Youth Ministry Planning: Easy as ABC
August and September are back to school months for most students across the country. And while teenagers are way past learning their ABC’s, youth workers should keep this little acronym in mind as a guide for successful year-long planning.
Here’s how to let the “ABC’s” be your guide to planning your ministry calendar:
A is for ASK–Too often some of the scheduling problems we find ourselves in could have been avoided if we had simply asked questions ahead of time. Start asking students and parents what big events are on tap for the school year, questions like:
- When are the athletic events scheduled? And when are playoffs for the various sports?
- Will the band be going on any long trips, or are there any competitions they will attend?
- When will the ACT be given?
- Will the drama or choral departments be performing any time during the year?
- When are the holidays for each school?
These are just a few of the questions you need to be asking before planning youth ministry events for the year. Knowing these dates can also be a big help when making decisions about attending school functions involving your students. A student seeing you at an event can go a long way in developing quality relationships in student ministry.
B is for Booking–Late summer is the perfect time to book such things as buses, hotel rooms, camp dates, equipment for special fellowships, tickets for events, etc. If you do a D-Now weekend, consider securing commitments from host homes early. Trust me, I have been caught many times not being able to stay in a certain place or even being able to pull off an event because I did not book something far enough ahead of time. Once in my early days I had to put our students in a hotel 50 miles away from weekend retreat venue just because I waited too late to book a place to stay.
C is for Calendar–Get a calendar and get it out NOW! Then start planning all your events for the next twelve months. Be sure to put school events and other church events on your calendar. How about putting the birthdays of all your students on your calendar, too? Once you have a “big picture” view, line up some time to show your calendar to your pastor and other staff members to make sure your events or other initiatives don’t conflict with a church event.
I may be a little (or a lot) OCD but I keep four calendars – my big thick one for staff meetings, a monthly one on my desk, a small one for ministry mileage, and one on my cell phone!
Once I was on a bus with 50 students heading to Atlanta to see the Braves play and a high school girl yelled out, “Hey Richard, did you check to make sure the Braves are in town?” The answer to that question was, “yes.” Nine months earlier I had followed the ABC’s of planning. Good planning really is as simple as ABC.
Richard Parker has been a student minister for the past thirty-one years, serving at First Baptist Church in Russellville, AL since 1989. He has written a three volume set of Character Education curriculum for schools and has written “Character,” a year long devotional book for students. Richard speaks in schools as well as at various church and civic conferences.
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Good tips, Richard. I really like the “ABC” formula. Finding out the school events is a really good idea. I wouldn’t do that sometimes and it would end up causing me problems when I planned an event on a night a lot of the students couldn’t come!
I’m going to tweet a link to this, cause I think it’s important advice for youth pastors.
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by scott aughtmon, youthministry360. youthministry360 said: What are the keys to planning your youth ministry calendar? Great @ym360 blog post from a youth min vet: http://ow.ly/2iioe [...]
Thanks Scott. The guys at Youthministry 360 really want this to be a place not only to find great materials but helpful and practical advice as well. I wish we had something like this in the first half of my ministry. Shoot, I just wish we had computers in my early days.
Richard, thanks for the great article, as always. And Scott, thanks for stopping by. Glad the site has been helpful. (Oh, and read Richard’s other articles! He’s been doing this for about 100 years . . . and he’s simply one of the best youth ministers I know. We’re blessed to know him and have his input.)–Andy@ym360
Greetings,
I am enjoying YM360. I have found some tremendous content that I will be using in the near future. I am president of our Youth Department at my church. It’s been a good program but there is an urgent need for improvement.
Can you suggest a site or literature that will be a good resource to give me a better insight on how to revitalize our department? I don’t want to reinvent the wheel, but I want it to roll smoothly
. By the way, I am a newcomer into the realm of Youth Ministry…HELP!!!
Thank you and may God continue to bless your efforts.
Bro. NJ
Bro. NJ,
Thanks for stopping by. ym360 is passionate about serving youth workers and are so pleased we could be a valuable resource for you.
I’ll answer you in three different ways . . .
FIRST, in terms of books or resources, there are a couple I have found to be pretty helpful. I would check out two books from Doug Fields: “Purpose Driven Youth Ministry,” and “Your First Two Years In Youth Ministry.” i think both of these books will help lend some insight. For a little different perspective, I’d recommend a book by Eric Geiger and Jeff Borton entitled, “Simple Student Ministry.” All three of these books are good reads.
SECOND, Bro NJ, would you consider going to ym360′s Facebook page and posting this question on our wall? When you do, I’ll come behind you and get the community of youth workers there to provide you with some input. The ym360 community is full of people with a ton of experience who I believe will be your best resource in this area.
THIRD, I would HIGHLY recommend you seeking out youth workers in other churches in your community, regardless of denomination. Seek out youth workers who have been doing this for a while and pick their brains. In my mind, this is the best way to learn and grow.
Please keep checking in with us and let us know what else we can do for you. God bless you!–Andy@ym360
I am a youth worker in the post conflict Island of Bougainville, I struggle to help the youth that are at risk of many social threats and it is imperative that I source information for any change to happen. Please help me find simple, practical and effective approaches.