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Welcome to the Grow Your Ministry Podcast, where your friends at Stuff You Can Use share super practical training and ideas for your ministry! In each episode, you’ll hear from members of our team as we share insights, lessons learned, and strategies to help you grow as a church leader. Whether you’re leading kids or students, we’ll equip you with the tools you need to keep growing and making a difference in your community. Learn more at growcurriculum.org.
[0:02] Welcome to the Grow Your Ministry podcast, where your friends at Stuff You Can Use share super practical training and ideas designed to help you grow as a church leader. My name is Jason. I'm the creative lead here at Stuff You Can Use. It's so good to be hanging out with you today to talk about the post-event apocalypse. Just kidding, but for real, we're going to talk about how to properly assess an event after it is over. I know for me personally, it is so easy to just move on to the next thing once you've made it successfully through an event. And I know we all have a lot of next things to do. So stopping to assess is often an overlooked and devalued part of planning and executing events. But if we don't do this, we can fall victim to repeating mistakes or forgetting about the awesome and efficient things we did that we need to repeat next time. So in this episode, here's what we're going to cover. Number one, why it's important to take this time to ask how ministry events went. Number two, how feedback on what went great and also what didn't go so well can help us have an even better event next time. And number three, five questions to ask yourself and your volunteers after events are over.
[1:19] Just an FYI, you might wanna jot down some notes, whether that's in a good old-fashioned notepad with a pencil or having AI do it for you. It's great. Or you can head on over to growcurriculum.org slash blog to read this article and lots more.
[1:39] Congratulations, you've just pulled off another successful event. You've taken out the trash. You've locked up the building. You've gone home. You've taken a two-day nap. And now you're starting to wonder, what do I do next time? What might I do next time? Taking this time to debrief your events is really a key part of ministry. Without proper review, we never take time to learn, grow, or adapt our events to be better and more impactful. But knowing what to ask and where to get started with this kind of assessment can be overwhelming and we might start asking stuff like oh man the pizza was cold do we switch to nachos next time or a certain volunteer was like 10 minutes late what do I do about that and of course the big question was it all worth it these are all great questions all great things to eventually consider but here are five questions that are really worth asking yourself and your team after each and every event. Number one, what is a story worth sharing?
[2:41] Stories make the difference. What are some stories from your event that are worth sharing with parents, with senior leadership, with stakeholders in your ministry? You weren't everywhere at the event, so ask your volunteers about the things that they saw. You can prompt these stories with these types of questions. Who stepped up in an unexpected way? Who made a new friend at the event? What was the funniest thing that happened at the event? Did anyone decide to follow Jesus? What are the stories from your event that could really make a difference? These types of stories can really help you make important decisions about the event, what to keep and what to try to do differently. Plus, you can capture these stories and share them on social media or from the stage or with parents in your weekly parent email or communication plan.
[3:33] The second question to ask is this, what did we do really well? So think about every aspect of the event, from the planning to the marketing, to the registration, to the decor, the music, the teaching, the activities. What was absolutely awesome? Take time to pat yourself on the back and celebrate yourself. Your events take so much focus, so much detail, so much preparation, but now it's over and everything you worked hard for finally came to fruition. So it's time to think back through each of those details. Maybe your band crushed it. Maybe everyone loved that silly game that somehow you weirdly thought of at like three o'clock in the morning. Maybe your volunteers really nailed the decor and the atmosphere. Maybe everyone turned in their registration forms early. Acknowledge these things that your team did or that you did really well and take time to celebrate and encourage your own work and their work. Debriefing an event is just as much about celebrating what went right as it is about looking for ways to grow. So don't be afraid to shout out the people that met or exceeded your expectations.
[4:46] Especially if it's a volunteer that went above and beyond what you asked. So now you've talked about what's worth sharing and what went well. It's now time to shift towards what we could do better. Dun dun dun. The third question is this. What could we improve and how? Most of the time we know because you are awesome, your events will go off without a single hitch. There won't be any major oversights. Kids will mostly show up on time and your volunteer team will be as reliable as they always have been. But here's the thing. Even during your best events, there's still room for you to keep growing and learning. You might need to make an adjustment to the music or to be more clear about your instructions for activities. You might want to rearrange the flow and the layout of your room to give more space at the next event. When you're looking for ways to improve, you'll need to go back through those details again.
[5:50] This is the time to be honest with yourself and to invite your team to share their honest thoughts and opinions too. Remember, you're not just trying to create an incredible, unforgettable event for kids and teenagers. What you're also doing is you're trying to help them connect with Jesus. So when you think about all that you're trying to accomplish with your events, there is just always room that you can grow. Next, we want to focus on what to do moving forward. So the fourth question in debriefing an event is this, what's worth repeating today? And what's worth deleting. We stuck an extra question in there, but both of these are worth asking. In every event, there will be things to repeat or delete. Take time to think about the elements of your event that were absolutely essential to its success. Those are the things that you want to repeat. The nacho bar was absolutely awesome. The impossible shot game we played, everyone loved it. The improvised dance-off was off the charts. All of these might be worth repeating because they made your event better, made it more engaging and more fun. But not every feature of our event is going to be that well received. Some of our best ideas can really fall flat once an event gets going. So you can modify it for the future, but if you just get the sense that it's just not working for your group, it is okay to take things off the table too.
[7:17] Again, this is a great chance to be candid with yourself, candid with your volunteers, all in the spirit of trying to grow and get better at events. So repeat or delete. But you know what we're missing is a question about the people who help us make our events truly great. So the fifth question is this, how can we make these events more engaging for our volunteers?
[7:44] Depending on your goals, fun is probably ranked really, really high on the priorities for your volunteers. Thankfully, because your volunteers love Jesus and they love kids and teenagers so much, they're willing to stretch themselves for events that aren't the most engaging for them. But if there is a way for you to level up their engagement while also boosting how much fun everyone else has, that is a win-win. That is something we need to do. Think through some of ways your team could build engagement with themselves and the kids or teenagers they serve is it a new game.
[8:20] A new discussion time, a small group activity they could do. Be creative and let your imagination run wild. Let the ideas flow because adding a little more fun can go a long way in helping your team feel connected as they build those all-important relationships. Okay, so that's all it takes to debrief your events. Just like five-ish questions and some time of thoughtful reflection are all it takes for you to be on your way. If you've never made a habit of debriefing your events with your team, now is the time to start. Ask them for like 30 minutes of their time or send them a survey using something like Google Forms or JotForm or Typeform. If you want to level up your review even further, ask parents or key students to send you their thoughts too.
[9:11] But if you want to create events that reach your goals, help connect others, and point people towards Jesus, then set aside this time to follow up after your events are over. And hey, if you're using Grow Curriculum, we give you our post-event debrief guide so you can review and reflect on all of your events. And whether you use Grow Curriculum or not, we hope these questions help you create the best events ever. So after your next event, grab your team, grab a notebook, and dive into these questions together, who knows? The answers might just spark your best event yet.
[9:55] Thank you so much for listening. It has been an absolute blast sharing some helpful tips with you. Really hope it helps you do the hardest and most rewarding job in the world, which is kids and youth ministry. Remember that you are awesome. If you're looking for more helpful training, like you heard on this episode, head on over to growcurriculum.org slash blog. And if you're looking for curriculum tools and resources for your kids or youth ministry, all packaged in an annual strategy, head to growcurriculum.org slash free trial for a whole month of free curriculum and lots more. Have an absolutely lovely day. This is your pal Jason signing off. Bye bye. Thank you.