event planning Archives - Page 2 of 2 - Church Operations Toolkit

4 Tips to Reduce Last-Minute Planning

“I have an idea…”. These are words most planners prefer not to hear. After all, they’d prefer to reduce last-minute planning. In the context of the church, a close second would be, “Hey, let’s (insert big event idea here) next month!”. Though these sentences often come with good intentions, all the event organizer hears is, “Let’s add more work to your already overflowing to-do list.” As you know, planning events is a tall order. It includes promoting the event, finding volunteers, renting space to hold it, buying or making decor, securing food plans, and too many other details to list. Add a tight deadline and a few extra “ideas” to the mix and you have a recipe for stress and late nights at the office. If you’ve been hearing those dreaded words a lot lately and feel like your team is in a vicious cycle of last-minute planning, here are four tips to break the cycle. Tip #1: Bring up the Budget When it comes to ministry, money isn’t everything. It is, however, part of the church event planning equation. Sometimes you have to bring up the budget to add a dose of reality. The next time a department leader mentions a last-minute event he wants to do, kindly ask him about the budget for that event. If he didn’t include that event in his department’s annual budget, then he’ll have to request an exception or reallocate budget dollars. It’s my experience that if you do this often enough, your repeat last-minute offenders will start speaking up more in budget planning meetings. Tip #2: Provide Options Now, Tip #1 only works if the procrastinators report to you. It doesn’t work if the person dropping last-minute ideas is the Senior Pastor. In this case, brainstorm a few options on how to make his vision happen on short notice. Those options should include the price tag, how many volunteers you’ll need, how much overtime the staff members will need to work, etc. Of course, be respectful in how you deliver these options. It’s not about trying to get the pastor to ditch the idea in light of the dollar and time costs. The goal is to make sure he clearly understands the potential impact of this last-minute decision. I’ve personally worked with leaders who were frustrated at staff members who didn’t inform them about these impacts. When they learned of the real-time and money costs after the fact, they wished they’d known ahead of time. Then, they could have made adjustments or scrapped the idea completely. In short, know the impacts of a last-minute event before you begin to plan, and make sure your leaders know, too. Tip #3: Listen & Be Proactive We all have different talents and abilities. Some of us are hardwired as planners while others are dreamers. Both sides of that spectrum are important to strengthening the reach of the ministry. What’s also important is taking the time to understand each other’s perspectives. I encourage you to get to know your visionary team members or leaders. Find out what drives them and why they tend to come up with these big ideas somewhat late in the game. Then, help them understand how you can make their ideas happen when you have sufficient time to plan. Commit to discussing the next 3-6-12 months and use these scheduled meetings to get their creative juices flowing. These sessions are a great way to gauge what ideas they really want to execute. From there, schedule additional session time to brainstorm specific ideas. Tip #4: Offer Tips & Planning Tools Since some of us are more geared to plan than others, take the time to share your knowledge. What’s important here is to look inward for ways you can help your team members. Don’t just get frustrated by someone’s lack of planning. Instead, educate them on how not planning ahead creates extra work for everyone — and ultimately costs more. As I’ve discussed before, there are many steps to take that can help with planning events ahead of time. Once your team understands these steps and the benefits of this practice, you can greatly reduce last-minute planning. Go forth and plan ahead!

4 Tips to Reduce Last-Minute Planning Read More »

5 Steps to Planning Church Events a Year Ahead

Jake Douglas

There’s no denying it, church events can be incredible ministry tools. Unfortunately, they can also drain your budget and burnout your staff. 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 planning church events a year out. No, I’m not saying you need to create a detailed to-do list a year ahead. However, it’s wise to 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. From my own event planning experience, doing this exercise when there’s no time crunch will help everyone to stay focused on the big picture. Here’s how to get started planning church events a year ahead: Step #1: Put Everything 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 other church-wide events. Step #2: Organize 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. Step #3: Discuss the Calendar At the calendar review meeting, get to a bit more detail for each event you intend to host. Here are some questions to help you move along the discussion: Step #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 these questions: Step #5: Consider the Budget As you’re planning church events, the next thing to consider is the budget. Do you have a budget set (at least a draft) for each event proposed? If not, prepare those numbers before finalizing the calendar. You might find that you don’t have the cash flow to support several events at once. This could lead to you eliminating, scaling back, or spreading out events. Planning church events can be a bonding and exciting experience for your team, but only if you have enough time to enjoy it. With a little bit of intentional planning ahead of time, you can set your team up for success down the road. If your team could use a step-by-step guide to planning events, I can help! Check out The Church Event Planning Toolkit book AND The Church Event Planning Course. You’ll find a proven, simple process that works for events with a few hundred to several thousand attendees. Don’t waste time trying to figure it all out on your own. Use this process (and the templates included) and make hosting church events more successful and less stressful today.

5 Steps to Planning Church Events a Year Ahead Read More »

How to Get Started with Church Project Management

Jake Douglas

From sermon preparation to coordinating volunteers and training small group leaders (and more), there’s a lot that goes into leading a church. One way to keep all these efforts running smoothly is by implementing a project management process for your church. Before we get into church project management, we need to deal with projects. So, what is a project? According to the Project Management Institute, a project is “temporary in that it has a defined beginning and end in time, and therefore defined scope and resources.” In other words… With that in mind, project management involves coordinating all the tasks, team members, and resources needed to make the project a success. How does this apply to ministry? Most churches have more vision and activities planned than they have resources. To have any hope of not working late nights and weekends (beyond Sunday, of course), you have to be organized and efficient with what you do have available. Using a standard process to coordinate and organize the work helps everyone be more efficient and effective. Project management is a term we don’t use much in ministry. It sounds very corporate-y, so it tends to get tossed aside. However, after using project management principles in both corporate and church environments, I can personally attest to its usefulness. Projects such as launching a ministry program, hosting a conference, or starting a new outreach are in addition to the day-to-day responsibilities and can stretch your team to their limit. The key to not wearing everyone out while delivering an excellent result is in planning and project management. Before I go into detail about how to use project management principles, I want to introduce you to the benefits you can reap from a church project management process: Benefit #1: Less rework Planning involves doing work on paper before you do it in real life. When you plan, you can brainstorm and think through various scenarios well ahead of any deadlines. You can make your mistakes on paper (and identify better ways of scheduling tasks or handling various situations) instead of when a deadline is looming in front of you. Benefit #2: Increased excellence It’s hard to go the extra mile when you’re already exhausted. Planning ahead and carefully managing the plan gives you margin. You can use that margin to do the extra things that take your event over the top and deliver for your community. Benefit #3: Ability to deliver on-time and within budget When it’s down to the wire and it just has to get done, you’re more likely to feel justified in spending the extra money to finish. However, if you carefully plan the timeline and budget, you’re much less likely to have last-minute emergencies. Benefit #4: Less risk Part of the planning process involves considering the risks involved in the event or new program. You may need to purchase liability insurance for the event or make contingency plans in case of bad weather. Benefit #5: More creative freedom Using a structured planning process may not sound like it would allow for creativity. However, when you plan ahead and allow for margin within your timeline, you can create room for brainstorming sessions and a few iterations of creative concepts. You can’t let the creatives on your team tweak the graphics or décor forever, but you should give them enough time to come up with their best work. Benefit #6: Less stress and late nights You’ve seen (and experienced) it too. The week before a big deadline is fraught with last-minute changes and many late nights at work. Tempers may flare, communication is spotty at best, and you’re all just ready for it to be over. It doesn’t have to be that way. Planning ahead and then working the plan prevents this last-minute craziness. Benefit #7: Increased buy-in from the team Your team needs to understand the “why” behind this new program or event. Part of the planning process involves defining what success looks like and communicating that to the team. That unifies the group and enables them to communicate more effectively and make better decisions. Then they can all head in the same direction with purpose and enthusiasm. Benefit #8: More volunteers A lack of planning leads to sending out a desperate plea for volunteers a few days before the event. The volunteers who set aside their schedules to help likely receive very little communication or training. In that scenario, your volunteers are frustrated and annoyed. They’re serving because they believe in the ministry of your church – so much that they’ll put up with the chaos this time. However, don’t count on that continuing for long if you repeat this process often. Benefit #9: More effective communication Invest the time upfront to plan how and when you’ll communicate this event or new program. You’ll want to consider service announcements, social media posts, billboards, website updates and registration, emails, signage around the church, etc. When you coordinate this communication, it will be apparent to your congregation and the community what you’re doing, why, and how to get involved. That will increase participation and make the whole launch day run smoother. Benefit #10: Peace of mind Now, I know that God is our source of peace. I’m not taking away from that at all. In addition to trusting Him for wisdom and direction, we need to use the skills He provides and give thought to our ways. The simple act of documenting the tasks required to complete a project brings a measure of peace. You can see what needs to be done, who’s responsible for each item, and that you have a schedule in place to get everything done on time. Yes, you’ll have issues to handle along the way, but the volume is much less when you plan ahead. That brings peace and helps you be a good steward of the resources (time, money, and talent) that God has provided. Hopefully, by now you’re at least intrigued by the benefits of

How to Get Started with Church Project Management Read More »