Too many smaller churches get stuck in an avoidable rut year after year. While one of the delights of Christmas and Easter celebrations is the upholding of traditions, there is always room for improvement.
In this guest article, Darrell Stetler offers a simple step for capitalizing on what went right and improving what went wrong in your annual event (or any event, really), so that it can be incrementally better every time you do it.
— Karl Vaters
I once heard John C. Maxwell tell a story of a man who was angry at being passed over for a promotion. “They can’t do that — I have 20 years experience!” he grouched. “No you don’t!” Maxwell retorted. “You have one year of experience 20 times!”
If you have been in church work for long, you know: Repetition doesn’t mean improvement. You can do something 20 times and not really be any better at it on the 20th than you were last time. Is there a way to change that? Is there a way to make sure you always improve, and next year really is better than last?
Yes! Follow these steps and your Christmas and Easter outreaches (any event, really) will improve year-over-year.
There’s only one thing you need to do, and do it early, while it’s still fresh:
Get people together and make lists
Done right, this is really fun. I have a blast with it every year.
I’ve heard it called in the business world AARs (After Action Reports). I’ve heard it called “doing a post-mortem.” (Hope your event wasn’t that bad.)
Whatever you call it, here’s how to do a church outreach debrief and improvement.
Sit down with 3-4 key players in your outreach
Get the main people who were involved in the event, and add in a couple who just attended. Do this while it’s still fresh. In fact, I love to do it the same evening, during cleanup. If that’s not possible, just try to make sure it’s within 48 hours.
Ask 3 questions:
- What went right this year?
- What went wrong this year?
- What was missing/What can we improve?
Write down all your notes on your church event
I’d say preferably in a Word document or in Evernote. Collect your initial thoughts as soon after the event as possible. Here’s what it will do for you:
1. You won’t forget great ideas, or repeat past mistakes
No one will be sitting around saying “What was that one great idea we all mentioned last year?”
This is one of the biggest ways that our church improved one of our key church outreaches: our annual Bible-based Trunk-or-treat outreach. The biggest shift was when we started writing everything down after every meeting.
- We took pictures of our Trunk-or-treat ideas
- We wrote down our story script
- We made notes about our registration problems.
- We noted where we needed more lighting
…and it absolutely made a huge difference each following year.
2. You’ll be ahead of the game in preparation
This is huge. Take that list, turn it into a checklist in Evernote or Google Docs, and you’ll be way ahead next year when the time comes.
I literally just did this an hour ago with a checklist from our last year’s outreach event. And I’m ahead of where I was last year — automatically.
3. It will let your brain release the stress of holding those details
Your brain functions like RAM on a computer. If it holds too much, it slows you down, decreases your willpower, and increases your stress level.
Dump the details into a document or Evernote, and move on. They’ll still be there when you need them, and your brain will be free.
4. It will help you give things away to more volunteers next year
Here’s one of the biggest challenges for leaders trying to get more volunteers: They keep all their lists in their head. You can’t give it away without sharing your prefrontal cortex with your volunteers.
But if you’ve already gotten a list of volunteer actions, then you’re ahead of the game for next year.
5. It will make your organization a growing and learning one
This is a fantastic practice for making sure that you keep growing. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.
How about you? Have you ever done this?
Do you need to?
If you’re looking for ways to improve your church outreaches, you might consider doing a one-day retreat for strategic planning for churches.
(Photo by thinkpublic | Flickr)
