How far in advance of the new calendar year's Sermon Calendar do you start the planning process? When we're "firing on all cylinders," we begin the planning process the first week in October. The process starts with preparation for "data day," a meeting or two during which we look at the current year's measures and other inputs in preparation for a discussion about the coming year. The discussion includes the … [Read more...]
Fall Refresher
Ten Key Planning And Preparation Areas Requiring Some Focus At This Time Of The Year
As a church leader, you know there's a "routine" to ministry related to the calendar. Our days are filled with various activities and different priorities depending, among other things, on the time of year. It's the fall season, and we are all focused on executing plans for the fall put in writing many months ago. Of course, we're also focused on planning for the coming calendar year. Church staff is having … [Read more...]
Creating The Annual Budget
The Annual Process Of Developing The Budget, Along With A Few Pointers
In my role as Executive Pastor, one of the things I can never avoid is doing the budget for the church each year. The budget is due to the eldership in early December, and it takes a bunch of work to get it together. I usually start working on it in mid to late September. I wanted to share the process I go through each year, along with a few pointers. I’ll assume your church uses QuickBooks or some other … [Read more...]
The Big Event … Scheduling And Theme
An Important Part Of Planning And Executing Any Big Event
I wanted to share my thoughts on and our process for planning and executing big events. We're talking about events like our Easter Eggstravaganza, Easter weekend, Kids' Camp, Stretch (Middle School Camp), and Christmas Eve. Planning for an event like Kids' Camp begins late in the year with Strategic Planning. One of the activities we spend time on during our annual planning sessions is brainstorming and agreeing … [Read more...]