Hopefully you will be spending time this summer working through your plans for this upcoming school year. Hopefully you’ve already got a start on this but if you have not, maybe this week will give you the kick-start that you need. After all, we’ve all heard that if we are failing to plan then we are planning to fail.
At the close of every school year I take a step back from all that is going on and do a good evaluation of all of the programs that we have going on as well as at the overall health of the youth ministry. Of course there are many ways that you can go about evaluating our ministries, I’m certainly not claiming that I have the best, it is probably far from the best, but it is something and it just might help you out.
We really go about evaluation in two parts. Both of these parts have to be centered constantly on prayer. The only way that each of these parts really helps us is if they are actually the prayers that we are praying, the questions that we are asking of of God.
PART ONE
- Where have we been?
- Where are we now?
- Where is Jesus leading us?
Where have we been?
Taking the time to look back at on the history; the high points and the low points that the youth ministry has had is critical for us. It gives us a chance to be reminded of the path that Jesus has us on and helps us connect with our identity as a ministry.
Where are we now?
Reflecting on the honest current situation of the ministry is vital. What are the gifts and talents of the people involved? Where are the growing edges for the ministry? Is there a consistent theme that is running through the relationships that adults have built with students? Who is connecting with the youth ministry (girls/guys? jr high/sr high? different social classes?)
Where is Jesus leading us?
Where do we need to go so that we are following Jesus as a ministry? Which of those growing edges do we need to focus on?
PART TWO
For us, part two is really where we get into the concrete planning. We’ve spent time in conversation with God and now we are going to attempt to work through what we feel we have heard from Him and have that guide our planning for the year. This really happens in three steps that I’ve recently reworded for my team because of the very helpful book, Simple Student Ministry.
- Achieve clarity in our expectations
- Spotlight movement through the discipleship process
- Guard alignment of the programs
Clarity
In order for us to really begin our planning, we need to be sure that we have clarity in what we are actually trying to accomplish in our ministry. It is far too easy to say “we are going to go and make disciples.” You need to figure out what that actually means in your context, in your community, in your church. What does the picture of a disciple in your ministry look like? Be clear about it.
Movement
What are the steps that along the path of becoming the kind of disciple that you now have a clear description of? What are the checkpoints along the way? When we know what those checkpoints are we can then focus in on the paths in between those checkpoints. Keeping the spotlight on movement reminds us that our programming is not the goal, it is simply a means to spur on movement toward the next checkpoint.
Alignment
Now, we have finally come to the point in the planning process where we are actually thinking through the programming. In order for all of our work up to this point to be successful, we need to be sure that the programs that we are planning and implementing are in direct alignment with the movement that we want to see. We need to be sure that each program (checkpoint) is on the path that we have set out and that that checkpoint sets students up to take the next step on toward the the next checkpoint program. We need to vigillantly guard this alignment throughout the year but we need to take extra care in our planning process because if we start off with our programs misaligned, we’ll have a much rougher go of things.
What do you think? What steps do you have in your evaluation/planning process?
Tomorrow I’ll share a little about where we ended up in our planning process this year and how it shaped what we will be doing this upcoming school year versus what we were doing this past school year.
[Photo by: adelelai1231]
_____________________
Chris Szulwach is a youth pastor in Liverpool, NY. Chris has 11 years experience as a volunteer, para-church staff, and as a pastor.
Blog - CoffeeWithChris.com
Twitter - http://twitter.com/CoffeeWithChris
Related posts:
{ 1 trackback }
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Do you do much dramatically different from year to year?
I think that once you have thoroughly gone through this process once and made some sure the programs are in line with the discipleship process and the process is in line with the vision of the ministry then there shouldn't need to be dramatic changes from every year. But I think the process is important because it is really easy to get stuck in a rut of programming that has drifted from the process and vision.
Although, tomorrow I'll share some of what this process has brought for my ministry this coming year.
Good stuff. the transition I watched from old YP to new took about a year of dramatic change, and then 2 more years of subtle tweaks.