Plan For The Worse, Expect The Best

What my wife and daughter taught me about preteen minsitry…

It’s flu season and niether my wife, three kids nor myself got our flu shots.  I was expecting the best but not planning for the worst.  Bad idea.  Jena, my wife, woke up Sunday and was in bad shape.  She had fever, cough, body aches, chills, etc.  Yep, she had the flu.  Emma, my four year old, woke up Monday with the same symptoms.  She had the flu too.  For two days, I ran around the house like a chicken with his head cut off.  I did my best to get the other two kids to school, clean the house, cook dinner, take them to the doctor and get prescriptions. 

 I learned a very important lesson: plan for the worse but expect the best.  I should have gotten us all flu shots and planned for the worse. By the way, I’ll be taking my other two sons later this week to get their flu shot with me! 

Planning for the worse and expecting the best applies to preteen ministry.  On Sundays, a lot can go wrong and we need to be prepared for it.  If you rely on any type of technology for programming, you know what I mean.  Often, whatever can go wrong does go wrong.  So, why not be prepared ahead of time? 

Here are some ideas:

Expect volunteers to not show up and give you little notice.  So, put parents on a rotation of volunteering once every eight weeks.  That way, each week you have an extra leader to plug in somewhere.

Show up a half an hour earlier than you normally do on Sundays.  Even though everything is set up beforehand, coming earlier allows you more time to handle emergencies when needed.  If nothing comes up, have a hot cup of coffee and do a little praying (you’ll enjoy the downtime).

Work a week ahead on your messege.  Whether you edit, create or use published curriculum, plan a week ahead.  By Friday, have everything planned out for the following weekend.  That way, you always give yourself a week’s cushon.

Think of what problems you might experience ahead of time.  Be proactive by creating solutions before the problems arise.  Take time this week and come up with ways of planning for the worst ahead of time.  Always expect the best to happen, but plan for the worse!