church event

4 Tips for Fall Event Planning Success

As crisp fall air prepares us for the colder winter months, fall events get us ready for the Christmas season. To prevent last-minute chaos and stress, it’s time to start thinking about how to get ready for your fall schedules. Fall event planning doesn’t have to be overwhelming. Here are four simple tips to help you get started. Tip #1: Leave Breathing Room While it’s tempting to plan events that cater to every possible demographic represented in your community, the result of such an effort is likely burnout and a lack of excellence. To prevent this, cut back on the number of events you host. By leaving some white space on the fall event calendar, you can put intentional focus on the activities you choose to keep. Tip #2: Start Planning Now An event with a 50-plus attendance list is going to require more than a week or two of planning. Ideally, you’d start planning any church-wide event six months in advance. This provides sufficient time to develop ideas, shop for bargains, and get volunteers committed to serving at the event.   Assign someone to be the event planner for each event.  This individual should talk with all departments involved to determine what tasks they’ll need to complete for a successful event. Tip #3: Connect with Local Schools Leading up to the back-to-school season is a great time to connect with local school administrators. Ask for input on how your church can support them. It’s also a great way to expand your church’s community outreach. Talk with teachers in your congregation to see what they need going into a new school year. Rally the church to support them in practical ways. Also, consider conducting an outreach like a school supply backpack drive or a coat drive for underprivileged kids.  Tip #4: Build Volunteer Teams Start building your volunteer queue by inviting members who aren’t active volunteers to serve at an event. This gives them a chance to experience what it’s like to serve. It also provides you the opportunity to see where each individual would fit best in a longer-term role. Additional tip: After the event, send thank you notes to volunteers and ask them to join specific volunteer teams. Preparation is the key ingredient in pulling off a successful year of church events. Your fall calendar is going to set the tone for the months to come. Start strong by planning early, building your teams, and making connections now. **Looking for more church event planning tips? Check out The Church Event Planning Toolkit for a proven process for planning successful, not stressful, church events.**

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How to Quickly Plan an Amazing Vacation Bible School

Vacation Bible School brings kids together every summer for a fun-filled week of adventure, crafts, and learning God’s Word. If your church is offering its own program this year, here are a few steps on how to pull off an amazing VBS even if you haven’t started planning yet. Step #1: Decide on the Basics Before you do anything, choose the when, where, and how of your VBS week. This checklist will help to keep you focused on the basics: Step #2: Gather a Planning Team Now that you’ve created the outline of your plan, assemble a group of staff and volunteers for your VBS planning team. A handful of team members should be enough, but it’s a good idea to gather individuals with an interest and passion for VBS. Step #3: Create the Plan There are so many elements that go into planning any event, especially one that lasts an entire week. To help you stay organized, try breaking down your “to-dos” into categories like these: Communications This includes creating graphics for promotional materials, website updates, online event registration, video announcements, and anything else that requires some form of digital or printed communication. Work with your church’s communications team to develop a plan to invite those in the congregation and community. A comprehensive plan should consider Facebook ads, billboards, announcements on local news outlets, as well as outdoor signage at your church. Facilities Most likely, your VBS program will be held on location at your church. If so, discuss which rooms you will need for the week. Based on the curriculum you’re using, provide details on how each room should be set up with tables, chairs, audio/visual, and craft material. Also, address whether or not you’ll want any additional signage throughout the facility. Food What kind of meals and snacks will you be preparing each day? Create a menu and make sure you have enough people with food handler permits to help prepare the food.  Include a field in the registration form to ask about any food sensitivities and create a process for how to ensure those are followed during VBS. Decor Referring again to your curriculum, as many have themes, determine what decorations you’ll need for the main stage, classrooms, and central areas of your church. Volunteers Make a list of the volunteer roles needed to prepare for VBS (setting up the week or weekend before) and throughout VBS week. Tips to getting volunteers: Additional Materials Hands-on crafts and activities are a major part of the VBS experience. They also come with a list of materials. Figure out what supplies you’ll need to purchase for these crafts or any other take-home items, such as a Scripture-verse-of-the-day card. Emergency Protocols Every event, especially one involving children, needs a safety plan in place. Be sure to have adequate first aid supplies and procedures, security, and emergency evacuation plans. Other Considerations Though each church’s VBS program is different, here are a few common considerations as you finalize your plan: Step #4: Work the Plan Your plan is set, now divvy up tasks amongst team members and set deadlines for each. I recommend using a project management tool — such as Asana, Teamwork, or Basecamp — to communicate deadlines, track progress, and provide additional information to your team in one centralized location. Step #5: Enjoy a Successful Vacation Bible School Week One of the first rules of event planning is to be flexible. Things happen and not everything is going to go off without a hitch. Because of this, it’s a great idea to set up a Command Center where staff and volunteers can come to ask questions and get help troubleshooting issues throughout VBS week. Step #6: Celebrate and Recognize Phew! You just pulled off an amazing VBS week! Celebrate your team’s success by hosting a party for all your VBS staff and volunteers. This can be a simple dinner-out to close out the week or a small gathering with yummy goodies and a huge “thank you” to everyone involved. And be sure to recognize your hard-working team in Sunday’s service! Step #7: Conduct a Lessons-Learned Meeting Though your program will mostly be successful, it won’t be perfect. Invite parents, volunteers, and church staff to join you for a meeting to discuss what went well and what to improve upon for next year. Step #8: Create a Vacation Bible School Planning Notebook If you used this plan this year, then you’ve already got your plan for next year. Organize all planning documents, vendor contracts, volunteer job descriptions, and other key items in a notebook or binder to make planning next year’s VBS week that much easier. As you get into these warmer months, which typically come with a host of summer activities, camps, and events, remember that Vacation Bible School is an opportunity to connect with church members and non-church members in a relaxed, exciting environment. If you make it fun, they will certainly come. If you’d like a step-by-step guide to planning church events of any size, check out The Church Event Planning Toolkit book. At only $14.99, it’s an inexpensive resource that can save your church time and money. Get your copy today.

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A Comprehensive Guide to Planning for Easter

Planning an event takes time, teamwork, and lots of organization. Planning for Easter celebrations requires a bit of extra attention. Instead of surfing the web for various tools on how to plan for your Easter weekend, we thought it would be helpful to have one checklist to lead you through the entire planning process. We’ve gathered everything you need to know into one comprehensive guide to help you plan an incredible Easter for your church while also being able to pause and reflect on the season yourself. #1 — Plan Your Plan A part of planning for Easter includes creating the planning process. Follow these seven steps to pull off an amazing Easter service. Choose a Leader First things first, decide who will be in charge of coordinating Easter at your church. Make sure it’s someone who has event planning skills as well as time in their schedule. The Senior Pastor, for example, probably shouldn’t be the one handling Easter logistics, as crafting the sermon and approving the high-level plan is the SP’s focus. Whoever is in charge will need to coordinate between ministry departments — worship, children, youth, service, security, facilities, communications, etc. —  to keep everyone on the same page and working toward the same goals. Don’t forget to pull in the accounting, communications, and facilities departments. They tend to get overlooked but they can have a huge impact on the success of Easter services and events. Having one person coordinating tasks is also helpful in preventing several departments from doing repetitive work. Determine the Scope There are so many things to explore when it comes to planning for Easter celebrations. Once you’ve chosen your leader, get a group together to determine the scope of your church’s capabilities. Will you include outreach events the week before, host an Easter egg hunt, or offer a breakfast gathering before service begins? You may even be thinking of putting on an Easter play. Write this out and talk it over with your department leads before moving on to step three. Finalize a Budget Creating a budget is such a crucial step to a successful Easter that we dedicated an entire blog post about it. For now, here are a few highlights: Find out if your church has a budget for Easter. If not, discuss money allocation options with your church accountant or executive pastor. From equipment rentals to decor to food, determine what your congregation will need in order to meet your scope. Draft your budget, including estimates, and send it to department leads for review. Create a Step-by-Step Plan Now that we’re counting weeks instead of months until Easter, it’s helpful to assign each task to a specific week to make sure it’s accounted for. Here is a high-level list of tasks by week leading up to Easter: Week 1: Finalize the overall theme and scope of activities for Easter weekend. This includes the sermon title, color scheme, themed décor, communion, food items, etc. Gather a planning team. Create and finalize a budget. Walk through the church campus and make a list of any repairs, clean up, or beautification work needed Week 2: Submit Purchase Requests for supplies, rentals, print jobs, etc. Finalize color scheme for Easter graphics. Determine if the church will do any outreach events leading up to Easter. Week 3: Order supplies needed for décor, guest handouts/gifts, etc. Order rentals (tables, chairs, sound equipment) Hire additional security personnel if needed. Create graphics for sermon slides, church website, social media posts, handouts, etc. Plan outreach events (if applicable). Determine volunteer needs (how many you’ll need in each role for Easter weekend). Ask for volunteers to help with church repair, clean up, or beautification projects. Week 4: Create social media posts and start scheduling them. Create Facebook ads. Finalize worship set list. Schedule worship team rehearsals. Ask current volunteers to serve during Easter weekend. Week 5: Recruit additional volunteers as needed (contact people who have served at events but not on a regular basis). Prepare volunteer instructions and training materials. Purchase supplies needed for Easter Sunday. Promote Easter services via Facebook ads, social media posts, and mass email to the congregation. Decide how to follow up with Easter guests and set that system in place. You may need additional volunteers to help with data entry or other follow-up needs. Week 6: Complete church repair, clean up, or beautification projects. Finalize sermon slides. Send any final print jobs to the printer. Encourage the congregation to invite others to Easter services. Week 7: Double check that all supplies needed for Easter Sunday were purchased. Conduct a service run-through. Conduct worship team rehearsal. Host outreach event if applicable. Put guest follow-up process into place. Put the Plan into Place Now that you have your weekly plan, assign tasks to the appropriate team member, making sure to emphasize the deadlines for each. It’s also a good idea to send email reminders to your team in the days and weeks before their task is set to be complete. When volunteers are likely dealing with a number of obligations outside of church, this is a great way to keep your church activities relevant and on track. Enjoy an Impactful Easter! If you have followed this list until now, you are ready to reap the fruits of your labor. Now, enjoy an impactful Easter! Review and Reflect Hosting a successful Easter celebration for years to come is only possible with a review of what worked and, most importantly, what didn’t. Sit down with your planning team and members of your congregation to determine what didn’t go quite as smoothly as you’d hoped. Learn from these lessons and plan better for next year. #2 — Recruit Volunteers Without a doubt, you’re going to need extra hands for Easter. By putting these tips into practice, you can start filling those volunteer roles now while adding to your regular volunteer team later. For a full discussion on working with volunteers in your church, take a look at my

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How To Get Started With Church Event Planning

Church events can cultivate deeper relationships within a congregation and attract more members of a community to the church. Hosting events can also put a tremendous strain on church staff and volunteers. Here’s how to get started with church event planning to increase event success and reduce stress for your team. Think of all the church events each year: Now, think back to the week before these events.  What does that week look and feel like?  Sound familiar? I’ve been there and have worked with churches facing the same challenges. However, I’ve also learned how to avoid those scenarios and have successful (not stressful) events. With a bit of proactive thinking, a standard process, and some disciplined effort, you can eliminate the last-minute chaos and experience events that exceed your expectations.  Here’s how to get started: Step #1: Create an Annual Church Event Calendar Events can be incredible ministry tools. Unfortunately, they can also drain your budget and burn out your staff and volunteers. It is possible, however, to get all the benefits of hosting events without all the trouble. How do you do it? Plan in advance. In fact, I recommend a year out.  You don’t have to create a detailed to-do list a year ahead, but you should at least decide which events your church will host for the year. By doing this early, your team will have time to get all their ideas on the table, discuss what events are best at each time of year, and determine whether or not you need to space the events out. Here’s how to get started planning church events a year ahead: 1) Put All Potential Events on the Calendar This is the fun part: Get a huge wall calendar (erasable is best) and write out every event you intend to host in the upcoming year. Have each ministry department leader put their events on the calendar and make sure you include all church-wide events.  If possible, include information about each sermon series as well. 2)  Conduct a Calendar Review Meeting Once you’ve written them all down in one calendar, organize an event review meeting. It’s important to have all ministry department leaders, the Executive Pastor, Senior Pastor, and ministry support department leaders (Finance, Communications, Facilities, etc.) participate in this calendar review.  3) Discuss the Calendar  At the calendar review meeting, address the details of each event you’re intending to host. Here are some questions to help you move along the discussion:  4) Evaluate the Workload Dive even deeper into your review discussion by evaluating the possible workload issues that could arise with too many events. Ask yourselves these questions:  Step #2: Establish a Budget for Each Event Next, you’ll need to create a budget for each individual event. Here’s a list of items you should account for when creating a detailed budget:  Marketing — To promote your church event, you’ll need marketing communication. This includes things like website design, logos, advertisements, flyers, and email newsletters. Guest Speakers — If you plan on bringing outside guest speakers to your event, you’ll need to account for honorariums as well as their travel and lodging expenses. Catering — Meals or snacks at events can sometimes take a huge portion of the budget. Consider asking for donations from local restaurants or having several church members make the food as a part of their volunteer service.  Equipment and Decor Rentals — This may include renting tables, chairs, three-way radios for communication, tents, sound and lighting equipment, etc. Signage — Most likely, you will need signs around the church campus to help event participants locate key areas.  Merchandise — If you plan to sell books, DVDs, or other items at the event, you’ll need to figure in your initial purchasing costs for these items. Security — For larger gatherings, you may want to hire off-duty law enforcement officers or other security personnel to ensure a safe event space.  Print Materials — Some extra print materials may include name tags, staff lanyards, workbooks, handouts, etc. Once you’ve created a proposed budget for each event, you’ll need to put it through your church’s review process. Depending on how your church handles the annual budgeting process, budgets for events may roll up into each department’s budget for the year. Regardless of how this is handled, you should review each event budget before approving the event to take place. If an event is too costly, it can often be scaled back instead of cut altogether. That’s why reviewing is such an important step to the budgeting process. Step #3: Assign an Event Planner to Each Event To effectively coordinate all the tasks related to making an event happen, you need a single person who’s responsible for keeping track of those tasks and each team member’s progress.  Otherwise, you’re hoping everyone is getting their work done on time instead of actually knowing that they are doing so. At this point, designate one person as the main event planner. By having an experienced event planner in charge, you’re able to avoid the headaches that can sometimes arise with events. For example, do any of these sound familiar?   But what exactly does an event planner do? Here’s a list of the main tasks an event planner will handle to make your event a roaring success. Identify the “why” behind an event Before getting to the details, a church event planner first wants to know the reason for having an event. This involves working with church leadership to determine the overall vision and scope of the effort. Here are a few questions the event planner will ask: The answers to these questions will drive all decisions about the event, so this is a vital step to complete. Lead the planning team An event planner may be in charge, but they aren’t the only person doing work. It’s their job to create and collaborate with a planning team (staff and/or volunteers) to identify the tasks required to make an event a success. Once

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