Planning Ahead

Up until about 3 years ago, I was a "last minute" kind of guy.  I remember writing 30 page papers in college in two days.  I also took notes on the entire Old Testament in a weekend.  When I took New Testament, I vowed to not do that again.  That lasted about 3 days.  So, I only did 95% of the New Testament in one weekend.  When I got my first job at a church out of college, I tended to procrastinate.  I didn't have any deadlines.  I worked very last minute.  But then I discovered something, the joys of planning ahead.

Let me tell you, I wish I would have done it from the start.  It makes everything SO much easier.  I sat down with the other leaders over lunch and dinner and planned out a whole year of ministry.  We planned out sermon series.  We decided who would speak.  We plotted out main ideas.  We thought about possible videos.  Why?  Because it allows you to maximize your efforts in ministry.

It's the end of November, but I already know when I'm preaching in May and what the topic is.  It gives me time to be creative with multi-media.  It gives us the opportunity to be more creative.  I know when the "heavy message" weeks are so that I can be "extra light" on the weeks surrounding it.

I remember having 4-5 heavy weeks in a row and not even realize it.  Planning ahead can provide a road map for your ministry year.  In the past few years that we have been planning ahead, I have felt a huge burden come off of my shoulder.  You can provide room for flexibility, but when you are planned so far ahead, you almost take advantage of the fact that you have the road map of you ministry year.  When something comes up, in your life or others, you can feel secure that ministry will continue.

The best part, is that it takes the bulls eye off of you and puts it on everyone else.  I can't tell you how many times parents have come up to me saying that they "didn't know about an event."  When you pass out calendars 3,4,5, even 6 months in advance, they can't say that to you.  People can plan their vacations around the calendar.  You can schedule time off.  It takes the unwanted "mystery" out of scheduling.  No one asks if they are "playing in the band this week" on Wednesday.  They know months ahead of time.

There is one disadvantage (if you work with students) though.  Sometimes when you plan ahead, you get ahead of the school system and their schedule.  I remember one year, we planned a fall retreat 11 months before the date.  We put a deposit down and had a majority of it paid for 3 months before the retreat.  One month before the event, the school released their schedule and Homecoming was on the same weekend.  We stuck to our guns and still had the retreat.  Our position was that our calendar was out first, LONG before the school released theirs.  Parents were angry that I wouldn't move it, even though we would have lost thousands of dollars.  I was still catching heat for that years later.  But they had no argument, my event was first.  Even though they were mad, they knew deep down that I was right.  Planning that far ahead saved me a lot of grief in that situation.  It saved my butt.

I can't beg you enough: Plan Ahead!  No matter if you are in youth ministry, worship, pastoral leadership, a parent, a teacher, whoever...plan ahead!  It allows you to have the freedom to live and work in a creative and positive manner and frees you up to "be Jesus" to those around you without having to daily work through where you are in your ministry.  I can't recommend it enough!