It’s an all too familiar story. We spend so much time, at this time of the year, planning how to ‘deck the halls’ that what we do after Christmas can become an overlooked afterthought. Last year, I kept my Christmas tree up to mid-February, to the enjoyment of my neighbours! If this email reaches you in time, please receive it as a cautionary nudge to ask these three questions:
1. What is the purpose and vision for our Christmas events and services this year?
2. Will there be a call to action at each event / service?
3. What needs to be in place to facilitate this call to action and to follow-up post-Christmas? How will these services and events be ‘successful?’
Obviously, the primary concern for any Christmas event or service should be to celebrate the incarnation of God in Jesus and to proclaim the start of this life transformational intervention in history. We celebrate because it is our privilege, duty and joy. We celebrate, because otherwise the ‘rocks would cry out’. Alongside this primary calling, if you looked closely enough at your programme, you probably have some other expectations and impact in mind. One of the reasons that we put so much effort, time and resource into Christmas is that culturally it presents an accepted invitation to welcome guests, preach the gospel and help people move a little closer to a relationship with Jesus. Please join us in praying that this will be the reality this year. But don’t ‘only' pray, - It’s time to administrate.
1. Clarify the purpose and vision for specific events and services. You may have family focussed events. Can these lead into other invitations for the New Year, Holiday clubs, toddler groups or parenting classes? A Christmas craft market can serve a great function as a church social evening and many churches focus these specifically to invite women to. This is great in itself, but what can you share at this event which is relevant to your audience and provide a simple next step. At every carol service, as the congregation hears the familiar festive narrative, wrapped around yet concealing the unfamiliar and breath-taking splendour of God, how can people take the opportunity to say ‘I’d like to find out more’?
2. Focus on a simple call to action. Less is often more, so don’t bombard people with a Christmas buffet of everything they could be doing. They’re already too busy and Christmas is a time jam-packed with over indulgence. Instead, offer a focussed call to action, with a clear administrative process to back it up. The ‘Call to Action’ may be different for specific events and services (based on target audience) or may be over-arching. You may also be intending to take a restricted Christmas offering, in which case there may already be more than one CTA. With this being the case, try extra hard to keep focussed. What ‘one thing’ do we want people to do as a result of coming to this service? How can we make this as likely as possible?
3. Get the Administration in place.
Are you promoting a newcomers or faith exploration course? If so, advertise clearly with a video and get a simple response form (paper and digital) ready and available at all services. Decide how, when and who will process these. Are these going in pews or seatbacks, or being handed out at the door? Make sure your stock levels and host team instructions are clear and correct. Are all the dates published correctly to your website? Have you written a FAQs section for the invitation to minimise hesitancy?
Use the time before services to communicate clearly via on screen notices to reinforce your messaging.
Keep spoken notices to a minimum. They need to be clear, focussed and often rehearsed.
Build on each event as the programme continues. Are all your Christmas events and services promoted on the same flyer and advertised at each subsequent event?
If you’re taking an offering, do you have cashless giving solutions in place? Are you communicating clearly how the money will be spent? How will the offering be counted and stored securely?
If people ask questions, when will these be followed up and by whom? Are you clear about your process to respond to enquiry cards or events sign-ups?
Have you communicated your seasonal office closure times clearly? Have you planned to take time-off and rest?
How prepared are you for January. Ideally make sure your rotas and programmes are complete prior to the Christmas rush, and that your January is shaped to be a significant and valued time in the life of the church.
How are you going to gather feedback on Christmas and ‘measure’ the effectiveness and success of the season’s programme? Have these discussions in advance to get everyone on the same page.
Planning effective events can be a significant administrative undertaking. If helpful, download our event planning guide
(https://ukchurchadministrators.squarespace.com/s/Successful-Event-Planning.pdf ) to give you some food for thought.