Happy New Year and Happy Planning!

It's 2019, I'm back in the office for my first week back at work and I'll be honest, I'm already feeling a little overwhelmed by everything that we have planned for this year. It's a good sense of being overwhelmed though because we have planned and started laying the groundwork to hopefully achieve good things this year. And for me, planning makes the big mountain of dreams and visions feel a little more like hills that we just possibly might be able to pull off with some hard work and a lot of prayer.

I know for many of you involved in Youth, Children, and/or Family ministry, you've already mapped out your year, and if you haven't already there is no time like the present to start considering where God wants to take you and your people in 2019. Below I've outlined four steps that I tend to take when I'm involved in a planning process. I decided to share my thoughts in case it helps you, or for those of you have planned out 2019 already, to take a moment to help review where you're headed.

I always start by asking myself the question of 'What do I/you/we want to achieve?' And filter it through four steps or stages - Inspire, Prioritise and Focus, Train, and Implement.

Inspire Yourself
Planning isn't anywhere near as fun if you aren't excited by where you'd like to be at the end of it. If you feel like you're simply planning to arrive to the same place as you've been before, maybe this is an opportunity for you to take a step back and ask yourself if there is the possibility of going somewhere new. Taking the time to sit back and dream up big ideas, wild adventures, and brand new horizons can be incredibly refreshing, enlivening, and occasionally revealing. 

Dreaming big doesn't always have to equate to making it happen, rather dreaming big allows you to be inspired to simply add a little more to what you're already doing, tweak that idea that's been brewing, or give you to courage to take that next step towards a slightly better ministry for 2019. Young people thrive off energy, excitement, and wonder. If you and your team are feeling inspired by what you've got going, I'm sure they'll feel it and anticipate it just as much as you.

Prioritise and Focus  
You may have read the above passage and said that's all well and good but dreams don't just happen, and you'd be right. A good plan know's where it is going, therefore its really important to define exactly that and ideally, be able to articulate your answer into no more than 2 or 3 main points. That's more than enough to try and achieve in the course of a year in ministry, because remember, you only a get a couple of hours for maybe about 40 weeks and that's if they come regularly to have the impact you want to have.

Don't be afraid to prioritise and focus what you're doing this year and plan accordingly. A simply framework for putting plans onto paper is to
a) Write down your main points then,
b) Ask yourself what needs to happen to make that main point happen this year?
c) Once you've outline what needs to happen - allocate responsibility and accountability to ensuring things happen.

There a range of different formats, processes, and structures in how planning can take place. Go with what works for you and if you're unsure about where to start - contact us at info@aycf.org.au and we'll happily help you out.

Train yourself, Train your team 
This is a step that is so often missed and it's something that can really make things happen for yourself and your team. Ministry is hard enough to do when you know what you're doing, let alone when you don't. The better equipped you and your team are to do what you plan to do, the more likely you are going to be able to achieve it, and the more likely those bigger dreams can become a reality because you start to know what you need to do to get there.

Not sure how to train yourself or your team? Start with Elevation Training on Saturday the 16th March, you can find all the details at www.elevation.org.au. This is a great day we've been part of for the last few years which provides training and inspiration for youth, children, family and young adult ministry.

Implement Consistently  
Inspiration, planning, and training are all well and good but nothing happens until you start doing something. The place where I usually trip up is doing something consistently, because life happens and plans don't always go accordingly to well, plan. But that doesn't mean you (or I for that matter) should stop. You may need to tweak plans, adjust direction, or take the long scenic detour to get to where you want to be. What matters is that you keep taking steps forward, keep referring to your map (aka plan), and remember where you want to be by this time next year. Maybe you won't achieve all or any of what you set out to do, but you'd be amazed by how far you can really go if you stay focused on the end point.

Happy New Year and Happy Planning!

Erica

Got questions or want to talk about this topic further? Email us at info@aycf.org.au

Get your early bird tickets for you, your team, your volunteers, your entire church (wouldn't that be amazing if you could have an entire church equipped to do ministry with young people?) for Elevation Training Day at www.elevation.org.au.