after night ONE

Last night we had our first night of the semester for our middle and high school ministries. We put hours and hours of work into publicity, planning, practice, and preparation. (that is a lot of P words!) We prayed and we wondered what God was going to do. Last night came and God honored our efforts and today we are excited about how everything went. Night one is very important but what you do the day and week after is also critical. Night one reveals so much that you can work on for the weeks to come. If we learn from night one and make adjustments we set the ministry we lead up for health for the year to come. Here are a few "after night one" areas every student and college ministry has to evaluate...

• Environment // what was the energy like in the venue? Were people connecting? What was the vibe in the hall and in your large group room pre-service? Was there proper signage and volunteers spaced through the facility? Make time to process how you did creating the environment you wanted to create. We learned we needed a few additions to our main hall and we are working on that this week.
• Parking and People Flow // our parking situation was terrible on night one and we had some issues moving people around. We worked on a new plan this morning. This is a big deal to parents so it has to be a priority.
• Band and Production Teams // we try to see where our band is at and where we need to go. Night one is always a challenge but we can also learn where we need to head as a worship and tech team form night one. Proud of our team last night but I am already excited to see how our team responds next week.
• Message // this is personal but you have to evaluate how the talk went. How was the length? Did the bottom line get communicated? Did teens engage with the series?
• Volunteer Team // we have to make sure our volunteers felt supported and make sure we get feedback from them. I promise, your volunteers saw aspects of last night you missed. Check on how they did and what they learned.

When you process all those areas you will have a better plan for week 2. Week 2 is the week where teens are checking to see if we are real. Make sure you use what you learned after night one!