The Fall is way too strategic to be winging it as you go. What do you need to do to be as ready as possible for the Fall to hit? When I was an MTL, we took time to plan out the fall in the spring. Here’s a peek into our agenda for two planning days we called “strategy days.”
Prior to the meetings, we collected info about every person in small groups using a spreadsheet. That helped us measure the numbers in each class, involved new believers, and the number of leaders. One of our staff also tracked down the number of students who came to conferences, retreats and projects.
At the first meeting we started off with celebration. I had “6 keys to movement growth” (I actually made “keys” out of paint stirrers) and took time at the start of the meeting for us to tell stories for each of the keys. The keys were: Freshman focus, spiritual multiplication, world emphasis, multiple movements to reach the scope, faith-filled evangelism, and a commitment to raise view of God, positional truth and eternal perspective.
Then we went to situational analysis where we looked at all the numbers we had collected.
Next, we revisited our vision and direction. I asked, "What do you want Cru to look like when we grow up?" It was fun to dream about the next 4-10 years together.
Then, I asked our team to list what they felt were the top 3-5 biggest needed improvements and 3-5 most healthy aspects of our movements. Of course, this is with a view to coming up with next year's path steps.
Then we had lunch.
After that we had two strategic decisions to make: One of them involved a discussion about who we were going to ask to take on Servant Team roles (eg: Lead the Cru meeting, lead in prayer, socials, etc…) We had done a first pass at this a week before. This was soooo hard. With 450 students involved we just don't know everyone. We put it in wet cement and decided to nail it down the next day.
After that we did a mini-strategic plan for another decision we had to make as a team.
The next day we dove into our path steps. I really wasn't as prepared for this meeting as I wanted to be, but the discussion went okay nonetheless. We looked at each step from the past year and asked: What went well? What did not? What are our next steps? Next tactical ideas?
Then, I told them what the top three issues were from our discussion the previous day and I had everyone write down what they would pick as next year's 3-5 path steps. We came up with our top 5 from there.
That day we also accomplished some other important things, including: Landing on who to ask to do servant team roles, brainstorming names of people who could lead the summer ministry, talking about potential Shepherd Team people, and who we wanted to invite to our Mega Meeting in a couple weeks (this is where we plan out the first 6 weeks of the fall). It was a long and arduous meeting! But we all felt like we accomplished a lot.
Before I go into the summer, I want to have most of our small group leaders for next year challenged and our ministry team leaders challenged. We also plan out in detail our first six weeks of the fall and assign people to work on things over the summer. Over the summer I would plan the first 10 Cru talks and nail down the first few speakers. We also have a standard summer to do list that pretty much stays the same each year (print surveys, make publicity, register us as an org...etc...).
As an added bonus, here is our team schedule for the start of the fall, just to give you an idea for how we did things:
Monday: Meet 10:15-4
Tuesday: 10:15-5:30
Wednesday: Morning with God, Meet 1-5
Thursday: Meet 10:15-5
Friday: No staff meeting, work on stuff as needed
Saturday: Student leadership overnight
Sunday: Leadership overnight
Monday: Off
Tuesday: Staff Fun Day
Wednesday: 10:15-5 meet
Thursday: 10:15-5 Meet
Friday: Off
Saturday: Off
Sunday: Off
Monday: Movement Labor Day Picnic 4-7 p.m.
Tuesday: First Class Day-Off to the races!
Planning well for the Fall in the Spring is so worth it! The more focused you are on getting ready now, the more focused you’ll be then on welcoming new freshmen and introducing students to Jesus.
Question: What do your spring planning days look like? What most helps you be ready for the fall?
*Photo courtesy of Jeff McNeill (Flickr Creative Commons)
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