How To Create An Effective Message Series Calendar

Last week some of our staff went off campus to develop our message series for the 2015-2016 years.  I posted a photo of it on Instagram and people asked, “What’s the process look like?”

It’s simple, but takes a little bit of work and bares a lot of fruit.  Even if you don’t have a huge staff to start putting together an effective message series calendar you need to:

KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE

Who you speak to will impact the themes, topics and subjects that you address.  That means knowing:

• What They Want To Hear: In other words, what grabs their attention?  Discover what they are interested in when it comes to faith and religion. This can be done by polling them.

• What Do They Need To Hear: What problems or issues are they facing? There are obstacles and issues that they are facing.  There might be trending issues or problems holding them back from going deeper in faith.

Get to know your audience and you’ll have a clearer understanding of what God wants you to say.

LOOK AT THE LITURGICAL CALENDAR

Not only is picking out topics difficult but so is finding the scripture to go with them. The liturgical calendar gives you years worth. Just look at what’s up for the weekend ahead and use your program, as a way of foreshadowing or recapping what your teens will hear at Mass.

ACKNOWLEDGE THE EVENTS AROUND YOU

There are going to be events that affect the community, the local and universal church. Each of these events will influence what is on the mind of your audience. For example:

• Christmas is a great time to talk about giving.

• Back to school is an awesome time to talk about priorities.

• The county fair is a great time to talk about fellowship.

Consider what’s happening in their lives as influence to what you need to be discussing.

BRAND EACH SERIES

Each series you create needs a name and look. This makes it more memorable, which is great for continuing the conversation outside the weekend.

When developing the name make sure it’s catchy but not too cute. It needs to communicate what you want to talk about so that people are prepared. To help you brand a series look at album covers, book titles, movie posters and television shows.

KEEP TALKING ABOUT IT

Make your message development organic by discussing what you want people to get out of them. You might find as you approach a series changes will have to be made, and that’s okay.

The more you put into a message series the bigger the impact it will have on your audience.  Don’t just throw topics together. Create a plan and be intentional about what you communicate. The work is worth it.