4 Questions to Answer When Planning Your New Ministry Year

With a vastly changing landscape of opportunity in front of us, ministry in the fall will be determined by church leadership, the safety of your community, and local restrictions. We want you to know the Awana team is here for you to help in any way we can. We are currently working on a tiered solution for club in the fall, knowing that every church will need to tweak and adapt the resources they use to the specific needs of their church community.

With those decisions looming in the near future, here are four questions every Awana ministry director needs to ask BEFORE they plan for ministry in the fall:

1: What do I love about our Awana club?

With the sudden ending to the ministry year, you’ve been robbed of the closure you are accustomed to, and that can make it difficult to cast vision for the future. Give yourself some time to debrief last year by asking these questions: What was right? What was wrong? What was missing? What was confusing? Allow those answers to guide what your club might look like in the fall! (Include a couple of your club directors to participate in this debrief with you!)

2: What plans do our church leadership teams have for ministry in the fall?

Connect with your children’s pastor. Share the things you learned from your debrief and ask your pastor to help connect vision and strategy for the discipleship that will happen again through your Awana club. Will you be remote? Will you be in person? Will you start late? Will you need to employ different safety/distancing measures? Will your budget be changed?

3: What goals do we want to accomplish in the next club year?

The heartbeat of your club is discipleship and connecting kids with the God who loves them more than anything. Remember discipleship doesn’t have to be complicated; all you need is a community of people and the Word of God. With discipleship as your measure of success, what needs to carry over from last year? What needs to change? Use your debrief to help create your strategy for the fall!

4: What resources do we need?

After connecting with your church leadership, you should have the foundation you need to begin gathering resources for the fall. If your club is remote, you may want to consider giving each child a welcome pack that can be picked up from the church with their book, vest, fun trinkets, and important club information. If your club will be held in person, what changes will there be to the schedule? Do you need additional books? Hand sanitizer stations? Directional floor stickers?

As you get to that final step of determining resources, you should know the Awana Ministry Catalog for 2020-2021 is finished, and we’re so excited to share it with you! In fact, many of the catalogs have already hit the mail, which means if you are a U.S.-based registered Awana club and your church hasn’t received it already, you will soon! (Keep checking that church mailbox!) The new items in the catalog will be available for purchase early July, so you’ve got plenty of time to process through each question and make a plan for the new club year. Our digital catalog will also be available early July!

Many of us on staff at Awana are also leaders in our own churches, so we know exactly how burdened you might feel to make good decisions for the future. Do you need to process through an idea or ask a question? Reach out to us! We would be honored to navigate this time alongside you.