Why Communication is Extra Important for Youth Ministry Network Events
Sep 16, 2009 
2 Comments
Chris and I were meeting a few weeks ago to compare calendars. When he found out I did a back-to-school pool party and I found out he did a back-to-school BBQ, we decided to combine the two events. After the event, we noticed some glaring errors that were the result of miscommunication.
These things were lost in translation:
- Pool party. Not everyone from Chris’ church showed up with a bathing suit. This one is easy for me because I get to blame Chris for this one. Though he claims he told everyone it was a pool party, his kids say otherwise!
- Location. I communicated the address of the party to Chris’ group the day of the event. It was being hosted by one of the members from my church. I suppose I should have sent that information much sooner!
- Dress code. I enforce a fairly modest bathing suit dress code and those standards varied from my group to Chris’, so I had one girl from my group complain about the unfairness. That falls on both of us for not communicating to one another.
These mistakes could have easily been fixed with proper communication. They key here is planning farther ahead of time than you would if you were planning an event with just your church. Since the same information needs to be disseminated across two organizations instead of one, getting a head start on that is big.
Overall, the event went very well and our groups mingled together. Despite the differences in our groups (I have mostly middle schoolers and Chris has mostly high schoolers) they interacted and played with each other.
What Now?
Have an event coming up that involves more than one church? Plan ahead twice as much time as you would if you were planning an event with only one church.
Our annual Winter Retreat has been a partnership with another church for the past few years. While our group does most of the planning and programming, we do communicate news and updates regularly and early.
Hey Brett, thanks for the comment. Any suggestions for how “regularly and early” to communicate? What happens if one group gets the wrong signal? (if that ever happens) Would love to hear your insights.