These are the notes to How to Plan a Ministry Calendar with Kenny Conley from the 2011 Orange Conference.
Before you put something on the calendar
- Clarify your vision, mission, and values
- Did this propel us to our vision
- Clarify your goals
- Ask yourself, how many volunteers, kids, kids to camp, etc.
- There is a significant link between your goals and your calendar
- Work backwards. “At the end of next year, we want…”
- Assess your resources
- Don’t just let your budget determine what you do this year
- Fund your values and goals
- The system of the financial person handing you a number and telling you, “this is your budget” is a broken system
- Have conversations with the people in charge and cast vision for your budget
Mechanics of planning a calendar
- Start with holidays, church events, and community events
- Schedule recurring weekly or monthly events
- Don’t disrupt the rhythm of your church
- Schedule one time events and large events
- This is where you schedule VBS, lock-ins, etc.
- Keep your audience in mind.
- The kids/students are not your only audience. Also think how these events affect their family
Tips and tricks to planning a calendar
- Print out your calendar.
- Color code events. Don’t use pencil because everything looks the same.
- Use sticky notes. These are easier to move around
After you have planned your calendar
- Cut, slash, and refine
- In the excitement of planning, you probably overcommitted
- Do less
- Do what you are going to do and do it well
- Create deadlines
- Set deadlines for marketing, communication, registration, etc. for your event
- Assign a calendar nazi
- This is the person that will bother you until you get it done.
- Gives this person permission to bug you
We’ll have some guidelines for this year’s calendar meeting! That’s probably a good thing!
II’m really looking forward to those bettermeetings.