Planning Ahead and Peace of Mind

It’s the middle of October and your children’s choir director calls to say her mom is sick and she cannot continue to lead the choir. You’ve just discovered that the entire trumpet section of your small orchestra is going to be missing All Saints Sunday due to a Disney vacation, two altos and your lone tenor in the chancel choir are scheduled for surgery during Advent, not to mention your grandchild’s school play is the same day and time as your Christmas concert. Sound familiar? What to do? You can always hit the panic button and start throwing anthems, batons, and metronomes at the wall. Not very helpful, but it might make you feel better for three minutes. Unfortunately, these and other challenges regularly present themselves in music ministry. What is a God-loving, well-trained church musician to do?

A good healthy dose of planning can help relieve anxiety caused by these challenges and so many others. My underdeveloped planning skills were thrown into overdrive early in my first full-time ministry. A colleague of mine shared information about a music supplier who offered a once-a-year 40% discount on all music ordered during the month of July. My brain immediately started racing to figure out the best way to utilize this budget-stretching discount. This forced me to plan repertoire for my vocal, handbell, and instrumental groups for the year to best take advantage of the financial windfall. That company and its discount are long gone, but the benefits of advanced planning during the summer months have remained an integral part of my ministry. I believe this has contributed to the success of my ensembles and, by extension, our music ministry. I firmly believe planning for success is one of the most important steps to a successful music ministry. The planning we do helps me to handle last-minute changes with more grace and care. Once schedules, repertoire, etc. are set, it is much easier to work through challenges and complications with calmness, thoughtfulness, and insight. Ultimately, having plans and schedules in place helps me to focus more on ministering to those with whom I make music.

If advanced planning is not your spiritual gift, you may find this both daunting and confining. Fear not! Your cries of anguish have been heard! Gather a supportive team around you and move forward. Keep in mind that at the end of the day, this is simply a plan. Paths can and will diverge. Having a plan in place makes the divergence less stressful and allows the return path to be much smoother for all.

Here is a brief outline of how this takes place in our music ministry: In mid to late May, our music team schedules a day-long retreat. We sit down with good food and schedules from our church, children and youth ministry, and the past year’s music calendars. Then, we begin scheduling ensembles, training events, festivals and performing arts camps, Christmas parties – whatever is on the horizon.

Once schedules are set, we communicate with ensembles and begin choosing repertoire. Our church follows the lectionary, so choosing music based on texts for the day is next. Knowing the frequency each group sings, plays, or rings in worship allows us to choose music that is just the right difficulty level and helps with rehearsal pacing. We have discovered busy families appreciate knowing schedules ahead of time. This communication recognizes the valuable gift of time God has given each of us and helps us to honor that time in our lives and those of our parishioners.

Here are ten tips to get you started:

1. Schedule Early Schedule your ensembles’ worship leadership dates six months to a year out if possible.
2. Look for Balance Your ensembles and congregation will be grateful. Give groups the grace of time to prepare without the stress of attempting too much or the boredom that comes from overpreparing.
3. Listen to your favorite publishers’ recordings and create an ongoing list with titles that are a good fit for your ensembles and congregation.
4. Utilize Google Docs or another cloud-based option for documents you need to access often and on the go.
5. Create a shared wishlist where ensembles can add new favorites they hear in concerts, on YouTube, and at conferences. Utilize this document when planning the following season. You never know what kind of gems your musicians might discover!
6. Make a Master List with your ensemble’s performance dates and repertoire. This will simplify ordering music and rehearsal pacing, ensuring ample time is allotted for preparation.
7. Keep an Annual Calendar of events, updated regularly.
8. Organize Emails sent to each group by ensemble. This allows a simple insertion of new dates and information to share with each group for each event each year. No need to begin every email from scratch!
9. Communicate Early and Often Utilize email, text, and snail mail. Pro tip: old-school postcards work as amazing reminders!
10. When Things Go South Take a breath and relax. The same God who works through your planning continues to work through you when plans go awry.

Will advanced scheduling solve all of your problems? Absolutely not! Will there still be conflicts? Yes! Will it enable you to minister in a more life-giving and shepherding way? Without a doubt! Give this a go this year and allow your congregation to see how God’s Spirit works through your advanced planning!