My yearly review: Lesson Learned #1 (promotion)

I got the rest of my evaluation at this month's elder's meeting. It was good. As expected, there were some things mentioned that I need to improve on, some I am doing well and some I need to start.

I wanted to share a few of the lessons I learned from the review. This is the first of a series of posts on lessons learned from my annual review. My desire is that these lessons will encourage you to be a better minister, too.

The first lesson I want to pass on is about passion. This is not about passion for God or the students. This is a passion for the programs and events you do. Really its about a passion for "selling/promoting" the event or program. One of the elders said something that stuck with me. He said,

"You must be convinced of what you are "selling" before you can convince others"

This was in reference to some of the events we've tried to do and some low attendance at said events. Now the elders don't know everything about how I promoted or didn't promote events or who I talked to about them, but they were just sharing some thoughts. Despite the fact that I believe there were other reasons for low numbers, this sentence struck me as true.

As I've looked back on how I promote events or programs, I have not always been excited when talking about them. For some reason I make it a quick announcement, in a low/hushed voice. Like I'm interrupting something and don't really want to be heard. I'm not sure why this was a habit, but it is something I know I need to change.

How to promote/sell an event or program:
1. Be excited about it. If I'm not excited then I either don't need to plan it or need to get excited about it.

2. Be more creative with promoting. I need to start using more methods than just announcing it. This is harder because we meet in a room that is really too small for our group and we sit in a circle. I don't always have access to a TV/DVD, so I have avoided using video. What other creative ways could I use?

3. Get someone else to promote it. I could have a student read the announcements or get a random adult to come in and do them.

4. Remember I'm giving them one more event to attend. Not that I want to compete with other activities, but sometimes I am. Most of them will have to choose between the youth event and something else.

5. Talk about it more than just during a youth event. Share with individual students outside of church. Get feedback from them and discuss any issues they might have.

How do you promote an event? What have you learned about "selling" an event or program?