In my last blog I shared some hurdles that we had to leap in order to keep growing as a ministry. One of the hurdles we had to leap was staying “one step ahead” in our planning processes. I don’t think I explained that well enough so I will effort to do that now.
It was 2006 and I was having a hard time breaking 20 students. I was doing the relational thing, teaching relevant topics but the kids were just drifting in and drifting out. To be sure there was some impact made but I could tell we were capable of more. At the time it was me and 2 volunteers. I was the worship leader, tech guy and preacher (no lie, I had my laptop next to me and would change slides mid guitar strum). I spent some time praying and white boarding and came to the conclusion that we had to “dress for the job you want not the job you got”. I went on a volunteer hunt, got a tech director, a worship guy and amped up the environment. I staffed the ministry with the amount of volunteers needed for my next goal (which happened to be 50 at the time).
Here is the kicker when we got to 50 we met with the team and set up the ministry to reach 100 (our next goal).
The factors included:
- How many Volunteers would be needed for that number?
- Is our current facility capable of holding that number and if not how do we adjust or adapt?
- How does the dynamic of the program need to shift with the larger number?
I remember when we got to 50 students we went away from yelling “Hey guys we are starting!” and went to a countdown. We taught more from a stage as opposed to walking around. We began using a cue sheet and more elements in the program.
When we broke 150 students I could no longer see all the students being disruptive (I used to throw paper clips at em.) Now we had to place people in the room to help with disruptions. Speaking of that when we got to 200 students I began to use a part of my budget to pay for a resource officer in uniform for the campus. We can’t touch unruly students but he can!
Now we are at a weird place where we are finding it hard to get to the next level. 500 is our next goal but our Church is not growing at the same rate so finding the volunteer staff needed is becoming difficult (50 – 60 volunteers). Right now we are focusing on internal development, raising student leaders and praying for a new pickle barrel to get volunteers from.
So, that is our “One Step Ahead” process. Tell me what you think?
Sean Rheaume 
Hey! I’m the Youth Pastor at my church in Oneida, NY. We currently have a group of about 15 Youth in a town of about 11,000. We are moving somewhat in this same direction as you are describing, but we haven’t had it as organized as this. I’ve got a team of 5 not including me. The trick we’ve had to overcome is that we have no full time staff at this point! Every service and plan has had to be organized by facebook and phone. I certainly agree with your guys approach! Ive been empowering my staff more as well as certain youth. It seems to be starting to make a difference. Thanks for posting this though! I think we may just implement some of the planning processes you are using.