This is a simple checklist your Life Team can use to consider, plan, and promote an event in your church. Followed faithfully, it will maximize your impact, unify your Team, build trust with congregants and leaders, and ensure that you Team operates out of joy in the gospel.
- Pray
Has your Team sought God’s guidance and strength regarding the event you are considering? Prayer accesses God’s presence and helps ensure that your Team will not trust in its ability, but in His goodness to champion the event.
- Sift
Does the event fit with your Team’s mission and strategies? The Team should only champion events that support God’s plans for your Team. This will usually mean that some good events will be passed up for those that fit best with God’s priorities revealed in the Team’s mission and strategies.
- Unify
Is your Team unified in its desire and resolve to work together to champion the event? To be successful, most church-wide events require a unified Team effort. Everyone on the Team must be ready to contribute.
- Plan
Has your Team considered all the resources you will need and effort you will expend to champion the event? Most events fail for lack of planning and shoddy execution. Your plan should include these items:
- What is the Team’s message about the event? The best message hits a spiritually-relevant need or priority in the congregation. Sometimes, but definitely not always, the event sponsor has done this for you already. Champion the event consistently with this message. Include all the details a hearer will need to make a decision about the event, like: time/duration, place, cost, childcare arrangements/participation, parking, attire, and where to go for more information. End the message with the next step you want the message-hearer to take.
- Bad: Come to ABC’s fund raiser to give them money.
- Good: Enjoy an evening of food and fellowship, and learn how you can partner with ABC organization in saving the lives of defenseless human embryos. Saturday, April 24, 6:30 – 8:30 pm at XYZ Banquet Center (123 State Street, 63001). Free childcare provided ages 1-4. Free parking in attached garage. Business casual attire. Get more information and RSVP to www.event.com by March 5.
- How can you communicate the event? Consider existing channels/media the church uses to inform congregants like the church newsletter, pulpit announcements, Sunday morning PowerPoint slides, website, email blasts, Sunday School announcements, etc.. Also consider novel ideas, like performing a skit, manning a bank of laptops with live internet access to sign people up for the event, personally handing out cards to congregants as they leave church, etc..
- What resources do you need from the event sponsor and/or your church to carry out your communications plan? Consider hard goods like giveaways, posters, pens, inserts. Also consider immaterial items like training to promote the event, jpegs for building a website announcement, money to support your plan, and so on.
- Submit
Have you sought the input/blessing of your pastoral oversight? This is especially important for church-wide events, and even more so for events that touch on political or financial matters, or whose subject is somewhat controversial or delicate (like sexual integrity training). Talk such events over with the pastor, but not in a 3-minute side-conversation after worship on Sunday morning! Help your pastor understand the event, your basic plan to promote it, and seek his refinements and blessing to proceed. Done well, and with God’s blessing, your pastoral oversight will become a champion of the event.
- Implement
Have you faithfully carried out all the parts of your plan? If you are the Life Team Leader, have you encouraged your Team and made sure they have what they need to work as a Team? As Leader, you are responsible to keep the Team focused, set an example of diligence, and cheer lead the effort.
- Praise
Have you thanked God no matter what the outcome of your championing efforts? He is to be equally thanked for a large, small, or no response.
- Evaluate
Have you discussed as a Team how the planning and implementation went? The aim here is to decide if the event was worthwhile. If it was, and if the event is an annual one, then evaluation will help the Team tweak next year’s efforts. For some events, a survey can be helpful at this stage.
- Need Help?
If you need help with this checklist, please contact Churches for Life at info@getintolife.org. May God bless your efforts to champion life through events in your church!