ministry productivity Archives

Happy September! We are approaching my favorite time of year (fall) and I couldn’t be more thrilled! We’re also winding down my busiest time of year (February – September), and I am ready for a little bit of a slower pace. With our ministry year kick-off happening in just a few weeks, I still have quite a bit of a workload to work through before that can happen. In fact, some of what I’m working on is carrying over from last month.

Here’s what I’m currently working on:

Finishing September Curriculum Edits

I am a little behind on this, but since our program year starts post-Labor Day, I do have a little bit of time to finish (and I mean a very little bit).

Promotion Sunday

On September 13th, we’re promoting our kids to the next class based on their age or grade, so we’re busy making final preparations for that. (Here’s a more detailed look at how we prepare.)

Meeting With My Key Leadership Team

Last month, I shared how I’m building a leadership team called “Team Champions”. The team is complete and our first meeting is scheduled for this Sunday. We’ll review our purpose, dream about the future, look at the next three months’ curriculum themes, and brainstorm how we’d like to bring those themes to life. I’ll share more details in a future post about who is on the team and a few goals I have for us.

Meeting With Our Spiritual Formation Director

One of my key roles as Next Gen Director is to provide families with opportunities for connection and spiritual formation. Each year, I meet with our Community Life/Spiritual Formation Director to brainstorm classes/workshops that would be beneficial to families with kids and students. This has looked different over the years, but since we have a new Spiritual Formation Director, this is all brand new to her. I’m looking forward to putting our brains together!

Supporting Our 6th Graders as They Transition Into Student Ministry

Helping our 6th graders successfully transition into student ministry is one of the ways our Next Gen staff team collaborates, so my presence at our 6th grade move up event is important. I’ll have a pretty low-key role, but being a familiar face to students and their grown-ups helps to make the transition go as seamlessly as possible.

I’m sure your September to-do list is just as long (if not longer) than mine! Now it’s your turn. What are you working on this month?

Happy August! August is usually a busy month for me, and this time around is no different. Here’s what I’m currently working on:

Promotion Sunday

In early September, we promote our kids to the next class based on age or grade, so we’re busy preparing for that. Stay tuned for an upcoming post with a more detailed look at how we prepare.

Building a Key Leadership Team

One of the key missing pieces of our children’s ministry is a team of leaders who can step into the next level of leadership. I’ve decided to call these folks “Team Champions”. I’ll share more details in a future post, but my goal is to have each of our ministry areas represented with the intent of strengthening our ministry overall and better serving our volunteers and families. Very excited about this and who I’m inviting to serve in this way!

Summer Volunteer Schedules

During the months of July and August, we invite parents and other members of our congregation to serve with us while our school year leaders take some much-needed time off. This year’s call-to-action has yielded a great response (honestly the best I’ve seen in years), with most of our serving opportunities being covered. However, we have a few opportunities left, so I’m working to secure coverage for our remaining needs.

Next Gen Team Meeting Schedule

Our Next Gen staff team will resume our monthly meetings in a few weeks, so I’ll be working on outlining our meeting content for the next few months.

Blog Refresh & Content For the Next Three Months

Speaking of content…After several years away from this platform, I am eager to jump back in and have mapped out my blog content for the next three months. Now comes creating that content so that I stay ahead of the game. I am also playing with a few layouts to give the blog a fresh look. Stay tuned!

A Few Loose Ends

As summer winds down, I have a few loose ends to tie up – things such as providing our VBS debrief/evaluation notes and budget analysis to the planning team, submitting work orders for a few needed projects for our kids’ area, finishing September curriculum edits, preparing back-to-school family resources, and tidying our resource closets (we have several). I’ll be sharing a resource closet must-have list as a free download very soon, so stay tuned for that as well.

Lots of things keeping me busy! Now it’s your turn. What are you working on this month? Any specific content you’d like to see me cover?