Dolly Mink: Years of experience in Christian leadership and service have given Dolly Mink a unique perspective, and she is eager to share her observations, insights, and words of encouragement to the women of Virginia. Dolly seeks to accomplish this through teaching, training, and writing. In addition to her role with the SBCV, she leads women’s Bible study at River Oak Church in Chesapeake, where she and her husband are members, and she writes short stories and blogs at 
Now that we have a good idea of what a healthy ministry team looks like and what our goals and direction should be, it’s time to get busy. Let’s go!
After you’ve prayed and asked the Lord for a fresh perspective and an open mind, make a list of the events that you have done in the past. Then, make a list of some of the event that you have seen that you really enjoyed. What are the differences and the similarities?
Start with the way the event was marketed? How did the graphics look? Did everything look consistent and fresh, or were the colors and designs dated? That really matters if you want to attract younger women. Consider letting a couple of young women from your team (see how I slid in the fact that you now have young women on your team? I’m sneaky like that) design the flyer, slide, and online graphics that will be used to advertise the event. Include a QR code for registration. You’ll look cool, even some of the women don’t know how to use it. (don’t feel bad if you had to Google QR code; please don’t tell me you had to ask someone what Google meant)
Next, consider your schedule for the event. If this is an event that includes a meal, brainstorm some fresh ideas. If you have always had a meal with table service, consider a buffet or different food stations offering a variety of choices. Maybe you’ve always had a buffet; if so, it could be time for the men of the church to do a little table-waiting. Occasionally, it’s fun to have a boxed lunch, either catered or brought in. The goal is to keep it fun, expedient, and memorable. If you really want to attract younger women, consider food trucks. (call me if this overwhelms you)
In planning the schedule for the event, I like to plan in reverse. I look at what time I need to be out of the building and go from there. If I know that I’m planning an evening event at a church where the alarms will set at 10:00PM, I want to be out of there no later than 9:30. So I know the event must end at 8:30 to give us time to get everyone out of the building and the facility cleaned and put back together in an hour. From there I know that I can plan the timeline accordingly.
If I’m planning an event that includes breakout sessions and a keynote speaker, I can really have fun with the way we keep the day moving. We know we want to worship, hear from the speaker, go to the breakouts, and have lunch. What we do with our time, and how we divide the day up is up to you and your team. Moving people through a building needs to be logical and smooth; assess your breakout spaces before you commit them to use. They need to be the right size and configuration with respect to the number of registrants you have.
One thing I love to do is to have an event within an event. By this I mean I may dedicate a room to pastors’ wives, letting them meet there during breaks or breakouts. You may want to have a hospitality room for young women, complete with snacks and good wifi. Ministry to military wives or service members is also a good idea, if you’re in an area with military bases.
Giveaways are a great touch for a successful event, and you can get really creative with them. Just make sure the way you give door prizes is fair and not competitive.
Table hostesses are a must if you’re at tables, and they need to be trained in what their job is, what time to arrive, how long to stay, and how to be engaging to everyone at their table. Greeters and guides ensure that everyone feels welcome and know where to go. Make sure you have plenty of helpers lined up to put food out and to keep it supplied. I like to have one person just to make sure everything is running smoothly overall. That frees me up to troubleshoot and to lead the team and host the event.
Above all, make sure your event brings glory to the Lord, not anyone else. End with prayer and humility and give Him all the praise for a successful event.
Next week, Lord willing, we’ll go a little deeper in the planning stage, and we’ll talk about advertising and follow up.
