Let’s kick off the new year by setting some goals for our churches! In this episode, Sandra Peoples shares 24 goals for you to consider. You can reach more in 2024 with these ideas for strengthening and growing your ministry!
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Friends! Happy 2024! I’m so excited you’re starting a new year with us! I’m Sandra Peoples, and this is episode 82. Today I’m sharing 24 goal ideas for 2024! My hope is that you’ll pick a few from the list and take steps to make them happen in your church.
This episode is packed with ideas, but it’s also packed with links! So let me remind you right now that you can find a transcript and all the links at keyministry.org/podcast. You won’t want to miss the resources I’ll share!
Ok, let’s jump into the ideas! I hope you’ll feel as excited about the new year as I am!
Connect with other ministry leaders - Ministry can feel lonely, especially when you’re in a unique role like inclusion ministry. But there are lots of opportunities to connect with other ministry leaders in person or online. You can start with our round table and idea share zoom meetings! Go to https://www.keyministry.org/events for future dates and details.
Read a helpful book - There are so many great books in our field, from devotional books for families to books on a theology of disability. I have an Amazon page with book suggestions that I use in the classes I teach at Liberty. Check it out and pick a title or two to read this year!
Rethink VBS - It’s never too early to start planning for summer events like VBS. Take time in the next couple of months to evaluate last year and make a plan for changes to make this year. Think about your registration form, sensory class, floater buddies, and sensory support. Or like us, you may want to think about creating an alternative or additional VBS for kids/teens with disabilities. You could even collaborate with other churches in your area to plan it.
Take advantage of a new resource - I’ve been in disability ministry for over a decade, and I’m still finding new, helpful resources. One that I plan to take advantage of this year is videos from https://www.wonderfulworks.net/. They cover so many helpful topics!
Participate in a conference (in person or online) - We would love to see you in Orlando in May for Disability and the Church! There truly is nothing like being together with hundreds of other ministry leaders who have the same calling and passion you do. But even if you can’t make it in person, plan to watch the videos we’ll share online! You can still benefit from the great content.
Give a gift to Night to Shine Participants - If your church hosts a Night to Shine or other prom, consider giving a gift to participants! This may be some families' only chance this year to hear the gospel! I recommend Amy Meekins’ book, Heart Recharge. You can find it on Amazon or learn more about it on the Meekins’ website.
Supplement your curriculum - No matter what curriculum you use, there may be times you want to supplement it with additional activities or try something new. I have three options to share with you:
Create an email list for families and communicate with them once a month - One of my favorite things about disability ministry is that it’s truly a whole family ministry. We serve and support everyone! That’s why it’s helpful to have an email list of the families so you can communicate updates about your ministry and church events and opportunities. So many of our families may sneak out of the service early to pick up their kids and miss the announcements, so let’s make sure we are communicating with them so they feel like part of the church family.
Evaluate the guest experience - This is a big one on our to do list this year. I want to think about creating a social story about coming to church, recording a welcome video, adding reserved parking, making sure there’s adequate signage, and updating our online registration form. Pretend you want to visit your church for the first time and walk through all the steps it would take to make it happen.
Plan a Disability Ministry Sunday - In SBTC churches, the second Sunday in July is Disability Ministry Sunday. Churches across the state celebrate in different ways. The bigger your church is, the earlier you would need to plan an event like this, so get it on the calendar and then reverse engineer a plan, including communication with everyone who would be a part of it.
Collaborate with another ministry leader in your church - Disability ministry doesn’t happen in a silo. We are potentially supporting participants in every ministry in the church. It helps to check in with other ministry leaders to ask if they need help or new ideas! For example, check in with your youth/NextGen pastor occasionally!
Get gifts for your volunteers - These gifts don’t have to be big, but they can mean a lot! I like Dayspring for gift ideas. They have great sales and have discounts when you buy in bulk. I even took advantage of the Christmas clearance prices to get gifts for next Christmas!
Clean out the ballpit. And if you’re really feeling organized, put a date on the calendar to clean it out more often!
Update participants’ ISPs - If you use ISPs for your ministry participants, it’s helpful to update them once a year. We review ours over the summer as our kids and teens move up a grade and change classes.
Add an outreach event - If you don’t do any outreaches, you can start with one idea. If you already do something, you may want to add something else. Like if you do respite nights at your church, consider doing an event that’s community-based, like a sensory friendly movie. In the shownotes, I’ll link to two posts with ideas:
Create or update Family Care Plans - Remember, our ministry is whole-family focused, so it’s helpful to have family care plans when a family faces a hard time and we want to be able to help. If the idea is new to you, check out the show notes for a link to a post with details!
Host a training for other churches in your area - If your church has experience in disability ministry, consider hosting a training for other churches in your area. You could start with a topic like “Supporting Kids and Teens with Invisible Disabilities” because every church has kids with autism, ADHD, anxiety, or other invisible diagnosis that impact their ability to participate in children’s ministry and youth ministry.
Create a playlist for your ministry that you share with caregivers - If you listen to the same songs each week in your class, create a playlist on Spotify, Apple Music, or Amazon music and send the links to families so they can listen at home too!
Add a universal size changing table - There are many families who wouldn’t be able to attend church if this wasn’t an option. And even if those families don’t attend your church now, you don’t want to give them any reason not to! Our friends at Ability Ministry can help you learn more about how important they are and they even offer grants to make them more affordable.
CPI training - Many families like mine have members that can be aggressive or self-injurious at times. It helps us feel safer when the ministry volunteers have training on how to deescalate stressful situations and keep our loved ones safe. Through the SBTC, we bring Doc Hunsley from SOAR Special Needs to do training for churches that want to take advantage of it. You can contact Doc to learn more!
Create a scholarship fund for families to attend Joni & Friends Family Retreats - Attending the Joni and Friends Family Retreat in Louisiana last summer was a highlight for our family! I wish every family could experience what it’s like to be there, but many can’t because of the cost. Your church could consider creating a scholarship fund members could donate to so families in your church could attend!
Recruit more teens - We all need more volunteers, and the teens in your church may be a great resource! At our church, they can serve as buddies and be part of our reverse inclusion class. VBS is a great time to recruit and train teens to support kids with disabilities and then you’ll be ready for the new school year in the fall with more people in your volunteer rotation.
Add mental health support - Churches have taken huge steps in the area of mental health support recently, and I hope and pray this continues! But many of us need resources and ideas for how to help. Thankfully, Key Ministry offers mental health consultations. You can email Catherine Boyle at Catherine with a C at catherine@keyministry.org and she’ll be happy to help!
Think about who you aren’t prepared to welcome, and take some steps to be ready - Would the greeters at your church know what to do if someone came in with a support dog? If someone who needed a sign language interpreter wanted to visit on Sunday, are you prepared to welcome them? I tell churches that they shouldn’t wait until they are prepared for every possible disability diagnosis before they start being welcoming, and that’s true. But it’s also true that we can welcome and support the families we have while noticing who is missing. In 2024, let’s pray to the God of the harvest and be ready when He moves.
Ok friends, that was 24 ideas to make your ministry stronger in 2024! Let me lean into my bossy big sister energy just a little bit and remind you of a few important things: these goals are for the whole year. Don’t try to get them all checked off in January! And many of these goals are meant to be collaborative. You may have to take the lead and get the ball rolling, but you don’t have to take every implementation step on your own. And finally: remember that we do ministry out of our love for Christ and the Holy Spirit’s work through us, not to earn His love.
Ephesians 2:10 says, “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” God has gone ahead of us in 2024. And He has laid out the good works we will do. We can simply “walk in them,” taking each next right step.
Thanks for listening today! I hope these ideas made you excited about the ministry year ahead! To make goal setting even more fun, we’ve created a bingo card with some of the ideas in this episode! You can find it on our social media platforms. It’s the perfect size to share in your Facebook or Instagram stories.
And one more step before you go—if you haven’t subscribed yet, take a second to hit that button! You won’t want to miss everything we have planned for you in 2024!
