Summer Review

All of the students in our ministry have now started back to school and the summer of 2012 has come to a close.  We’ve just sent a group of 9th graders up into the high school ministry, and we’ve welcomed in our new 6th grade students and families.  It’s now time to reflect back on the summer and evaluate our events and begin to make plans for next summer.  

Here are four ways that we are going about reviewing our summer activities.

1. Look at each event and determine the purpose of the event.  Hopefully you went into the summer already knowing the purpose, but looking back you can see where you may have been unbalanced in your ministry.  By looking back at all the events and determining their purpose you can know if you accomplished what you wanted over the summer.  

2. What were the “wins” of the event?  Each event has something that you can say was a “win” based off your purposes of the event.  Were students saved?  That’s a win!  Did students make some new friends?  That’s a win!  Did parents come to an event?  That’s a win!  Look back and be encouraged by the “wins” that you saw this summer.

3. Was the event well attended?  This question isn’t always a great determining factor because of family vacations, camps, and other events going on, but it can help you decide if you need to move the same event to a different part of the summer for next year.  It may have been an amazing event that you need to do again next year, but just at a different time.

4. What was the feedback that you heard from students and from parents?  Think back to conversations from the students and the parents about the summer events.  It’s important to not just focus on the students feedback, but take the parents feedback seriously too.  

We had an amazing summer, and were blessed to see God do some amazing things in the lives of our students!  As we move into the fall we’re praying that God will continue to give us momentum in our ministry.

What are some ways that you review your summer activities?