Welcome to a brand new series called “Planning Ahead.” This series is intentionally designed to help youth workers think through strategically planning for specific events, dates, and bench markers in ministry.
We will talk about fall kickoffs, Christmas parties, Lent, training sessions, and more. Our hope with this series is to provide you with practical steps to help you succeed in ministry by setting benchmarks in planning and sharing insights we have learned along the way.
If your experience starting out in ministry is anything like mine, I wasn’t taught strategic planning. I didn’t know how important it was to plan ahead or build out a teaching calendar. I didn’t see how intentionality wasn’t just intended for teaching and preaching but also in how we structure, prepare for, and implement important events and key programmatic pieces within our ministries.
I’ve learned how important planning ahead is not just for my own sanity but also for our students, families, and volunteers. When we plan ahead we show intentionality, communicate value and worth, help everyone to understand what we are doing and why. We are able to unify under a shared vision and goal.
So with that in mind, today I wanted to share about intentionally building out teaching calendars by answering some common questions surrounding them.
How far in advance should we plan?
When it comes to a teaching calendar, I plan a semester ahead and I typically don’t plan for a whole year. We curate our content for a semester at a time and try to have it finalized months before the next semester rolls around.
That means we typically have our fall teaching calendar finalized around May or June and our spring teaching calendar finalized around October or November. When you plan this far ahead, it allows you to start recruiting teachers, planning for different events, and strategically choosing teaching series.
How do we pick what we will teach?
When I first started in student ministry, I picked topics that I thought were relevant or that sounded cool. Curriculum with catchy titles and graphics were always a win. But we need to think beyond just what will be relevant or “cool” and instead plan with intentionality, purpose, and vision. That means when you are choosing what you will teach, you do so in light of those things as well as choosing relevant and necessary topics.
So plan your teaching around your vision, themes that you’ll focus on in your ministry, and key dates or momentum seasons. You can also begin building a 3, 4, or 7 year curriculum track based on how your program functions. You could choose a 3 year curriculum for middle school and a 4 year curriculum for high school that repeats (with updated changes as needed) to help students move through key life phases and seasons.
What should be included?
This is a question I used to wrestle with when I was younger because I would second guess myself. But here’s the thing: you know your students best and that means you know what they need to hear and be guided in. Trust your instincts and lean into your group dynamics.
But I would also encourage you to pay attention to culture, what Gen Z and Gen Alpha are searching for, and what students are grappling with overall. You can do this by talking to other youth workers, joining online communities, stepping into various cohorts, and following organizations like CPYU, FYI, Barna, others. If you utilize those key pieces to think about what is being taught, you will have a solid teaching calendar.
How many calendars should you have?
Sometimes I see ministries with multiple calendars and frankly that can get confusing. Instead of having multiple calendars, look to simplify down to one. Yes, you may need to have a calendar for families and one for leaders, but trying to simply the amount of calendars also allows your communication to be simplified and concise which provides clarity for everyone.
I won’t lie to you and tell you that if you do all these things that you’ll always hit it out of the park. We all swing and miss at times. But I will tell you that you will see more success and you can fine tune the necessary areas to fully pour into your community.
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