Churches need an annual calendar. Not a bloated calendar that schedules too much. Rather, a strategic calendar.
A strategic calendar is one that schedules only the events and programs that are of such value that they must put on the docket, while others are not allowed on the calendar at all. This creates a unified effort and laser focus on what's most important. Also scheuled on a strategic calendar is plenty of down-time, or margin, in-between these high-value events.
1. A strategic calendar keeps us from competing with ourselves. Churches are among the worst culprits when it comes to internal competition. It’s routine for churches to offer too many events, activities, and programming all at once. That’s not very smart. We can end up becoming a federation of sub-ministries with people running in different direcitons all at once, not to mention the depletion of manpower and other limited resources. You can read more about it (here) (here) (here) and (here).
Instead, we should emphasize a few strategic things each quarter – which gives us laser focus and effectiveness – instead of clogging the calendar with too much – which spreads church leaders and particpants too thin.
The same is true for the church bulletin or Sunday announcements – we should not promote everything going on at church. When everything has the same perceived importance, then nothing is more important than anything else. Fewer is better. Less is more.
On the other hand, when we get the entire team in the room and work on the big-picture calendar, we stop stepping on each other’s toes and stop confusing our people with multiple action steps.
3 comments:
It would be great, however, for newcomers to have more access to what all is going on. Trying to find places to plug in and make connections beyond Sunday morning has been met with a brick wall with the exception of Wednesday night youth. I am DESPERATE for connections! Just a thought from a varying perspective ;)
Brooke,
Have you taken Seminar 101 or Seminar 201? We just completed these about 8 weeks ago. They are a perfect opportunity for newcomers to connect, particularly with other newcomers. Additionally, these seminars outline the steps you can take to connect through serving opportunities, starting a 4 x 4 group, and other options. If not, be sure to take advantage of both these seminars the next time they are offered.
What about Family Night Out at the Wahoo’s game next Tuesday night? We’ve had open registration for several weeks that just closed last Sunday. There are 92 people signed up for this event – which would’ve been another great opportunity to meet new people outside of Sunday.
This Sunday night we’re having a Night of Worship that you might be interested in.
Within five-six weeks we’re going to launch a new ministry called “The Commandment Project” that you might be interested in too. It’s a ministry designed to help hurting people with tangible, hands-on involvement. Be on the lookout. We’ll go public soon.
There is a ladies Bible group that meets here on Tuesday nights, but next week is their last night. They meet on a semester basis. It’ll come around again, and when it does you will not be able to miss it. They advertise for enrollment, then when the group is full, cease promotion.
We may not be currently offering what you are specifically looking for, however, I am confident that you’ll connect soon. Just press in, hang around, meet people, or invite someone out to lunch. It’ll happen.
One more thing. Don’t you home school? I think we have a few other couples in our church who also home school. They may be the perfect people for you to meet! I’ll be glad to get you introduced.
Ron,
Thanks for your response :) We've only been attending at PCC for 3 weeks (been to 2 Sunday services and our son has been to 2 youth services), so there hasn't been any of the orientation stuff for us yet. As for the Wahoos game, we weren't able to get in on that this time. I met Denise on Wednesday night when picking my son up. We do plan to come to the Night of Worship Sunday night, and are very much looking forward to it. I am somewhat of an introvert around people I don't know (I'm working on that LOL!) so just coming out and asking someone to lunch out of a crowd full of folks on Sunday morning is a little bit of a challenge for me. Not saying I WON'T do it, but it takes me time to warm up to people enough to initiate conversation. My husband, however, is the total opposite. (God knew what He was doing when He placed us together, hah!). We do (currently) homeschool. We're planning to give Florida's public school system a go next year, though. I tried to sign up for "The Table" through the website, but apparently it's no longer in use? I haven't been approved for access yet.
I'm pretty much just saying, in the context of this post, that having a booklet or something at the welcome station to help newcomers that have months before the next Seminar session to figure out what options are available for getting plugged in on a more intimate level than the Sunday morning service. PCC is not a small church, so for folks like me, that huge crowd is pretty overwhelming when you want to make connections. Most people are caught up in conversations with folks they already know, and not looking to strike up a conversation with a stranger ;) The folks at PCC have been super friendly, but after a year of living here with very few friends (Partly my own fault, partly not), I'm looking for meaningful connections ;)
I hope I'm making my point without seeming like I want to be babied or catered to! Not at all! Just need a little "direction" as to where to begin with my journey of stepping outside of my little bubble I've created over the past few years. We DEFINITELY want to meet and get to know the folks of PCC :)We are almost certain God has led us to PCC, we...ok, *I* just have to step out of my little bubble and make friends ;)
Ok... sorry for the book! I get longwinded sometimes!
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