I’ve been encouraging and challenging churches for many years to revisit their system for planning teaching series and services. Many churches I work with are still working week-to-week when it comes to service planning. In many respects, it’s kind of like living paycheck-to-paycheck. You end up reacting to the urgent. You can’t plan for the future. It creates unnecessary stress for you and the people around you.
Here’s the story of Grace Family Church. Greg, their director of communications, shares how changing their systems has improved their services:
Back in February, we went through a major shift in the way we do our creative planning. Previously, we were operating 2-3 weeks out for our weekend services and things were always frantic. It felt like we had to constantly operate in scramble mode. And, our creativity was starting to suffer since we didn’t have that much time to think ahead.
That’s when we implemented an entire new creative process and we now have 9 months of creative planning for weekend services on our calendar. The keys to making this happen was a willingness for people to let go of what was always done in the past. Our senior pastor recognized the need for change and he sought out new ideas and showed a willingness to try something different. Additionally, our leadership team was willing to let the creative team run with these new ideas and it’s been like a windsail opening up to many new possibilities. Our church is really thriving and people are more open to change because they see good things happening.
This has also led to more innovations and changes including a brand new video newsletter, an entire new website structure that cut out 60% of the current pages without losing a thing, a new small group plan for the fall, innovations in our IT department, re-branding in many of our ministries, etc. Once people catch a hold of all the new possibilities, they want to be a part of something fun and successful. God is contuining to lead us into new areas and we will continue to look to Him for our direction and maintain an eagerness for change.
In tomorrow’s post, I’ll share some simple steps to help you implement a new system for planning series and services. It’ll help you leverage more people in the creative process including the opportunity to engage volunteers more effectively. I’ve watched churches make this shift, and, as Greg highlights from his experience, it helps them have a bigger impact with their teaching and their ministry connections.
What about your experience? Has your teaching and creative teams made this shift? If so, how has it impacted your ministry? Join the conversation by sharing your comment.
