I used to head into the summer with the idea that I could plan out an entire year of messages in a couple of months. I would hit June highly motivated, July a little tired and August in a panic. I was trying to do too much and not really understanding how to plan out a year of messages.
You need a strategy to how you plan out a year of messages or any curriculum. With no strategy comes a lot of mistakes and frustrations. The tendency might just be to go with the flow or do as much as possible; however, you need to do something that will be long lasting and sustainable. To plan out your messages properly you need to answer the following three questions:
- What’s Happening In The Church? Your church faces different seasons. Depending on your denomination some seasons are strongly defined by a liturgical calendar. When you can embrace the seasons of the church you connect your students to the rich history and deep traditions that will draw them closer to God.
- What’s Happening In Their Lives? You need to be relevant and that means being aware of what is going on in the local and global community of teenagers. When you can speak to their reality you allow them to see a God that cares about every detail.
- What’s Going To Happen In the Future? One day many of them will not have you there to give them advice and insight. To prepare for the future you need to know what truths to cover. What habits do you want them embracing so that they can head into the next stage of life confident?
As you answer these questions you’ll know what to place in your messages; however, laying it out and delivering it at a high level means developing a healthy strategy. To do that you need to:
- Set A Pace: You might want to plan out as much as possible ahead of time; however, you need to make sure you aren’t burning yourself out. You might be highly motivated now which means the first series gets all the attention and the last one gets the leftovers. Set a pace by scheduling margin and tangible goals on accomplishing certain tasks.
- Do The Research: Make sure you have more material than you will use. The worst thing in the world is creating a message series and not having enough ideas. If you are under a deadline you won’t have enough time to research new material. In the end you’ll have a rushed product.
- Be Flexible: Life happens; therefore, you need to have back up plans. If tragedy hits your community you need to be able to address it. Flexibility shows the willingness to focus on what’s happening to them. It will show the students that you care.
Create a strategy, build margin and allow yourself to focus on other tasks. What you teach is important; however, you cannot allow it to hold you back or burn you out. Take the time this season to put out a plan before you write out your messages, questions and curriculum.
How do you plan out a year of messages?