For others, Friday is their day off.

For some of us, we ask, “what is a day off?”

For me, Monday is a ministry work day and I usually get my day off on Friday. Since Monday is the first day of my ministry work week, I have found it imperative to start the week by focusing on priorities that are time consuming yet a crucial set up to the rest of the week. It should be a given that my soul care should be an everyday priority, but here are three practical priorities I focus on most Mondays.

1) Message Writing: First thing Monday morning I find my usual spot in Starbucks, plug in my headphones, and start message writing until early afternoon. I am usually working a week ahead in my messages and finishing off my current weekly message. (I often speak twice a week, so it can be a hefty message writing morning).

2) Planning: Monday afternoons are spent planning programs, events, and message series. (I usually am working 3-6 months ahead).

3) Email and Task List: Before my day is done I clear as much email as I can, create new task lists (I use google tasks), and try to create a plan for the rest of the week and the tasks I need to get done. It’s important to ‘clear the decks’ before Tuesday gets here…

You’ll notice that there are no meetings with students, leaders, or other staff members. For me, Mondays are my day to hide away and get great messages written, make good plans, and get caught up on email. The rest of week includes a great deal of contact time where I get to invest in students and leaders.

For me, it’s important to have one day per week when I can hide away and get a large chunk of message writing and planning done.

How about you? Do you have a day like this? What is your day off? What do Mondays look like for you?

Phil <><

TOMORROW and the rest of this week: YOUTH MINISTRY RESOURCE GIVEAWAY! Come back and check out what you could win!!!

Bottom Line: Do you know where you are going in ministry? Have you stopped to ask?

Praying through and developing a personal ministry plan is crucial for you, your family, your students, your church, and ultimately your usefulness in God’s Kingdom. Here’s what’s crucial about seeking God for your personal ministry plan: 

• It will help us to depend on God and not ourselves for our next steps.
• As we pray, it softens our hearts to greater options and ideas that we might not have considered on our own.
• It forces us to look at our gifting and begin to develop those gifts further as we minister in our present setting.
• It allows to gain confidence and affirmation from our family and friends when we engage them in the brainstorming process.
• It helps our family to look ahead and be prepared for possible change.
• It allows our students to see someone who is seeking God and never being content in status quo
• It gives our churches the opportunity to support and encourage our future in a healthy way. (This is the way it should be).
• By looking ahead it allows us to consider what steps we need to take today to ensure we leave a healthy ministry in the future.

3) Expect That God Wants To Keep Using You Where You Are: This is probably the most important point to make. When you started reading this post, chances are that you began to dream about the next steps in another church or another position. Am I right?

I believe God has a heart for longevity for youth workers in their churches

When praying through and developing a personal ministry plan for you and your family, keep in mind what it looks like to stay at your present church for the long-haul. Your next steps could then include personal development, new programs, new networks, a degree, publishing a book, who knows?

Bottom line: Your next steps might be WITHIN your present ministry position and not AWAY from it…

So, what it is your personal ministry plan? Do you have one? Have you prayed about one? Have you sought others to help you formulate one? Are you truly effective where you are, or are fumbling around in the dark and simply going through the motions? Praying through and developing a personal ministry plan is crucial for you, your family, your students, your church, and ultimately your usefulness in God’s Kingdom.

The previous two posts were pretty in depth and full of information, but today I want to be brief with this idea:

An effective youth worker is constantly planning ahead at least one season.

In terms of events, calendar and programs, it is imperative that we are working at least 2-3 months ahead of where we are. For me, I call it a season. As I write this post, my whole summer calendar is published even though here in Michigan we are barely touching the Spring. It’s so important that we work 2-3 months ahead for a number of reasons:

1) Parents Need The Information: If we want parents to support our ministries we should be getting dates to them at least 2-3 months ahead. For missions trips, however, most parents will thank you if you give them the date 6-9 months out.

2) Volunteers Can Plan Better: If you want volunteers at special events and retreats, they need to book time off and make your program a priority. If you are working a month out, don’t expect to get any support.

3) Your Church Staff Will Thank You: By planning a season ahead, you will avoid many of the typical church calendar clashes that often occur when we add dates to the calendar at last minute.

4) You Can Plan Better: Once you get into the mode of working a season ahead of where you are, you can give events and programs more time for creativity and implementation of good ideas.

Working last minute will often result in last ditch efforts.

I also find that I have time to percolate on ideas, messages, and events over a couple months. By the time I get to that season, some of my ideas have grown into the unimaginable.

How are you planning ahead? Are you barely making it? What ideas, events, or messages could benefit from seasonal planning?

Phil <><

Today, we’re going to take a look at what we should consider when creating a long-term teaching plan.

1) Consider Your Audience: Depending on whether your students are seekers, strugglers, or sold-out in their faith, will depend on what you plan to teach. It’s good to have different times or programs to focus on these types of students.

For example, our midweek outreach program is aimed at seekers and strugglers. Therefore, we are intentional about hitting topics and issues that are palatable for every kind of student, whether churched or unchurched. Here we address issues like: Dealing with fears, conflict, regret, relationships, making decisions, identity, self-image, life purpose, etc etc. You get the idea.

In contrast, our Sunday discipleship program is focused on struggling and sold-out students, (usually churched), where we teach deeper areas such theology, apologetics, spiritual habits, evangelism, etc etc.

Bottom line: Your audience will determine your content. 

2) Ask Your Students What They Need: This is particularly helpful when teaching many of the felt need topics. Subjects like relationships are always going to be at the top of the list, but you will also glean much about what your students need by asking them. This might seem too simple, but so many of us negate to ask students.

One BIG way to ask students is to do a yearly survey asking them what areas of their lives they need help with. We do a survey like this every May and it allows us to develop some specific message series for the Fall and Winter months. For outreach and large group programs you will discover that you will ‘hit’ many of the same felt needs areas year after year. This is not a bad thing since our students are constantly battling through the same challenges year after year.

Bottom line: Don’t guess what students need, ask them!

3) Work With A Team To Create A Plan: I try to surround myself with sharp youth leaders who are as passionate about students. When I pray through a plan of teaching I also ask some of my key leaders to pray and consider the plan too. I often find that they will give me ideas and thoughts I had not considered.

Bottom line: Make sure you are not planning in a vacuum… Suck others into the plan.

4) Create A Long-Term Plan That Incorporates The ‘Essentials’: This is very important when creating a discipleship plan. Our high school program has a 4 year discipleship plan that has been created and tweaked over the last couple of years. Myself and a small team of volunteers have developed a plan that looks to ensure that by the time students graduate from our ministry, they have walked through the ‘essentials.’ By ‘essentials’ we mean: What is it that students absolutely must own in their faith walk by the time they graduate from high school?

But, if you are like me, you might ask, “but where do we start with this? What should be the essentials that students need to know and own?”

Great question… keep reading…

For us, we use LIVE curriculum from Group Publishing that incorporates a well thought-out discipleship plan that builds each year. Since LIVE provides 36 weeks for a year, we have added some additional components that we feel we need to add into our plan for the rest of the year. Here are some of the our own ‘essentials’ that supplement or duplicate in the LIVE curriculum:

• Spiritual habits
• Serving
• Sexuality
• Apologetics
• Faith foundations / Christian basics
• Leadership

Keep in mind that what I consider an essential element might not be essential for your students in your ministry. When using curriculum and developing a plan, do not feel bad if you do not choose to use all of the curriculum. YOU know what your students need the most, be confident in your teaching plan.

5) Create A Plan And Stick To It: It’s easy to get swayed by the latest issues or happenings in student culture and therefore continuously keeping changing our plans. Over time, this can mean that we end up ‘fire fighting’ the issues, rather than ‘fire preventing’ what students are most certainly going to face in their faith walk. At some point we need to be confident that over time, our teaching plan will create a solid foundation for faith development in our students lives. With all this said, there will be times when we must adjust our plan and hit certain issues or areas that students are walking through.

Finally, a solid teaching plan can take time to develop and it’s important that you allow time for the essentials to percolate through…

Well, there’s a start for you. I wish I could cover everything! What would you add to this list? What questions do you still have? Feel free to comment!

Phil <><

Despite the cold weather, it’s a great week for me to spend more time investing in planning while many of my students and leaders are out-of-town. Although the idea of planning can be highly offensive to many youth workers, I believe it is an imperative part to what we must do to have an effective ministry and to pursue longevity in our churches. When considering plans, here are 4 types of plans I believe every youth worker must be praying through and working on:

1) Strategic plan.  2) Teaching plan: 3) Seasonal plan: 4) Personal plan

Strategic Plan: For me, when I arrived at my current church, I prayed about and created a 3 year plan that seeks to build year after year. This plan has been adjusted a couple of times, but there has always been a plan written down. It does not have to be detailed, but must give you a big idea of what you are looking to achieve by the end of each year.

As you look at my plans below, you will see they are pretty basic and a broad brush stroke for each year. I did not look to move mountains, I simply tried to create a plan that would help to build trust, build success, and build momentum. It’s important to realize you can’t change the world at once!

As a younger youth worker I tried to change everything at once and didn’t understand the value of patience and building things slowly. I know there’s a lot of pressure to come in and change the world, but “too fast too soon” doesn’t usually last for the long-term. It’s important that a strategic plan takes time to build a solid foundation that will last for the long haul.

Here’s a snapshot of my 3 year plan I have been praying and working through: 

Year 1: Develop Relationships: Develop relationships with students, parents and youth leaders. Commit to listening first! Do not implement major changes. Listen to the people, review the programs, understand the culture. It’s imperative we listen and learn first so that we can build trust and earn the right to make changes…

Year 2: Tweak Programs: Continue to develop relationships with students, parents and youth leaders. Review the last year with students and leaders and THEN implement adjustments to existing programs and events. Create a teaching plan for the next 4 years and create a ‘big win’ event or trip that will rally people behind a cause or core purpose. (For us, this ended up being a huge mission trip that year).

Year 3: Bring Change: Implement foundational changes in order to create a sustainable youth ministry that is balanced with outreach, connection, growth, and serving. For us, we are planning some important changes to our discipleship program. Although what we are currently doing has had some good success, it is lacking in many ways. I am working with a core team of my youth leaders to create a new approach and delivery of discipleship material. Note that I am working with a team of volunteers and not in my own youth ministry vacuum. Big changes need buy-in. Buy-in occurs when we involve the right people in the process.

Coming in the next few days: 2) Teaching plan: 3) Seasonal plan: 4) Personal plan

What would you add to your strategic plan? What phase are you in your current ministry? What do you need to do more or less of? Have you built trust before you change things? Are people on board with you plans? How much have you prayed about your plans?

What questions can I answer for you? I would love to think this through with you!

Phil <><

In seasons like this it’s time to breathe, time to learn, and time to look forward. 

TIME TO BREATHE: The last couple of months have been very busy, but it means everything to stop and be filled up instead of running on empty. The last two weeks I have had to be very intentional to calve out time to be alone, read God’s Word, and be silent. It’s not easy, but it’s essential. It’s challenging to slow down when there are so many things to get done and so many people to keep happy. However, hanging in the long-haul and being effective in the short-term depends on our dependence on God. We must be ruthless with our schedules and intentional about taking time to breathe with our Father. 

TIME TO LEARN: As I take time to breathe, I am able to look back and learn from the last couple of months.  I realize there are a lot of things out of my control, but there were many things I have learned from my busy season:

- I have said “yes” to too many projects and people. It’s important to come back to a narrowed focus and challenge myself to “major in the majors, and minor in the minors…”

- No matter how much came up, it was important to change up my schedule to support my family. Even when stuff was piling up, I made sure my family did not get my left-overs…

- I need more sleep! Going to bed earlier in the last week has helped me become more efficient, more focused, and more excited about my day? Do you need more sleep?

- I need to exercise more! Working out helps me feel better and more energized. When life gets busy, my health takes a back seat… This needs to stop. The past week has been full of healthy eating and exercise. It is helping my energy levels and productivity and thus I am getting more done in less time…

A TIME TO LOOK FORWARD: Anytime I am in the midst of chaos and busy schedules, it’s important that I slow down, but it’s important that I look forward to ensure the coming months are different. Here’s what I have been doing:

- Getting the family schedule mapped out for the next few months and making family and date nights a priority. Last weekend my wife and I went out for a date and then went to Starbucks to put our calendars together…

- Planning and booking our 10 year wedding anniversary getaway!

- Getting excited about The Simply Youth Ministry Conference in March! Are you going? I am super excited. The theme: Breathe

- Planning time off after our winter retreat…

These are just a few things I have been convinced I need to do to hang in for the long-haul, be more effective today, and enjoy my life a little more? What have you had to do in your life and ministry to stay healthy?

Phil <><

For me recently, I have been evaluating my teaching and programs and I am concluding that some of our teaching isn’t essential. It’s good yes, but essential, no. Given that my total teaching time with my high school students will be around about 50-60 hours per year, I must be ruthless in getting rid of teaching that could be good, but not essential when all is said and done. I am must work equally hard in adding material that is essential to the specific group of students I am working with. Here’s what I can do to ensure that I am hitting the most important and applicable areas:

1) ESSENTIAL AREAS OF TEACHING: Write down the top ten areas that every student in your program needs to know by the time they graduate or “move up”. Look at what you teach in a 3-5 year period and make sure these top-ten areas are included first. This process should take a few months to come up with as you prayerfully consider these areas.

2) ESSENTIAL BIBLE BOOKS: Write down the most essential books of the Bible that you need to cover in a 3-5 year period and map out a provisional a plan. Be sure to have a balance in Old Testament / New Testament material.

3) BALANCED PROGRAMS: Create a clear balance of programs that “fire fight” the issues students are facing as well as environments that help students to “fire prevent” by teaching foundational theology and doctrine. For us, we have two weekly meetings. One is topical and mostly issue related (I call this “fire fighting”), while the other is clearly foundational faith building (I call this “fire preventing”).

4) ASK STUDENTS: Every few months, ask them what issues they and their friends are facing and create a “moving plan” that will hit the felt needs of the students. When we hit their issues and felt needs, they usually will learn more. These messages are presented in our midweek program that tackles topical issues in students lives. I survey my students once a year and I ask them every few months what areas / issues / topics they need to learn about.

5) ASK YOURSELF: Are you simply following a curriculum plan that someone else created for you, or whether you are giving your students the essentials that is specific to your group of students?

6) INVOLVE OTHERS: As noted above, I ask students continuously, but it’s essential to gain the insight and opinions of other youth workers in your ministry. Ask God to speak through the people who are working with your specific group of students and evaluate what you need to change and tweak. It’s imperative that we realize that we need to create a custom program for our specific group of students and not rely on someone else’s research that worked for their ministry in a different context. Too often we rely on curriculum and a scope and sequence that worked somewhere else, but maybe not for us. With all this said, I do you use curriculum regularly, but I tend to pick and choose what I feel we need for my group and dismiss what is not needed…

A hard question I must ask you today is this: Are you simply going through the motions of using a canned curriculum, or are you really seeking to create a custom program that is best for your specific context, environment, and students God has called you to minister to?

Finally, feel free to share any ideas as to how you create a balanced program with essential teaching?

Phil <><

Eat that Frog is a fantastic book that will serve you well in your ministry. The premise behind the book is this:

There’s a saying that says, “If the first thing you do each morning is to eat a live frog, you can go through the day with the satisfaction of knowing that that is probably the worst thing that is going to happen to you all day long! Your ”FROG” is the one you are most likely to procrastinate on if you don’t do something about it now…” 

It is also the task that is the biggest task to get done and is easy to put off for easier tasks… But doing the easier tasks will not help you in the long-term… By eating that frog in my ministry, I am finding that I get more done these days.

Check out the website for this book. There’s a cool video that will give you greater insight too: http://www.eatthatfrogmovie.com/

It’s times like this when it’s easy to get overwhelmed and feel like we are drowning in a sea of administration and programatic mess. It’s times like these when we have to become ruthless and focused to get back on top of youth ministry management. Here are a few things I am doing to get back on top of things:

1) Take Regular Rests: Not what you were expecting? But, this is the most cruciall step for me. It’s been a busy season and it’s easy to become inefficient and sloppy when I get tired. At times like this I need to ensure that I am resting in order to work more effectively, efficiently, and conscientiously when I am in the office.

2) Be Ruthless: At the beginning of a typical week I take my google task list and move all the most important tasks to the top of the lists. For me, these always include: a) Contact time with students and leaders. b) Message writing c) Meeting planning. Everything else gets bumped until the major things are done. It’s then I get to my admin and emails etc.

3) Check Email Infrequently: If you have email on your phone this is a hard one to do. However, I find it best to check my email in chunks at certain times of the day. Usually I would check it 4-5 times a day when I have more time, but for now I find myself checking email twice a day. It’s also worth noting that we can become easily unfocused by constant new tasks that come our way through email. It’s better to dictate your email than let email dictate your task list…

4) Don’t Reply to Every Email and Phone Call Instantly: There are some emails and phone calls that are important, granted. However, not every phone call is an emergency and not every email needs immediate attention. Wherever I can, I try to add the emails and voicemails to my task list and “chunk them out” at a later time.

5) ‘Chunk Out’ Emails and Phone Calls Together: As I said above, I try to add emails and voicemails to my task list and get them done together. I typically have Tuesdays as my admin and meeting day. It is here where I try to get back to people and ensure they hear from me.

6) Communicate Your Schedule: Ensure that key people know you are in a crunch and will likely take a little longer to get back to them in the next few weeks while you get back on top of things, (Just don’t take a few weeks to get back to them though)!

7) Don’t Waste Your Time: I often here people complain about being too busy to be able to catch up, yet they are still able to write on everyone’s Facebook wall or play XBOX 360. In seasons of busyness, it’s imperative that we ruthless in every way. It also means giving up a few home comforts in order that we can get back on top of things.

Delegate! Recruit people to help you with as many things you can hand off. Know that it might not be done the way you want it to be done, but at least it’s getting done. I am always presently surprised how much ownership and fulfillment it brings to people when they know have helped me at busy and messy time. Bless someone by letting them help you!

Well, that’s what I am working on… How about you? What tips do you have? 

Phil <><

If you are a youth worker, you and your ministry will be disorganized… 

I never forget a one of my former students commending me for my organization of an event saying,”wow, for a youth pastor you are pretty organized, I didn’t expect that”! And, here are some more examples: 

• In youth ministry circles, we proudly brag about our amazing ability to be able to “wing” anything. We almost wear our disorganization as a badge of honor…
• How many times do we start writing a messages just a couple of hours before we meet with our students?
• How many times have we been chewed out by a parent for our lack of communication?
• How many conflicts have occurred in our marriages because we left something to the last minute and took away hours from our loved ones?
• How many times have we double booked ourselves needlessly? 

If you are like me, being disorganized in youth ministry has been something I have laughed about, but it has also been the source of great pain. For some of my youth ministry friends, it has also been the source of losing their job. But, does it have to be this way? Are all youth workers naturally disorganized?  If we are not the “organized type”, should we simply accept chaos as part of our ministry reality? The answers to these questions should be NO!

Whether you are naturally organized or not, we do not have to live out the myth of disorganization. There are ways to improve and raise the bar of our ministries through good organization. Ultimately, if we want to have an effective ministry, we should work on our organization…

Here are some ways we can beat the disorganized myth: 

1) Surround Yourself with Organized People: I have a few people who help me plan events, plan the schedule, and take care of many details. Recently we did a large mission trip that required a lot of communication and organization. I recruited a leader (and she is also a parent), to be my primary organizer who ensured that the details were handled and effectively communicated.

2) Recruit Parents to be your “Ears”: I have asked parents to help me ensure we are communicating and supporting other parents well in the details. I have asked them to contact me anytime we are not effectively communicating, or if the details are coming across in a “muddy” way.

3) Set Aside Time to Organize: Simple, but effective. I have found that even though it’s not always easy to be naturally organized, it is imperative to set aside time to plan and take care of details. Most Tuesdays after staff meetings is my block of time where I do admin, planning, and organizing. Putting aside my pride and asking parents for this kind of help is far better than getting chewed out by a parent who stressed out and is trying to balance a hectic family schedule.

4) Practice Planning Ahead: I use the word practice, because I don’t think it’s easy for all of us to perfect planning ahead. However, I want to challenge you to get into the habit of planning at least 3-6 months ahead on your calendar and consider the best dates for your events. When we plan ahead it’s easier to identify possible conflicts and it can be more effective to recruit leaders for our events and programs.

5) Ask Your Spouse / Family for Help: My wife is fantastic at being organized and has helped me a great deal over the years. But more importantly, she is someone who gets to see my ministry schedule before it gets published for others to see. My wife knows my strengths and weaknesses and knows how much I can take on. She is the one who helps me to consider possible pitfalls and conflicts in my schedule and organization. Perhaps the most important aspect is the permission I give her to veto anything on the schedule that is going to be unhealthy for our family. (I learned this principle from Dr. Jim Burns of Homeword).

6) Don’t Make Excuses: Finally, I hate to even say this, but too many of us are using this myth as an excuse for being completely disorganized. What’s even harder to say is this: Sometimes laziness compels are to be disorganized and laziness compels us to use this myth as an excuse. “I’m in youth ministry… we are all disorganized… it’s part of job…” Is this just a lazy excuse? If I am honest, there have been many times when I have used this excuse because of laziness… How about you?

So, what are you doing to raise the bar of professionalism in your ministry? How organized do you need to be? What steps do you need to take to have a healthier ministry and family? Who helps you stay organized? What methods, devices, or technology are you using to keep you organized?

Phil <><