School Year vs. Summer: What Our Ministry Looks Like
With summer coming to an end and the school year quickly approaching I thought it would be fitting to discuss how we go about differentiating between the two when we plan our calendar. Here are the main differences:
- Our school year program is much more structured than the summer. There is a lot more chill time when we get together during the summer. During the school year we embrace the structure and realize that we are one of many things vying for our students time and commitment. We try to be a constant in their life, doing our best come along side of them during the chaos of the school year.
- Our summer program is a half an hour longer and we tend to do more crazy games and events. We take advantage of the lack of homework and the general laid back nature of summer to spend more time with our students. We'll do our annual geo-cache scavenger hunt, slip n slide kickball, fruit baseball, and other fun games. We also do our best to spend time with students outside of normal church hours really trying to build relationships with them while they aren't crazy busy.
- Our school year program includes small groups, our summer program does not. During the school year we do small groups on Wednesday nights at homes around our community. During the summer some small groups continue to meet, but we do not require them to. We do this for several reasons: to allow our small group leaders a break, to add structure to the school year program, and to respect family vacations during the summer.
So that's how we differentiate between the summer and the school year.
How do differentiate between the two and why?
[Part 1 in a series on Creating a Yearly Ministry Calendar]