part 1 of 3 in a series on Spring Ministry – click here to read the follow up posts 2 & 3.Â
We just wrapped up planning for Spring 2012 and one of my favorite things we did is lay out a timeline for the spring. I know many campuses lay out a detailed timeline for the first four weeks of the fall.
In many ways I think the spring is more important to get a timeline down than the fall.
When it comes to the fall, it’s all about manpower. If it’s just your staff team and 4 student leaders pursuing freshmen, you have a long road ahead of you. But if you line up 60 students in the spring who will focus on reaching freshmen, the fall will be good.
So the spring is the time to get your “reaching-freshmen-team” together. And to build consensus that we MUST reach freshmen.
And all this happens largely by raising up as many Community Group Leaders as possible.
So everything you do in the spring should contribute to assembling this team of leaders (tomorrow I’ll share some of the changes we made to be more focused on this with our spring).
So here’s our playbook for the spring. Not all of it will make sense or be helpful. But I’m hoping it helps give you ideas and you can take what we’re doing and improve on it.
I’d love to see what your timeline looks like for your campus — share it in the comments below or send it to me.
Also — if you want more details on any of this please either comment or email me: Tim dot Casteel at uscm.org
Here are our key dates for the spring:
- Jan 16 — MLK day — Staff planning all day
- Jan 17 — First Cru & M29 [our weekly leadership and equipping time]
- At M29: Vision for Reaching Freshmen and planning for the spring
- At Cru: Talk on “Challenge to Reach the Campus”
- Leadership Pledge — interested students sign a card saying “I want to be used by God at the University of Arkansas”
- Jan 18-Feb 1 — Staff and student leaders make it their top priority to follow up on one-on-one with Leadership Pledge students — using the 5 Things
- Jan 24 — Start M29 equipping levels (how can these levels contribute to reaching freshmen?)
- Leadership Development
- How to share your faith
- Jan 27 — Leadership Retreat (how can this contribute to reaching freshmen?)
- Month of February — staff are meeting with students to challenge them to lead Bible studies for the fall
- Feb 2 – At staff meeting, Staff team brainstorms potential Community Group leaders for the fall
- Feb 21 —
- Cru Talk on leading Community Groups at Cru
- At M29 — Vision for the importance of Community Groups
- Student leaders recommend students they would think would be good to lead community groups in the fall
- Students can start applying to lead a community group for the fall
- March 1 — Community Group leader Application Deadline
- March 6 — Start second set of M29 levels
- 5 week training at M29 on how to lead a Bible study (mandatory for all CG applicants)
- March 19-23Â Â Â Â Â Spring Break
- April 1 — *** Have Community Group Leaders for the Fall nailed down ***
- April 2, 3, & 5
- Staff Planning for the Fall from 9-noon
- Where we take care of “early planning for the fall” – stuff that needs to be planned before May so students can be aligned before they leave
- Staff Planning for the Fall from 9-noon
- April 17 & 24
- Planning with our student leaders for the fall (we do this in place of M29 the last 2 weeks in the Spring)
- Crucial for getting student ownership
- Students plan and volunteer to lead things for the Fall (Student Joe — in charge of dorm #1 cookout; who’s on Joe’s team to help him make that happen?)
- Planning with our student leaders for the fall (we do this in place of M29 the last 2 weeks in the Spring)
- April 22 — Men’s/Women’s dinner for new Community Group leaders (for vision and to connect)
- May 1 — Legacy Dinner (end of year party to send out graduating seniors and honor CG leaders)
- May 4 — Dead Day
- Staff Planning for Fall (5 days) Ã Thursday May 3, Mon-Thurs, May 7-10
photo courtesy of  midmophil