It’s March!

I don’t know about you, but every year — as we turn the calendar page to the month of March — I find myself wondering where the (school) year has gone.

For most of us, the month of March will include Spring Break, and the middle of the spring term.

It can be easy to push hard into Spring Break — and then, begin to coast towards the end of the year — because, well… that’s what our students do.

But I believe March can be a critical month for our ministries — beyond how we facilitate, and process, spring break mission experiences with students.

Here are some of the ideas I have for this month, and it’s by no means an exhaustive list, so please feel free to add to it in the comment section at the bottom of this post.

• Final prep for Spring Break — It’s here! Now is the time to finalize all of our details for our spring break mission trip(s) — we don’t want to get out on the road (or across the sea) and realize we have forgotten something significant.  Hopefully we have a team of folks who can help us in this process… but the key is to spend some intentional time combing back through the details of our trip(s) to ensure as great an experience as possible.
• Host a commissioning service — A commissioning service can serve as a great time to bring the team(s) together, focus their hearts and minds on what they are about to do, and then send them off in similar fashion to Jesus and his disciples.  This can serve to set the tone, and trajectory, for the team’s trip and ministry.
• Pray for our team(s) — In the days leading up to the trip, and obviously during the trip, we need to make sure that we are praying for our students.  Sometimes we can be content with the fact that they simply made it off campus without issue… but they need us to be praying for them — all throughout their experience.  We cannot take for granted the ways that God will work in each student’s life.  We need to be prayerful about how students will open themselves to God in the midst of their week of service!
• Plan a debriefing party — Ministries often do a good job of preparing students for their trips, as well as designing meaningful experiences (like mission trips), but we can struggle with the follow up process — because we too quickly move on to the next thing. Studies show that 1/3 of the overall experience is had in the processing/debriefing time.  That’s HUGE! So plan a debriefing party, or team “reunion,” for a couple of weeks after their return.  The team will be excited to get back together and share stories, and pictures, from their time of service.  A few pointed, intentional questions can make a substantial difference in how a student processes (and is shaped by) their mission experience.
• Take a day-long retreat — Whether we are traveling with students over spring break, or not, we need to take one day this month to step away. This would be different from time spent catching up with family (if we traveled over the spring break), or even taking vacation, because it would be time spent on retreat — just us and God.  This is the time of year when we need to be renewed for our final stretch of ministry for this year, as well as awakened to how God might be moving for the upcoming year of ministry.  A day away with God can be just the right amount of space to hear and see the things Jesus wants us to do… in the ways He wants us to do them.
• Map out the last two (or three) months of ministry — In order to avoid wasting the last couple of months, consider mapping out how we might best use them.  Spring can be a time when we see numbers decline at events because students are choosing to be outside — enjoying the beautiful weather.  Likewise, post-spring break is often a time when students go into survival mode — simply wanting to push through to the summer break — so it can be easy to let up off the gas pedal and just coast.  But there are likely some key opportunities for ministry left on our campus.  What are they for you?
• Begin to recruit leaders for next year’s ministry — NOW is the time to talk with students about next year. Can we retain some of our current leaders? Are there students that have clearly shown leadership potential that we need to have an intentional conversation with? Do we need to do some active recruiting in order to fulfill our leadership roles for next year?  March is a critical month for identifying next year’s leaders.
• End of the year celebration — The end of the year has a way of sneaking up on us!  Now is a great time to pin down a date, and begin to make plans for, some form of end of the year celebration for our student leaders!  We always want to try and end on a high note… no matter how challenging the year might have been!
• Begin to analyze our ministry efforts — We need to be good stewards of what God has entrusted to us… which means we need to be willing to assess our ministries in order to better understand what’s working… and what’s not.  We cannot assume that just because we’ve been doing something one way that we should continue on in like fashion.  We need to be willing to ask hard questions, hear honest answers, and make necessary changes.
• Begin to make plans for next fall/year — Now is also a good time to begin planning for next year.  As we consider our new leadership team(s), the factors that our assessments have revealed to us, etc., we can begin to sketch an outline for what ministry next year might look like.  Nothing concrete… but it gets the ball rolling.

So those are some of the things I’m thinking about…

What are you thinking about for the month of March?

What would you add to this list?

Thanks, in advance, for sharing your wisdom!