Christmas break will soon be here! All your planning and hard work are shaping up to be another successful holiday season at your church. At this point in December, you may be looking at the week between Dec. 25 and New Year’s as an opportunity to sleep late and binge-watch TV.
As tempting as that may be, the down week is probably the best chance you have to get ahead for another year of children’s ministry. So use your Christmas break wisely, with these five tips.
Make the Most of Your Christmas Break
1. Rest!
While you probably shouldn’t go into full hibernation mode, rest is certainly a must. In fact, God commands it throughout scripture. God Himself rested after finishing His creation.
The Sabbath should be a time for rest. To keep doing your best work and avoid burning out, you need to take some time to recover. Recharge your batteries.
Take a few days out of the office. Don’t check email. Ignore social media. Respectfully ignore your coworkers. Set some clear, reasonable boundaries between you and work.
Only by resting can you start the new year with a clean slate. Whether you’ve been at your church for six months or 10 years, it’s best to begin each new season with a fresh start.
2. Assess the past year.
When you’ve allowed yourself some space from your work, take the time to think about your results from the past year. What went well? What can you change to make next year better?
If you had any goals, were they met? If you didn’t have any goals, what lessons did you learn from last year that you can turn into goals? And if you didn’t learn anything from the year, that’s only more of a reason why you need to think more strategically.
Take time to think through everything yourself. Then, gather your team together for a meeting to discuss findings. Ask the questions you didn’t have time to ask during the year. This meeting can be as formal or informal as you’d like. But try to avoid getting too bogged down into specific ideas or challenges.
3. Think big picture.
Now that you’ve collected your thoughts, turn your attention to the upcoming year. It can be daunting to imagine restarting the entire 365-day mountain all over again. This task becomes more manageable by starting with the overall strategy of your ministry.
Refocus on the mission of your church. Were you able to stay on track with directly pursuing this mission during last year? Or did you get sidetracked with other projects?
It’s no surprise or shame if you veered off course a little, it happens. Just think through ways you can be more strategic about staying on track for the coming year. What guides can you put in place to keep you focused on the mission?
Remember that the mission is set in place precisely to give everyone within the church a common ground to pursue together. If no one bothers to follow the mission, it’s just a bunch of meaningless words.
