Couple of interesting shots today as we were leaving Anaheim … the first was of the sun through the smoke, and the other was of the blanket of smoke over us and the stunning blue skys in the distance. Not nearly as close to us as last year’s fires we could see from the driveway, but still doing a ton of damage.

JG

Long range weekend preparation has been elusive for us, but I know we’ve got to get ahead and not run our ministry week to week. Starting soon we’ll be meeting from 3-5 on Tuesday afternoons working on debrief and long range planning of the weekend. Here’s the agenda:

-2 DAYS AGO DEBRIEF
This is what happened this past weekend.
What did we learn from this past weekend?
What should we do again?
What should we never do again?

5 DAYS AHEAD
This week should be ready to go.
What has fallen through the cracks and we need to scramble to get done?

12 DAYS AHEAD
This is what we’re working on this week.
What does the final program sheet look like?
What tasks need to be assigned?
Are there any adjustments that need to be made to the program?

19 DAYS AHEAD
These are the ideas for down the road.
What could we do?
What would be fun?
What would be impactful?

JG

Last night Jamie taught 5 Ways to Create a Healthy Small Group Environment to our leaders at the family dinner before our small groups. Here it is, modify/use it if you would like, too.

1. Be the first to arrive. Sometimes it can’t be avoided, but arriving late can throw off the whole night. Being there before everyone else allows you to set the tone for the night and make sure everything is in place. If you are scrambling around, it can lead to a messy night.

2. Communicate with host home family. Spend some time getting to know the home you’ll be staying in. Maybe visit them ahead of time and talk about expectations. Be sure to be completely filled in on the “house rules” about animals, furniture, food and drinks.

3. Make sure meeting area is set-up and ready to go each night. Look for distractions that need to be eliminated. Make sure the room is available, relatively clean with the lights on. Turn off the TV/iPod/Computer and think about placing a basket at the door for cell phones to minimize distractions. You can’t go wrong with plenty of places to sit, too.

4. Sit at same level with students. While as a leader you do control the night, keep the style of the night conversational by sitting with them and not above them. Make sure you keep the environment attentive and help students not to lay down and laying all over each other.

5. Put the meeting area back. If the host home family was gone, our goal is that when they return home they have a conversation wondering if you even met or not. Make sure the students completely reset the room and clean up trash, throw away food and put furniture back if it was moved.

What other tips would be helpful for small group environments?

JG

This ended up on my desk today. Silly. Immediately you must caption the photo in the comments. Do it.

JG

This weekend we started Love in Action, a new weekend teaching series that looks very different from the typical. It doesn’t have a formal message but puts the teachings from the 40 Days of Love series into action right there during the service. I’ll write up a full weekend in review shortly, but loved this image of a stack of Post-Its students turned in anonymously for prayer this weekend. Powerful admissions in there … kids are hurting in your student ministry.

JG