Help! Promotion Sunday Is Next Week and I'm Not Ready!
If you’re like me, the fall kickoff of your kids and student ministries are fast approaching. Regardless of what your relaunch looks like, you’re probably feeling mixed emotions. You’re celebrating summer and all the fun and flexibility it provides, but also feeling buried by everything that has to happen to get your ministry back on track for the fall.
Of course, you may be ready to go—teams set, check-in running smoothly, volunteers trained, rooms looking great, flawless communication with parents, and no conflict with your team or staff. If that’s you, skip this post and go enjoy a boba tea. I’m certainly not there.
After years of surviving the pressure and anxiety of the fall launch, I’ve got some helpful tips and encouragement to pass along as you sort it out. Whether you’re experiencing mild anxiety or a full blown panic attack, there’s something here that could help you in the days ahead.
Believe the Gospel For Yourself
Sometimes we’re better at pointing kids to the gospel, picking a gospel-centered curriculum, or reminding teachers to make gospel connections, than actually believing the gospel for ourselves as the pressure ramps up. Now is the time to model how to rest in Christ despite your weakness.
“Sometimes we’re better at pointing kids to the gospel, picking a gospel-centered curriculum, or reminding teachers to make gospel connections, than actually believing the gospel for ourselves as the pressure ramps up.”
God’s love and acceptance of you is not based on how well check-in goes, or how many volunteers show up for the training. Ephesians 2:4 tells us that “even when we were dead in our trespasses,” God “made us alive together with Christ.” He is “rich in mercy.” His love is not something you earn or achieve through good works or amazing ministry skills. It’s a gift that’s been freely given, through faith, from our generous, loving God. Moreover, because you never earned it in the first place, nothing “in all creation” can separate you from it (Rom 8.39). Nothing you hope to accomplish over the next few days or weeks compares with what you already have in Christ, and nothing you don’t accomplish can remove it. Weary leader, rest in the amazing grace and love God has for you.
Pray Now and Pray Specifically
Stop what you’re doing (as you read this), hit your knees, and cry out to God for exactly what you need. Is it a particular volunteer for a classroom? Be specific. Is the database not working? Ask God for help. The writer of Hebrews invites us to “draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews 4:16). These weeks certainly qualify as a time of need, and this is an opportunity to experience God offering grace through specific answers to prayer as we turn to him.
In his book, A Praying Life, Paul Miller says, “Instead of fighting anxiety, we can use it as a springboard to bending our hearts to God. Instead of trying to suppress anxiety, manage it, or smother it with pleasure, we can turn our anxiety toward God. When we do that, we’ll discover that we’ve slipped into continuous praying.”
Communicate Your Needs
Let your pastors and other staff leaders know where you need help. We often fear doing this because we think it’s going to expose our weakness, or make us look incompetent. In reality, the opposite is true. Being willing to share your needs models humility, allowing people to see the challenges you’re up against and how they can help. It builds a sense of team when someone asks for help, because everyone needs one another and no one has it all together.
Be Willing to Cut Something (Or Lots of Things!)
This is one of the hardest things for leaders to do, but can also be the best thing to do when needed. Maybe some of your panic is because you’re trying to pull off something that is meant for another time. That idea from last spring that someone on your team is passionate about might need to wait until next year. That element in the program that feels essential might not be for this fall. Not doing it now doesn’t mean you’re not doing it ever. Get your team together and ask, “What needs to go for now?” It’s a hard conversation, but saying no to extra things can allow you to focus on the work that is necessary.
Get Your Parents Involved
Chances are you need more help, and the best place to find it is among the parents of kids and teens in your church. Find time to get in front of them to share your vision of the ministry, the challenges keeping you from accomplishing that vision, and opportunities for them to step into what God is doing through this ministry. Don’t think you can pull this off over the next couple of weeks? Okay, have the meeting in October, plan a holiday event in November or December, or a vision for the new year meeting in January. Nobody is complaining that you didn’t organize a meeting earlier. Work as a team to pick a date in the future where you can recruit parents into your ministry in an unhurried way.
Love What God is Doing in Your Ministry This Fall
I try to be a visionary leader who is always looking to what could be, but sometimes I fail to stop and be grateful for what’s happening right now. God is moving in your ministry through his people. It’s miraculous that people who were once far from God are now giving their time to pass on the gospel to the next generation.
“Sometimes I fail to stop and be grateful for what’s happening right now.”
Yes, you may want a weekly commitment from some of them instead of a monthly one, but can you appreciate God’s grace for their commitment? You may want the worship team to get better, but can you see God at work in their faithfulness to be there? You may loathe the check-in system, but can you be grateful for what you have even while you research other solutions? God is building his church every Sunday (Ps 127:1; Matt 16:18). Celebrate what God is doing now in your ministry, and you’ll be surprised by the joy of seeing God at work in a hundred ways you wouldn’t if you only grumble about what could be.
God has called you into this ministry for this season, and he is for you and loves you. Enjoy what these next few weeks will be. Work with all your ability, trusting in God’s grace and power. When we trust in his strength during our weakness, we can swing for the fences but laugh at the strikeouts.