Big Picture Dreaming and Visioning for Child and Youth MInistry

I’m a planner, sometimes to a fault. For detail-oriented people like me, it can be tough to not jump into the minutiae of decisions and tasks to ensure that fall programs are set up and ready. Our minds can work overtime with filling those last slots on the volunteer roster, creating a welcome back letter for parents, updating databases, buying supplies and setting up classrooms, planning for leader training, and on and on.

All of these things are important, but without a big picture view set in place first, they can amount to far less than we would hope or imagine. A story I love describes a professor who brought a large glass jar to class. He put in as many large rocks as would fit and asked if the jar was full. The class said yes, so he then added several smaller rocks and asked if the jar was full. The class said yes, so he then added pebbles and asked if the jar was full. Finally they had caught on and said no. He pulled out sand, and then once the sand had filled to the top, he poured water in until it spilled out over the rim.

The point of the story is not to see how much we can cram into our lives (although some of us live as though that is a valiant goal). The point is how important it is to start with the big rocks, otherwise they would never fit with the other items already in there taking up valuable space. It is the same with our ministry. We need to decide what our big rocks are, to have a good idea of our main purpose and broad strokes of a vision so that all the other smaller pieces can fit in around and under it.

You may not be meeting again with an overseeing body of your ministry until the end of August or September. You may not even be able to meet with your volunteer team to get their input on a vision before programs start. But even if both those things are true, you still can develop a vision of what you see your own personal ministry being, even outside of those who serve under your leadership or advise you.

So, before you get caught up in all of the concrete planning details, find a quiet, reflective space, some blank paper and pens or markers that you love, and pray, think, dream and write or draw about any or all of the following as a starting point to develop a renewed vision for your ministry:

1. What needs have you witnessed in your time in this ministry place? How have they been met or not? Which fall under your role? Reflect on these needs of learners, families, leaders and others. Celebrate the ways God has shown solutions, possibilities, and offered growth through you and others. For needs still unmet, spend time in prayer reflecting on what God may be asking of you and the others where you serve.

2. Reflect on your own needs and how they have been filled or not since being in this role. How has God acted to help you, equip you, challenge you? What do you feel are your gifts, and how has God grown and used them? What things have you handled really well, and what things show areas where you could use some growth?

3. What words would you choose to describe what is happening in your place of ministry at this particular time? Are your people in the thick of growth and programs? recovering from taking on too much? healing from a difficult time? ramping up for something new? Think about words or stories from scripture that capture this time. Pray about where you feel God leading you in your ministry.

4. Pretend that it is a year from now. What fruits do you hope your ministry will have produced? What growth do you hope for (numeric and spiritual)? How do you hope the living out of your ministry has changed and grown you in your relationship with God as well as those who are touched by the programs you offer?

5. Out of time spent in reflection, identify some big rocks for a) how you feel called to live out your ministry, and b) the children’s and youth ministry in general in this time. Be ready to share these with your volunteers and ask them to pray about what they feel the big rocks need to be for themselves and your programs. On your own, and then with your team, try to come up with a key verse from scripture or a focus for the year that will grow you and your learners in their faith in God.

Don’t rush this work. If discerned well, it makes everything else so much easier, and, like the pebbles and sand, things will slide into place. Tuck away all that you have drawn or written and use it as a source of inspiration when needed over the next year. Keep your theme words or scripture, your “big rocks”, ever present as you live out your calling.