Student Ministry Tip: Calendars

I find myself working on our fall calendar this week (actually it is for September through May. Never to early to get a jump on the calendar), and thought I would pass along some helps to you for when you put your calendars together. These are little items I have picked up over the years, and some may go over better than others in your ministry.

• Look at Other Calendars – Before scheduling anything, I looked over our local Middle/High Schools Academic, Athletic and Arts calendars. Most schools will publish these in some form for you to find. Some use their website, some publish and send it out in the local newspaper. However you find those calendars, make sure you use them.
• Be Flexible - Remember that parents oftentimes are paying for the sports, bands, or trips that these calendars showcase. Try to work around the major items.
• Be Fair – You will not be able to program around everything, so keep that in mind when scheduling. Try (if you can) to avoid canceling out one or two activities all the time (for instance, always planning around the football calendar, but ignoring the band contests).
• Be Vocal – Run the calendar before your leadership team, elder board, Senior Pastor… whomever makes decisions in your ministry. Get their input on the calendar before publishing it. Who knows, maybe they know of something that is not on the published calendars.
• Communicate it to Parents – Make sure that parents know of the calendar’s existence. In fact, try to get a few months of calendar to them in advance. We have a four-month calendar setup on our bulletin board in our church’s Narthex, and I plan on getting hard copies (as well as digital copies) into our parents’ hands before School starts.
• Communicate it to Students - Duh. They’re the ones you’re putting this together for.
• Don’t Forget the Church Calendar – Another Duh moment, but oftentimes we find ourselves slipping into a mode where the Student Ministry Program is the primary program of the church… at least we find ourselves thinking that. Our program is a part of the church, and we should watch out for possible conflicts before they happen. Case in point: I know that there is one Friday in November that we will not be able to use the church building for our Friday Night Flood program due to the Women’s Retreat. We will plan accordingly.

There you have it. Some tips and helps along the way. Remember that we should work with other calenders, but remember that you will not be able to satisfy everyone completely. What other Calendar planning thoughts might you have?