How To Develop A Timeline For Your Church-Wide Campaign

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How are you shaped (or wired…depending on your philosophy of ministry!)?  Are you a planner?  A detail oriented, think ahead kind of person?  Or are you more of a last minute, play-it-by-ear, scrambler?  It’s okay either way.  There’s not a right shape.  It’s just that pulling off a church-wide campaign is the kind of activity that really depends on advance planning–strategic planning.

Whether you’re wired as a planner or not, you probably have someone on your team (or could recruit someone), who thinks this way.

I tend to be more of a vision-oriented, play-it-by-ear person.  I love talking out loud about what could happen!  i’ve found it is in certain environments where my imagination is fired up.  But I’ve also learned over the years that I need more than vision…I need detail.  So, I’ve always recruited that person and I’ve taken advantage of planning tools to think more concretely about how things will happen.  One of the tools I’ve learned to use is a timeline.

We’re in the middle of developing a church-wide campaign.  30 Days To Save Your Family.  I’ll have more about it soon.  In the meantime, let me tell you how I develop the timeline for the campaign.  Here’s a link to what I’m talking about. Go ahead and open it up.

  1. I use a spreadsheet (Excel) to begin thinking about the details.
  2. Column 1 is where I plug in the Sunday dates from now all the way through the campaign and as far as I intend to plan.
  3. Column 2 is where I plug in the message titles for the campaign, for the host recruiting services, etc.
  4. Column 3 is where I list inserts or other items that will be distributed to promote the campaign.
  5. Column 4:  things that will happen in the lobby, on campus or on our website.
  6. Column 5: since we’re producing the curriculum for the campaign, this is where I detail activities related to its preparation.
  7. Column 6: “media needs” are things that need to be produced that require collaboration with our creative arts team.
  8. Column 7: “print” details the items that our graphic designer needs to be working on.
  9. Column 8: includes the information about our HOST Orientations.

This timeline is specific to the small group aspects of the campaign.  How to promote it, how to cast vision for it, how to recruit hosts, train hosts, help new groups continue beyond the campaign, etc.  If you were creating a timeline for the whole campaign you might have fewer small group specific columns and you might add columns for the campaign director, prayer team, campaign marketing, etc.

Need more help?  I am available by telephone!  Find out how to schedule a phone appointment right here.
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