Tweak Your Environments

Growing up, my mom was lucky if I cleaned my room at least once a month.  For me it was torture, making the bed, putting away dirty laundry and sweeping the dust bunnies out from under my bed.  But, when the room was clean it was the best place in the house to hang out.  There is nothing better than walking into a clean room, let alone a clean house.
The way you do ministry is not only affected by the relationships you have with other people, it’s also affected by the relationship you have with your environments.  If you aren’t aware of your environments then you are overlooking a significant aspect of your ministry.  The environments in which you conduct your ministry will impact the efficiency and productivity of what you do, especially in these areas:


YOUR OFFICE – Some people claim to function with a messy desk; however, if it is not organized then there are no systems in place.  No systems means no structures which could lead to mistakes and mess ups.  Your desk is your command space, take a few minutes to clean up at the end of the day, it’ll be worth it when you walk in the next.


THE YOUTH ROOM – When someone is coming over to your house the polite thing to do is clean.  Even if it’s not the entire house, you want to make sure the places your guests use (i.e. bathroom and living room) are clean.  Treat your worship space like the living room of your house, make it clean, comfortable and hospitable.

Cleanliness is only a part of the equation.  On top of clean space you need to look at:

• Furniture – We got rid of metal chairs for our middle school students because it just became a noise hazard.  Our goal was to have furniture that wasn’t a distraction which means changing it up a little between the high school and middle school programs.  If teens are comfortable they are engaged.
• Lighting – If you want teens to read the Bible make sure it’s bright enough to do so.  Lighting will also control their excitement.  We have florescent lights in our main theater, we were finding it difficult to control the mood for certain songs and reflections.  As an easy solution we brought in standing lamps with dimmers.
• Temperature – When it’s cold it’s easier to stay alert, when it’s warm it’s hard to move quickly.  Sometimes the building’s temperature is out of our control; therefore, talk with the building supervisor or maintenance to have the perfect temperature.
• Sound – Depending on what’s playing in the background conversation can be enhanced or disrupted.  There will be times for silence and then times when you want music to move people to reflect.  There will be times when you want excitement; therefore, you’ll blast a few tunes.   

When it comes to tweaking your environment it’s okay to try different things.  You’ll want to give your tweaks a few weeks before deciding to change it again; however, make sure you don’t too it too much.  If you are stumped, ask your volunteers opinions, get insight and go with it.  The more attention you pay toward your environments the more attention you are paying towards your productivity.

What other environmental tweaks can we make?