Three Things You Need To Do In April For A Successful Re-Launch In August
A successful August re-launch begins in April.
One thing all strategic pastors do is focus on the highly important when it's not urgent to be done.
(PS - This is Stephen Covey's principle, which I've found super helpful. Read more here.)
For example, strategic pastors don't spend April focused on camp, summer mission trips, or their senior class, while those things are good but not the most important in April.
Most student ministries are about 16 weeks from their August re-launch at the beginning of April. At SSM, we always suggest you begin planning roughly 12-16 weeks from the start of your event, campaign, or sermon series.
Your launch is most likely the most important day of your ministry year.
Why? Because significant launches lead to high-momentum ministry years. While bad launches often kill momentum, stifle growth, and hurt the energy of your youth culture.
I've had some solid launches and some weak launches. So, from experience, if you want to launch strong in August, I'd focus on these three things in April:
Action 1 - Plan and launch a volunteer recruiting campaign!
Do not wait until July to recruit for August. Strategic student ministries begin their recruiting campaigns in April.
Why so far out? – Recruiting great small group leaders for student ministry takes time, especially when finding great 6th-grade leaders. When programming is usually modified, onboarding leaders over the summer takes longer.
I hope to recruit all my new leaders by the end of May so that I can spend July & August onboarding, training, and introducing my new leaders to the students.
In April, you ought to…
Establish your recruiting campaign theme & vision.
Rally your high-level leaders around
Begin creating your lead list
Design your seven-step communication plan
THE GOAL = Recruit in May to onboard through June & July.
Action 2 - Go on a sermon series planning retreat with your team
A sermon planning retreat is a 1-2 day getaway or all-day meeting to plan your sermon series for Q1 & Q2 (August-December).
When I was in student ministry, we would AirBnB a cabin, eat good food, pray together, and plan for a day. Of course, I know many of you need a team or the funds to rent a cabin. But that doesn't mean you can't still have a great sermon-planning retreat at your church or a local coffee shop.
Block off 1-2 days.
Bring texts, topics, or themes.
Create your series.
Predict your attendance for each night.
Place your series.
THE GOAL = Plan each fall sermon series & begin development 16 weeks out.
Action 3 - Send out volunteer recommitment forms
Are your volunteers going to come back and serve next year?
I've assumed some of my volunteers planned on continuing to serve, only to find out a few weeks before the ministry year begins that they are not.
You need to know which volunteers are coming back and which are not. Doing this in April gives you the entire summer to recruit a replacement and helps those groups affected transition well.
To do this, I usually:
Notify my volunteers in March that recommitment forms are coming in April
Send Google Form requesting responses
Follow up in May with non-responses
To grow your ministry, you need to focus on the essential things when they are not urgent to be done. I challenge you in April to do each of these four actions and begin concentrating on launching strong.
I hope this helps! ⚡️
Landon Reynolds