Creating an inviting culture

Everything you do is a part of your culture. So there are many things to consider when it comes to creating an inviting culture.

The basic framework for an inviting culture is meeting space, branding, and programming. Each of these is unique to each ministry and is met with varying degrees of expertise. This basic framework is important and reinforces the culture you seek to create.

Building on the basic framework, consider your language, ownership and opportunity. Then celebrate the fruit.

Language–bring a friend. Say it often. Sure your slides, social media and brochures are on brand but are you talking about it? You talk about the things that are important to you. Do your students know that reaching students is important to you?

Ownership–the innovation loop includes others. When others are included in creating the culture, they participate and advocate for the mission. They understand the vision, generate ideas for accomplishing the vision and give feedback on the progress. You need these people in the loop.

Opportunities–students need something to invite their friends to. Special events are a given, but focus on how to establish this in your weekly programming as well. Messaging will be tricky. You don’t want to become like the Sunday morning announcements, so be creative in messaging the opportunities.

Celebrate–you need to be careful for sure, but encouraging those who are inviting others is important. Affirming words go a long way in creating culture. When introducing someone who has been invited you can mention the person that invited them. When someone is baptized, recognize those who played a role inviting them.

In a recent Student Ministry we created an invitation tree of those that started attending and inviting others. The tree represented several generations that all started with one invitation. We shared the tree as an example of what was taking place in the ministry and how we could continue to reach others.

Start rethinking your culture basics and beyond.

An Event You Can’t Miss

If you stand before your students to announce an event and say the words, “you can’t miss this event”, you better be prepared to deliver. While it sounds overwhelming, the process is simple.

It is understood that any event will have scheduling conflicts. That shouldn’t keep you from doing outreach events. The first step to your can’t miss event is scheduling. Gather all of your calendar resources and pick a date. You can evaluate later.

Give yourself 4-6 weeks lead time to market the event. Use every normal means at your disposal, but do not limit yourself to these. Like everyone, students have information fatigue. As you plan, challenge your team to experiment with unique approaches. It may help to identify businesses that do this well like Nike, Apple, Insurance, etc.

Be creative in your concept and execution. The concept doesn’t have to be extravagant. I’ve shared previously that our best event was a middle school black out night, and all of our promotions just said, “Don’t Miss This, Wear Black, Bring a Friend.” We had record attendance that night.

Don’t try this by yourself. Bring a team around you-your dream team and come up with ideas. Collaboration is a necessity for these kinds of events.

In the end you want students to experience F.O.M.O. (fear of missing out). If they are talking about it the next day, then you are on the right track.

After the event, do good follow up. Make sure you talk about what is coming up next week and invite students to the next step

Don’t miss the can’t miss. You may never get a second chance.

Dream teams, team dream.

The hectic pace of student ministry shifts from summer to fall, and now you have to be ready for the rogers of weekly programming.

As you prepare, I have two questions:

1. What are your expectations this year?

2. Will you do this alone?

Usually during the summer ministry you have the opportunity to witness God’s work in students up close and personal. And maybe you wonder, will this continue?

If it were to continue, what would it look like?

As you start to dream, start with some time with God. Seek God’s direction as you think and pray about the next year. I think this works best away from the office. Maybe in a place where you can go and know that you best experience God’s presence. Take a journal and commit your thoughts to print. When you are done, consider this sequence.

1. Put your journal away for one week. After one week, find a place where you can review your notes. Make additions. Clarify some of your notes or write new thoughts. After this, highlight the things that stand out to you.

2. Review your notes one last time, and before you leave this space, decide one person that you can share your dreams with. It doesn’t need to be all you have written. Choose some specific things that you would feel free to share.

3. Make an appointment and share your dreams with someone you trust within two weeks from the start date. Be vulnerable and ask this person to share their dreams for the student ministry, and ask them to commit to pray for you this semester.

4. Within the first four weeks of your dream session, schedule a time to share your dreams with your student ministry team. If you don’t have a team, then this is the place to start developing a team. Ask others to share their dreams. Plan regular meet ups to review your dream sessions, pray and celebrate.

Dream dreams. Share dreams. Celebrate dreams.

Building a Launch Strategy to Reach Students

Creating a launch strategy creates a rhythm for your Student Ministry where you can vision through leadership training and preparation. Here are a few simple steps to get the process started.

1. Dream, but not alone. It is hard for solo ministries to reach students. Dreaming with others creates ownership. Bring people together to hear your dreams and share theirs. Dreaming becomes contagious when it is shared.

2. Plan and give ownership. People respond differently when they have a sense of ownership. One of my early mentors taught me that the more volunteers you have in the process, the greater your reach.

3. Strategize by setting measurable goals and expectations. An easy way to look at this structure is in three parts.

   Run up strategy > event strategy > follow up strategy

   If you want to move the needle, focus on lead measures not lag measures. A lag measure would be a goal for how many people show up. A lead measure would be how many contacts you make. Lead measures become visionary while lag measures are the review mirror.

4. Stretch. Create a “can’t miss event” with a call to action during your launch for a future outreach event during the semester. I first tried this approach in launching a new sermon series for our church. We set a specific date far enough in advance where people could add it to their calendars. During the run up strategy we keep saying, this is a can’t miss event. On the day of the event, every person received a free themed tee shirt. After the event the extra shirts were put away.

   Note: a can’t miss event is something that is sharable and memorable. It is something people will talk about later or regret if they are not present. This is not easy, but with practice you will build a reliable reputation. 

   This stretch was costly but helped us build the reputation around a can’t miss event. One of the most effective events in my experience was when our Middle School minister planned a black out outreach event. He never shared details. For the run up strategy he said  be here, wear dark clothes. We hit a new attendance milestone that night. 

5. Evaluate. What did you learn? Check your measurements, Adjust and make notes for your next launch.

Using a launch strategy will engage your current students and give you the opportunity to share your overall outreach strategy. A big launch at the start of the Fall semester is consistently the best time. Other launch strategies could be in January or prior to a major Student Ministry event.

Are you ready for Senior Sunday?

Nothing gets me going like a good discussion with Youth Ministers about their Senior Sunday experiences.

There is every reason these should be good experiences, but it may be the most challenging event to pull off in Student Ministry. There is a high level of creativity, thought and tradition that goes into every Senior Sunday, and the margin of error is razor thin.

In order to keep a healthy perspective and make the most of what should be a celebration of students, consider this in your planning:

• Create a system for over communication about how to participate. Get feedback each year and make notes for next year.

• Get volunteers to do the heavy lifting. Some of this can be created through a tradition of succession. An example is involving the Junior Class each year in set up and serving.

• Keep perspective and genuinely celebrate those students that have remained consistent.

• Keep it simple and don’t overthink it year to year. Work to create memories outside of the event. Write notes, have a conversation, share your dreams for the student.

• Decompress. LIke all other big events, find a way that you can intentionally evaluate and recharge.

Youth Ministers are heroes and sometimes heroes take their shots. Keep shaping students to shape the world. We are cheering for you!

Deadlines Are Your Friend

I never met a deadline that I couldn’t ignore.

I have several decades now of bursting through deadlines. I consider myself a high level procrastinator and it’s not something I’m proud of although I’ve discovered that I’m not alone.

In order to leverage procrastination I’ve developed a few practices that help me stay on a more healthy track of productivity.

Create rhythms not lists.

I only recently discovered the importance of understanding our rhythms in regard to productivity.  When: the scientific secrets of perfect timing by Daniel Pink gave me a framework for creating intentional rhythms. I learned that I work best when my schedule is in rhythm.

Create self imposed deadlines.

When I was pastoring I decided to include an outline in the weekly program. I wasn’t necessarily a proponent of the practice, in fact, I found it distracting for good communication. I made the decision not for communication but for my discipline. Having my outline or a version of it for the weekly program meant I had to know what I was going to say by Wednesday at 5 PM. 

Review deadlines regularly with this practice.

Reviewing your deadlines regularly can be a daily, weekly or monthly practice. I discovered during one of my ministry transitions that you can pull off anything with a minimum of 6 weeks notice. 

Now, I look at my calendar 6 weeks out. I do this every week and then the last week of the month I will do a more detailed dive into my calendar and push it out 8 weeks. This keeps important deadlines in view. 

Do you have a special productivity hack to help you with deadlines? Please share by emailing me at shapingstudents@gmail.com .

Note: we use affiliate links and receive a commission for purchases. 

Spring Planting and Spring Planning

I like gardening, I’m just not very good at it. The reason? I don’t have a plan.

Gardeners are in their season right now. They have planned, ordered, tilled and got everything ready to reap a summer harvest.

The planting model is a good one for us to follow in good planning for Youth Ministry. I have always used Spring Break as the trigger for drilling down on my plans for the remainder of the spring and for summer.

As a procrastinator I need these reminders to give me a check on my progress. I have several checkpoints throughout the year that at least let me know how far behind I am.

With a little accountability, I’m able to push through these triggers and get things on track.

So, enjoy your Spring Break but when your break is over dig in and get it done.

If you would like to know more about our rhythm process email me at shapingstudents@gmail.com.

Sabbatical Moments

Everyone needs to experience a sabbatical in some form. While the concept is usually associated with a longer period of time, the value is understanding the underlying principles and striving to create those moments in your rhythm.

Start by asking yourself, “when is the best time for me to experience sabbatical moments?”

You may create sabbatical moments daily, weekly, monthly or annually. The goal is to intentionally schedule these moments with purpose.

Most organizations that offer sabbaticals require a proposal with a description of your intended activity and goals.

Google founders created a sabbatical concept with their 20% rule. This rule allowed employees to spend 20% of their work time on personal projects. The purpose was to encourage creativity and innovation, to help employees develop new skills.

Clearing the mind of work opened up their minds to refreshment and innovation.

Using these guidelines, explore what a sabbatical experience would like in your rhythm. Ask yourself, “when is the best time to …….?” and fill in the blank for what you would like to accomplish. Then, schedule it.

Evaluate your experience and start working on your next sabbatical moment. With each experience you will learn what works best for you. You will grow and face your work with more energy, clarity and intent.