Sometimes ministry is all about theory and creativity.  We talk about dreams and visions we have for our ministries, but sometimes ministry is about paperwork and planning.  Depending on your role in ministry you may spend a significant time planning and doing office work or maybe you are mostly out of the office.  Either way, your job is probably full of a multitude of tasks that are often unrelated.

After experiencing the pain of trying to juggle all of my responsibilities by memory, I came to the point where I needed to have a better approach in order to keep stuff from getting dropped.  My answer was to come up with a work flow for my week.

I realized that most of my week followed a pattern.  Preparations for Wednesday night programs were being done Monday and Tuesday, Mondays were full of follow-up and check requests.  Thursdays were used to get Sunday programs worked out.  Noticing this flow, I constructed a super simple list of the things that I would work on each day of the week.  Each day I have a list of the major things that I need to accomplish.  This list gives me a great framework for building my day and helps me to focus on accomplishing the stuff that really needs to be accomplished.

One of the hard parts about working in ministry, which is also one of the great parts about working in ministry, is that you pretty much control your schedule and what you do.  Outside of certain weekly expectations, you basically have to be self-motivated and entrepreneurial.  It’s great not having someone stand over your shoulder telling you what to do, but if you are not a self-starter, it can be a recipe for laziness and mismanaged time.  That is where I have found my work flow to be extremely helpful.  There are days when I am worn out from activities the day before or from nights when my kids decided to wake up every hour, but having a set task list each day ensures that what needs to get done gets done.

One other benefit for doing things this way is that it forces you to be better prepared for your events and programs.  I now have no excuse to be planning Wednesday night activities on Wednesday afternoon, that was Monday and Tuesday’s job.

In case it helps, here are my essential projects for each day:
Monday: Hospital visits, Sunday follow-ups, check requests, website updates, Wednesday night planning.
Tuesday: Staff meeting and staff lunch, send out Sunday curriculum for our morning and evening programs, finish Wednesday night details
Wednesday: Work on upcoming events, lunch at schools, Facebook page update, lunch with other student ministers
Thursday: Finish Sunday details, missions team responsibilities, volunteer encouragement, Wednesday follow-ups, lunch at schools

Keep in mind that these are just the must-be-done-every-week things. And yes, Wednesday has two lunches.  Built onto this work flow are things like gearing up for events, random meetings, preparing for fill-in sermons, and all other kinds of random duties.  The key for me is that I have some level of accountability, even to myself, that the schedule is followed as closely as possible.  Hope this helps.

There are a lot of ways to get somewhere. There are a lot of resources in youth ministry. One of the things that I remember from my first week was the number of catalogs waiting in my mail box at the church. There was a stack almost two feet high with advertisements for small group curriculum, music, and conferences. I had mailings from magicians and gospel quartets. Talk about diversity. So here I was with all of these options, and I didn’t even know what my program looked like or was going to look like.

I must admit that I succumbed to some of the flashier flyers. I joined a video site, bought some books, and I even purchased a drum set for the band. If I had it to do over again, I would have waited before spending any money. It is tempting to buy material that looks so amazing that it will change the way that we think of church, but the reality is that it may not be right for your program or your group. It will take time to learn the culture of those you serve. You need to see where they are and not just consider them to be where you want them to be spiritually.

You also need to have a vision for what you want your program to be about. If you are brand new to student ministry, please understand that there are a lot of ways to minister to students. There is not one model or process that you must buy into to have success. However, you need to develop a process or a model that will work for your group. You need to have a vision about what your program stands for and how you will go about reaching and discipling students.

Once you have a vision for your ministry, then it is time to prioritize your needs. Something that can be difficult for new ministers to understand is the difference between budgeted money and money that you can spend. Most churches will give you a budget, but that does not mean you will ever actually be able to spend that much money because the church may not receive that much money that year. When you prioritize your spending, you will be able to maximize the impact that your money can make. Some things you will certainly need such as small group curriculum. Other things such as a couch or shirts are not necessary, but they could certainly have a value for your program.