wink). Make notes of the big youth group dates so you don’t schedule a babysitting night the same weekend all of the youth are on a youth retreat.
Pre-emptive Planning. Take a look at the year ahead and take note of seasons when you’ll be stretched logistically, relationally, or an upcoming season of transition.
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD OUR FREE CALENDAR PLANNING CHECKLIST!
Action Step: Make a list of your top 3-5 children’s ministry events and place them on the calendar. Then start pre-emptive planning! What are the seasons that have a high demand on your time and energy? What are the seasons that could possibly put stress on your important relationships (family, staff, senior leadership, volunteers, friends, etc.)? What expected transitions are you aware of? (Staff changes, role changes, etc.)
3) Narrow down the details.
Now that you have the big picture planned, work backward to fill in the details. How can you set yourself up for success with each major event on your calendar?
Add planning checkpoints or due dates in your calendar for each major event. For example, if VBS happens the first week of June, maybe you purchase final supplies/organize final donations the last week of May, open registration 8 weeks before in April, start promoting your VBS in March, communicate with your team in February, and finalize VBS curriculum by the end of January. Working backward from your event date allows you to spread out the tasks and make sure that nothing gets put off until the last minute or forgotten. It also allows you to communicate with families and volunteers in a timely manner. As you work backward in this way to add deadlines and due dates, review your pre-emptive planning and overall calendar to see if there are any seasons that are becoming loaded down with due dates or events.
Categories & Timing to think through for each event:
- Promotion & Communication – Who needs to know? How can I tell them? When should I tell them?
- Volunteers – Who do I need? What do they need to know? When should I tell them?
- Sign-ups – When does registration open? How will I set up registration? When will registration close?
- Plans/Lessons – What’s going to actually happen at this event? Do I have a tentative schedule?
- Supplies – What supplies do I need for this event? From where & when should I buy them?
Nitty-gritty doesn’t have to be pretty, especially in the planning stage. Just get out on paper all the things/ideas/tasks that you need to do for that event, almost like a Brain Dump specifically around one event. You can go back later and organize it/add dates or categories to it.
Action Step: Choose 1 major event on your calendar. Identify and schedule 3 checkpoints or deadlines prior to the event with tasks you want to have accomplished by that date.
CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR A FREE MINISTRY EVENT PLANNER PRINTABLE FROM MEGHAN CLAYTON
4) Evaluate.
When you’re done, look at your calendar year visually. Is there one month that has lots of events? Did you plan 3 events for your preschool families in April, but then they have nothing until October? Make sure your calendar is balanced throughout the year in both number and intended audience.
Each event on the calendar must help meet a specific goal and have a specific purpose. Can you identify how each event on your calendar helps you meet your specific goals for the year and your vision for the ministry?
Evaluate each specific event too. Ask questions of your families and volunteers to gather feedback about the event. (Here are some of my favorite feedback questions.) And take notes on how you planned, promoted, and prepared for an event so it’s even easier next year. Write down any notes or changes you want to make for next time, and you could even schedule an email to send yourself the notes when it’s time to start planning the event for next year!
Resources & Free Downloads
Here’s a list of all of the free resources I mentioned in this session + a few extra resources that you may find helpful as you map out your ministry year!
Free Downloads:
- Get It Done Post-It Printable
- VIP Meeting Planning Guide
- Ministry Goal Setting Guide
- Calendar Planning Checklist
- Brain Dump
- Favorite Feedback Questions
Other Resources:
- FREE Event Planner Checklist from Meghan Clayton
- VBS Planning Guide
- Children’s Ministry Events
Tools I Love: