How to Design an Incredible Event
Every event should be awesome–be it a conference, religious experience or even a birthday party. But that takes work. Here are 10 best practices on how to design an awesome event.
Every event should be awesome–be it a conference, religious experience or even a birthday party. But being awesome takes work.
I want to give you 10 best practices on designing events. I work at a church, so a lot of these best practices will be framed around the event of a church service. That being said, these best practices apply to any event.
Also, if you’re looking for coaching on this topic beyond this article then visit benstapley.com/coach to schedule a free consultation. I would love to help you determine the obstacles you're facing and if I’m the best person to help you overcome them.
10 Best Practices for Church Events
1. Begin With Why
Most events begin with “what.” In the church world it looks like this: What songs are we gonna sing? What videos are we gonna show? What message are we gonna preach? Or sometimes we even begin with “how.” How much is this gonna cost? Instead of beginning with “what” or “how”, begin with “why.” Why are we doing this event, this service, this conference?
Once you have a clear “why,” you then have the chance for a clear “what” and “how.”
Here is my "why”: Create services so compelling every weekend, that our guests invite someone to join them next weekend. Christians are not end users of the gospel. God has blessed us to be a blessing to others.
If my service does not reflect that, then I've forgotten my why. Figure out the why behind your event and begin with it.
2. Every Sunday Is Someone's First Sunday
A lot of you have worked or volunteered at a high capacity in a church for a number of years. When this happens, it can be easy for Sunday to become rote or mechanical. Last Sunday seemed to work, so let's just cut and paste. It can be easy to phone it in. I know from first hand experience…I've worked in ministry for 15 years. That's 780 Sundays.
One way I avoid getting in a rut is remembering this phrase: “Every Sunday is someone's first Sunday.” And that someone is experiencing our event, and possibly encountering God, for the first time. That reminds me what is at stake - eternity. Remembering what is at stake is so important to me that I visualize it for myself and my teams. I put it on walls and in green rooms. I even put it at the bottom of transport bins. Eternity is at stake. So make sure to remind the people you lead–yourself and others.
3. Start with the End Result
Planning events can be difficult. There is pressure to make it awesome. You might have no creative ideas. And the deadline is fast approaching.
The easiest way to start planning is by thinking about the end result. Figure out the desired end result and plan accordingly. Your event might be a board meeting and the desired end result is a budget passed. Or your event might be a wedding and the desired end result is the couple saying “I do.”
Whatever your event is, figure out what the desired end result is and start with that. This game plan speeds up the planning process and makes sure every aspect of the event helps accomplish the ultimate goal.
4. Start with the First Idea
Another way to plan an event is to start with the first idea. Come up with that first awesome idea and then plan the whole event around it. This usually happens when you have a killer concept, but you aren’t really sure how it fits into your event. Planning this way engages the creative members of your team because it allows their ideas (and not your events) to lead the process.
For example, one of my creatives wanted to incorporate a shofar into a service. A shofar is a musical instrument made of ram's horn and was used in ancient Israel for religious purposes. It's loud and obnoxious. Kind of like a modern day bugle. So we had the first idea–an interesting concept–and needed to plan an event around it, a church service. In the end, that was one of the most unique church services I've ever helped plan. And it all happened because we started with the first idea.
5. People Capture What Captivates
Sometimes it’s hard to measure the success of an event, or if people are connecting with it. It's hard to externally see what is internally happening. One way to do this would be to ask halfway through the event if anyone is crying. But that would be awkward. So instead I look for people taking photos of moments that are powerful for them.
An example of that is when LeBron James recently surpassed Kareem Abdul-Jabbar for the NBA scoring record. And people captured it. Just look at all those phones out. This capturing principle applies at sporting events, family parties and milestone moments. It should also apply at your church, in your small group settings, large gatherings and special events.
So next time someone pulls out their phone to snap a pic during your service, celebrate it. Realize that God is doing something special. He is captivating their hearts and they are capturing the moment! Another lighthearted way to say this is, "If the Spirit’s there, people hit share". So look for people capturing and sharing moments at your event.
6. The Right People at the Table
One of the fastest ways to derail the event planning process is by having the wrong people at the table. You might have a sulk–a person who gets personally offended if you don't take their ideas. You might have a dominator–a person who controls the meeting by talking the whole time. Or you might have a “we can’t-er”–a person who responds to every idea with “we can't.”
There are a lot of wrong people to get around the table and only a few right ones. You are looking for a person that is a hard worker and team player. A hard worker will do the needed homework before the meeting and will follow up on action steps after the meeting. A team player will keep the discussion robust by adding to ideas of others instead of subtracting from them. Keeping the right people at the table will help you design awesome event experiences.
7. Catch People Off Guard
One of the best ways to design event experiences is to catch people off guard. Everyone has expectations of what your event will be like. And in large part those expectations should be met. But you need to go beyond meeting expectations. For the event to have lasting power, you need to exceed them.
One of the easiest ways to do this is by doing the unexpected. I did this during a church service by adding refreshments during the meet and greet. If you're watching and have never been to church service before, let me explain.
Most churches have a moment in which they encourage everyone to stand up and greet their neighbor. No one enjoys this and I have no idea why we haven't retired it as an institution. So to at least make the moment endurable, if not enjoyable, I had the ushers hand out little cartons of milk and packets of cookies during this time. I did this because everyone loves milk and cookies and because I knew the moment would catch people off guard.
8. Interactive Elements Have Power
When people come to an event, they come as consumers. They come ready to receive what you've planned. But they want to leave as contributors. They want to leave having added to the event.
In other words, your events need to be a two way street. People receive from the experience and give back to it. So you need to have some type of interactive element. This can be difficult to do as an event scales up in size. It is easy to add an interactive element for a meeting of 10, but hard to add an interactive element for a concert of 10,000. But it is possible.
I once added an interactive element in a church when the pastor talked about the metaphor of the broken pottery in Jeremiah 18. Even though the pottery was broken, God wanted to put it back together again. During the event we broke a pot, had a potter start forming a new one and then invited people to come forward and write down their brokenness on a shard of pottery. That was a powerful interactive element.
During another service we talked about the theme of surrender. At the end we sang the song “White Flag” by Chris Tomlin and had people demonstrate their act of surrender by coming forward and placing a white flag on the cross–another powerful interactive element. These types of elements will make your event better, so use them.
9. Live Events Have Power
The majority of our entertainment (social media, movies, tv, etc) is screen based. For the most part, we even experience events that are live on a screen; I enjoy watching sports or listening to music, but I don't recall the last time I went to a basketball game or concert.
Because we experience so much through screens, live events naturally have a stronger impact on us. My kids watch TV shows with scary characters all the time. But when they first experienced a live drama with a “bad guy” they had nightmares for weeks. That's because live events have power.
This principle doesn't just apply to kids; it applies to adults as well. I was at Disney World recently and a Stormtrooper walked up behind me and said "Rebels. Blast them!" That was a memorable experience. Since your live events aren't reduced to the size of a screen they will have power. Leverage that power.
10. Respond to the Moment
We've talked about the importance of planning, being intentional and designing your event. But you also have to be present by responding to the moment. There will be unique and unplanned opportunities during your event that present themselves–opportunities to make your event better. But, if you stay handcuffed and bound to your agenda or run sheet, you will miss these opportunities. So, look to execute your plan but also look for chances to make it better while executing.
This applies to positive and negative moments. For a church service, a positive moment could be the congregation really engaging with a song–so you repeat the chorus a couple more times than planned. A negative moment could be starting a song in the wrong key. This happened once at a service I designed. The worship leader could have just awkwardly plowed through the song in the wrong key, which has happened before. But instead, they responded to the moment. They stopped the song dead in its tracks, apologized for the awkwardness and asked to start again. When they did the congregation was twice as loud and engaged with the song. And that's because the leader responded to the moment by admitting their simple mistake and starting again.
You don't just present or execute an event. You need to respond to how others are responding throughout the event.
Those are my t10 best practices on how to design an event experience. Reach out and let me know what ones I missed. I would love to hear from you and learn from you. And if you want additional help in this area then visit benstapley.com/coach to schedule a free consultation. I would love to help you win. Have an awesome day.
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For over twenty years Ben has created & captured moving and memorable moments for individuals, non-profits & corporations across the globe. He has served on the executive team of multiple megachurches and currently serves as the Executive Pastor at The Life Christian Church in New Jersey. Ben also coaches individuals, consults for churches, teaches at universities and speaks at conferences about leadership, communication and creativity. More info about him can be found at www.benstapley.com
Every event should be awesome–be it a conference, religious experience or even a birthday party. But being awesome takes work.
I want to give you 10 best practices on designing events. I work at a church, so a lot of these best practices will be framed around the event of a church service. That being said, these best practices apply to any event.
Also, if you’re looking for coaching on this topic beyond this article then visit benstapley.com/coach to schedule a free consultation. I would love to help you determine the obstacles you're facing and if I’m the best person to help you overcome them.
10 Best Practices for Church Events
1. Begin With Why
Most events begin with “what.” In the church world it looks like this: What songs are we gonna sing? What videos are we gonna show? What message are we gonna preach? Or sometimes we even begin with “how.” How much is this gonna cost? Instead of beginning with “what” or “how”, begin with “why.” Why are we doing this event, this service, this conference?
Once you have a clear “why,” you then have the chance for a clear “what” and “how.”
Here is my "why”: Create services so compelling every weekend, that our guests invite someone to join them next weekend. Christians are not end users of the gospel. God has blessed us to be a blessing to others.
If my service does not reflect that, then I've forgotten my why. Figure out the why behind your event and begin with it.
2. Every Sunday Is Someone's First Sunday
A lot of you have worked or volunteered at a high capacity in a church for a number of years. When this happens, it can be easy for Sunday to become rote or mechanical. Last Sunday seemed to work, so let's just cut and paste. It can be easy to phone it in. I know from first hand experience…I've worked in ministry for 15 years. That's 780 Sundays.
One way I avoid getting in a rut is remembering this phrase: “Every Sunday is someone's first Sunday.” And that someone is experiencing our event, and possibly encountering God, for the first time. That reminds me what is at stake - eternity. Remembering what is at stake is so important to me that I visualize it for myself and my teams. I put it on walls and in green rooms. I even put it at the bottom of transport bins. Eternity is at stake. So make sure to remind the people you lead–yourself and others.
3. Start with the End Result
Planning events can be difficult. There is pressure to make it awesome. You might have no creative ideas. And the deadline is fast approaching.
The easiest way to start planning is by thinking about the end result. Figure out the desired end result and plan accordingly. Your event might be a board meeting and the desired end result is a budget passed. Or your event might be a wedding and the desired end result is the couple saying “I do.”
Whatever your event is, figure out what the desired end result is and start with that. This game plan speeds up the planning process and makes sure every aspect of the event helps accomplish the ultimate goal.
4. Start with the First Idea
Another way to plan an event is to start with the first idea. Come up with that first awesome idea and then plan the whole event around it. This usually happens when you have a killer concept, but you aren’t really sure how it fits into your event. Planning this way engages the creative members of your team because it allows their ideas (and not your events) to lead the process.
For example, one of my creatives wanted to incorporate a shofar into a service. A shofar is a musical instrument made of ram's horn and was used in ancient Israel for religious purposes. It's loud and obnoxious. Kind of like a modern day bugle. So we had the first idea–an interesting concept–and needed to plan an event around it, a church service. In the end, that was one of the most unique church services I've ever helped plan. And it all happened because we started with the first idea.
5. People Capture What Captivates
Sometimes it’s hard to measure the success of an event, or if people are connecting with it. It's hard to externally see what is internally happening. One way to do this would be to ask halfway through the event if anyone is crying. But that would be awkward. So instead I look for people taking photos of moments that are powerful for them.
An example of that is when LeBron James recently surpassed Kareem Abdul-Jabbar for the NBA scoring record. And people captured it. Just look at all those phones out. This capturing principle applies at sporting events, family parties and milestone moments. It should also apply at your church, in your small group settings, large gatherings and special events.
So next time someone pulls out their phone to snap a pic during your service, celebrate it. Realize that God is doing something special. He is captivating their hearts and they are capturing the moment! Another lighthearted way to say this is, "If the Spirit’s there, people hit share". So look for people capturing and sharing moments at your event.
6. The Right People at the Table
One of the fastest ways to derail the event planning process is by having the wrong people at the table. You might have a sulk–a person who gets personally offended if you don't take their ideas. You might have a dominator–a person who controls the meeting by talking the whole time. Or you might have a “we can’t-er”–a person who responds to every idea with “we can't.”
There are a lot of wrong people to get around the table and only a few right ones. You are looking for a person that is a hard worker and team player. A hard worker will do the needed homework before the meeting and will follow up on action steps after the meeting. A team player will keep the discussion robust by adding to ideas of others instead of subtracting from them. Keeping the right people at the table will help you design awesome event experiences.
7. Catch People Off Guard
One of the best ways to design event experiences is to catch people off guard. Everyone has expectations of what your event will be like. And in large part those expectations should be met. But you need to go beyond meeting expectations. For the event to have lasting power, you need to exceed them.
One of the easiest ways to do this is by doing the unexpected. I did this during a church service by adding refreshments during the meet and greet. If you're watching and have never been to church service before, let me explain.
Most churches have a moment in which they encourage everyone to stand up and greet their neighbor. No one enjoys this and I have no idea why we haven't retired it as an institution. So to at least make the moment endurable, if not enjoyable, I had the ushers hand out little cartons of milk and packets of cookies during this time. I did this because everyone loves milk and cookies and because I knew the moment would catch people off guard.
8. Interactive Elements Have Power
When people come to an event, they come as consumers. They come ready to receive what you've planned. But they want to leave as contributors. They want to leave having added to the event.
In other words, your events need to be a two way street. People receive from the experience and give back to it. So you need to have some type of interactive element. This can be difficult to do as an event scales up in size. It is easy to add an interactive element for a meeting of 10, but hard to add an interactive element for a concert of 10,000. But it is possible.
I once added an interactive element in a church when the pastor talked about the metaphor of the broken pottery in Jeremiah 18. Even though the pottery was broken, God wanted to put it back together again. During the event we broke a pot, had a potter start forming a new one and then invited people to come forward and write down their brokenness on a shard of pottery. That was a powerful interactive element.
During another service we talked about the theme of surrender. At the end we sang the song “White Flag” by Chris Tomlin and had people demonstrate their act of surrender by coming forward and placing a white flag on the cross–another powerful interactive element. These types of elements will make your event better, so use them.
9. Live Events Have Power
The majority of our entertainment (social media, movies, tv, etc) is screen based. For the most part, we even experience events that are live on a screen; I enjoy watching sports or listening to music, but I don't recall the last time I went to a basketball game or concert.
Because we experience so much through screens, live events naturally have a stronger impact on us. My kids watch TV shows with scary characters all the time. But when they first experienced a live drama with a “bad guy” they had nightmares for weeks. That's because live events have power.
This principle doesn't just apply to kids; it applies to adults as well. I was at Disney World recently and a Stormtrooper walked up behind me and said "Rebels. Blast them!" That was a memorable experience. Since your live events aren't reduced to the size of a screen they will have power. Leverage that power.
10. Respond to the Moment
We've talked about the importance of planning, being intentional and designing your event. But you also have to be present by responding to the moment. There will be unique and unplanned opportunities during your event that present themselves–opportunities to make your event better. But, if you stay handcuffed and bound to your agenda or run sheet, you will miss these opportunities. So, look to execute your plan but also look for chances to make it better while executing.
This applies to positive and negative moments. For a church service, a positive moment could be the congregation really engaging with a song–so you repeat the chorus a couple more times than planned. A negative moment could be starting a song in the wrong key. This happened once at a service I designed. The worship leader could have just awkwardly plowed through the song in the wrong key, which has happened before. But instead, they responded to the moment. They stopped the song dead in its tracks, apologized for the awkwardness and asked to start again. When they did the congregation was twice as loud and engaged with the song. And that's because the leader responded to the moment by admitting their simple mistake and starting again.
You don't just present or execute an event. You need to respond to how others are responding throughout the event.
Those are my t10 best practices on how to design an event experience. Reach out and let me know what ones I missed. I would love to hear from you and learn from you. And if you want additional help in this area then visit benstapley.com/coach to schedule a free consultation. I would love to help you win. Have an awesome day.
podcast transcript
For over twenty years Ben has created & captured moving and memorable moments for individuals, non-profits & corporations across the globe. He has served on the executive team of multiple megachurches and currently serves as the Executive Pastor at The Life Christian Church in New Jersey. Ben also coaches individuals, consults for churches, teaches at universities and speaks at conferences about leadership, communication and creativity. More info about him can be found at www.benstapley.com
Every event should be awesome–be it a conference, religious experience or even a birthday party. But being awesome takes work.
I want to give you 10 best practices on designing events. I work at a church, so a lot of these best practices will be framed around the event of a church service. That being said, these best practices apply to any event.
Also, if you’re looking for coaching on this topic beyond this article then visit benstapley.com/coach to schedule a free consultation. I would love to help you determine the obstacles you're facing and if I’m the best person to help you overcome them.
10 Best Practices for Church Events
1. Begin With Why
Most events begin with “what.” In the church world it looks like this: What songs are we gonna sing? What videos are we gonna show? What message are we gonna preach? Or sometimes we even begin with “how.” How much is this gonna cost? Instead of beginning with “what” or “how”, begin with “why.” Why are we doing this event, this service, this conference?
Once you have a clear “why,” you then have the chance for a clear “what” and “how.”
Here is my "why”: Create services so compelling every weekend, that our guests invite someone to join them next weekend. Christians are not end users of the gospel. God has blessed us to be a blessing to others.
If my service does not reflect that, then I've forgotten my why. Figure out the why behind your event and begin with it.
2. Every Sunday Is Someone's First Sunday
A lot of you have worked or volunteered at a high capacity in a church for a number of years. When this happens, it can be easy for Sunday to become rote or mechanical. Last Sunday seemed to work, so let's just cut and paste. It can be easy to phone it in. I know from first hand experience…I've worked in ministry for 15 years. That's 780 Sundays.
One way I avoid getting in a rut is remembering this phrase: “Every Sunday is someone's first Sunday.” And that someone is experiencing our event, and possibly encountering God, for the first time. That reminds me what is at stake - eternity. Remembering what is at stake is so important to me that I visualize it for myself and my teams. I put it on walls and in green rooms. I even put it at the bottom of transport bins. Eternity is at stake. So make sure to remind the people you lead–yourself and others.
3. Start with the End Result
Planning events can be difficult. There is pressure to make it awesome. You might have no creative ideas. And the deadline is fast approaching.
The easiest way to start planning is by thinking about the end result. Figure out the desired end result and plan accordingly. Your event might be a board meeting and the desired end result is a budget passed. Or your event might be a wedding and the desired end result is the couple saying “I do.”
Whatever your event is, figure out what the desired end result is and start with that. This game plan speeds up the planning process and makes sure every aspect of the event helps accomplish the ultimate goal.
4. Start with the First Idea
Another way to plan an event is to start with the first idea. Come up with that first awesome idea and then plan the whole event around it. This usually happens when you have a killer concept, but you aren’t really sure how it fits into your event. Planning this way engages the creative members of your team because it allows their ideas (and not your events) to lead the process.
For example, one of my creatives wanted to incorporate a shofar into a service. A shofar is a musical instrument made of ram's horn and was used in ancient Israel for religious purposes. It's loud and obnoxious. Kind of like a modern day bugle. So we had the first idea–an interesting concept–and needed to plan an event around it, a church service. In the end, that was one of the most unique church services I've ever helped plan. And it all happened because we started with the first idea.
5. People Capture What Captivates
Sometimes it’s hard to measure the success of an event, or if people are connecting with it. It's hard to externally see what is internally happening. One way to do this would be to ask halfway through the event if anyone is crying. But that would be awkward. So instead I look for people taking photos of moments that are powerful for them.
An example of that is when LeBron James recently surpassed Kareem Abdul-Jabbar for the NBA scoring record. And people captured it. Just look at all those phones out. This capturing principle applies at sporting events, family parties and milestone moments. It should also apply at your church, in your small group settings, large gatherings and special events.
So next time someone pulls out their phone to snap a pic during your service, celebrate it. Realize that God is doing something special. He is captivating their hearts and they are capturing the moment! Another lighthearted way to say this is, "If the Spirit’s there, people hit share". So look for people capturing and sharing moments at your event.
6. The Right People at the Table
One of the fastest ways to derail the event planning process is by having the wrong people at the table. You might have a sulk–a person who gets personally offended if you don't take their ideas. You might have a dominator–a person who controls the meeting by talking the whole time. Or you might have a “we can’t-er”–a person who responds to every idea with “we can't.”
There are a lot of wrong people to get around the table and only a few right ones. You are looking for a person that is a hard worker and team player. A hard worker will do the needed homework before the meeting and will follow up on action steps after the meeting. A team player will keep the discussion robust by adding to ideas of others instead of subtracting from them. Keeping the right people at the table will help you design awesome event experiences.
7. Catch People Off Guard
One of the best ways to design event experiences is to catch people off guard. Everyone has expectations of what your event will be like. And in large part those expectations should be met. But you need to go beyond meeting expectations. For the event to have lasting power, you need to exceed them.
One of the easiest ways to do this is by doing the unexpected. I did this during a church service by adding refreshments during the meet and greet. If you're watching and have never been to church service before, let me explain.
Most churches have a moment in which they encourage everyone to stand up and greet their neighbor. No one enjoys this and I have no idea why we haven't retired it as an institution. So to at least make the moment endurable, if not enjoyable, I had the ushers hand out little cartons of milk and packets of cookies during this time. I did this because everyone loves milk and cookies and because I knew the moment would catch people off guard.
8. Interactive Elements Have Power
When people come to an event, they come as consumers. They come ready to receive what you've planned. But they want to leave as contributors. They want to leave having added to the event.
In other words, your events need to be a two way street. People receive from the experience and give back to it. So you need to have some type of interactive element. This can be difficult to do as an event scales up in size. It is easy to add an interactive element for a meeting of 10, but hard to add an interactive element for a concert of 10,000. But it is possible.
I once added an interactive element in a church when the pastor talked about the metaphor of the broken pottery in Jeremiah 18. Even though the pottery was broken, God wanted to put it back together again. During the event we broke a pot, had a potter start forming a new one and then invited people to come forward and write down their brokenness on a shard of pottery. That was a powerful interactive element.
During another service we talked about the theme of surrender. At the end we sang the song “White Flag” by Chris Tomlin and had people demonstrate their act of surrender by coming forward and placing a white flag on the cross–another powerful interactive element. These types of elements will make your event better, so use them.
9. Live Events Have Power
The majority of our entertainment (social media, movies, tv, etc) is screen based. For the most part, we even experience events that are live on a screen; I enjoy watching sports or listening to music, but I don't recall the last time I went to a basketball game or concert.
Because we experience so much through screens, live events naturally have a stronger impact on us. My kids watch TV shows with scary characters all the time. But when they first experienced a live drama with a “bad guy” they had nightmares for weeks. That's because live events have power.
This principle doesn't just apply to kids; it applies to adults as well. I was at Disney World recently and a Stormtrooper walked up behind me and said "Rebels. Blast them!" That was a memorable experience. Since your live events aren't reduced to the size of a screen they will have power. Leverage that power.
10. Respond to the Moment
We've talked about the importance of planning, being intentional and designing your event. But you also have to be present by responding to the moment. There will be unique and unplanned opportunities during your event that present themselves–opportunities to make your event better. But, if you stay handcuffed and bound to your agenda or run sheet, you will miss these opportunities. So, look to execute your plan but also look for chances to make it better while executing.
This applies to positive and negative moments. For a church service, a positive moment could be the congregation really engaging with a song–so you repeat the chorus a couple more times than planned. A negative moment could be starting a song in the wrong key. This happened once at a service I designed. The worship leader could have just awkwardly plowed through the song in the wrong key, which has happened before. But instead, they responded to the moment. They stopped the song dead in its tracks, apologized for the awkwardness and asked to start again. When they did the congregation was twice as loud and engaged with the song. And that's because the leader responded to the moment by admitting their simple mistake and starting again.
You don't just present or execute an event. You need to respond to how others are responding throughout the event.
Those are my t10 best practices on how to design an event experience. Reach out and let me know what ones I missed. I would love to hear from you and learn from you. And if you want additional help in this area then visit benstapley.com/coach to schedule a free consultation. I would love to help you win. Have an awesome day.
VIDEO transcript
Every event should be awesome–be it a conference, religious experience or even a birthday party. But being awesome takes work.
I want to give you 10 best practices on designing events. I work at a church, so a lot of these best practices will be framed around the event of a church service. That being said, these best practices apply to any event.
Also, if you’re looking for coaching on this topic beyond this article then visit benstapley.com/coach to schedule a free consultation. I would love to help you determine the obstacles you're facing and if I’m the best person to help you overcome them.
10 Best Practices for Church Events
1. Begin With Why
Most events begin with “what.” In the church world it looks like this: What songs are we gonna sing? What videos are we gonna show? What message are we gonna preach? Or sometimes we even begin with “how.” How much is this gonna cost? Instead of beginning with “what” or “how”, begin with “why.” Why are we doing this event, this service, this conference?
Once you have a clear “why,” you then have the chance for a clear “what” and “how.”
Here is my "why”: Create services so compelling every weekend, that our guests invite someone to join them next weekend. Christians are not end users of the gospel. God has blessed us to be a blessing to others.
If my service does not reflect that, then I've forgotten my why. Figure out the why behind your event and begin with it.
2. Every Sunday Is Someone's First Sunday
A lot of you have worked or volunteered at a high capacity in a church for a number of years. When this happens, it can be easy for Sunday to become rote or mechanical. Last Sunday seemed to work, so let's just cut and paste. It can be easy to phone it in. I know from first hand experience…I've worked in ministry for 15 years. That's 780 Sundays.
One way I avoid getting in a rut is remembering this phrase: “Every Sunday is someone's first Sunday.” And that someone is experiencing our event, and possibly encountering God, for the first time. That reminds me what is at stake - eternity. Remembering what is at stake is so important to me that I visualize it for myself and my teams. I put it on walls and in green rooms. I even put it at the bottom of transport bins. Eternity is at stake. So make sure to remind the people you lead–yourself and others.
3. Start with the End Result
Planning events can be difficult. There is pressure to make it awesome. You might have no creative ideas. And the deadline is fast approaching.
The easiest way to start planning is by thinking about the end result. Figure out the desired end result and plan accordingly. Your event might be a board meeting and the desired end result is a budget passed. Or your event might be a wedding and the desired end result is the couple saying “I do.”
Whatever your event is, figure out what the desired end result is and start with that. This game plan speeds up the planning process and makes sure every aspect of the event helps accomplish the ultimate goal.
4. Start with the First Idea
Another way to plan an event is to start with the first idea. Come up with that first awesome idea and then plan the whole event around it. This usually happens when you have a killer concept, but you aren’t really sure how it fits into your event. Planning this way engages the creative members of your team because it allows their ideas (and not your events) to lead the process.
For example, one of my creatives wanted to incorporate a shofar into a service. A shofar is a musical instrument made of ram's horn and was used in ancient Israel for religious purposes. It's loud and obnoxious. Kind of like a modern day bugle. So we had the first idea–an interesting concept–and needed to plan an event around it, a church service. In the end, that was one of the most unique church services I've ever helped plan. And it all happened because we started with the first idea.
5. People Capture What Captivates
Sometimes it’s hard to measure the success of an event, or if people are connecting with it. It's hard to externally see what is internally happening. One way to do this would be to ask halfway through the event if anyone is crying. But that would be awkward. So instead I look for people taking photos of moments that are powerful for them.
An example of that is when LeBron James recently surpassed Kareem Abdul-Jabbar for the NBA scoring record. And people captured it. Just look at all those phones out. This capturing principle applies at sporting events, family parties and milestone moments. It should also apply at your church, in your small group settings, large gatherings and special events.
So next time someone pulls out their phone to snap a pic during your service, celebrate it. Realize that God is doing something special. He is captivating their hearts and they are capturing the moment! Another lighthearted way to say this is, "If the Spirit’s there, people hit share". So look for people capturing and sharing moments at your event.
6. The Right People at the Table
One of the fastest ways to derail the event planning process is by having the wrong people at the table. You might have a sulk–a person who gets personally offended if you don't take their ideas. You might have a dominator–a person who controls the meeting by talking the whole time. Or you might have a “we can’t-er”–a person who responds to every idea with “we can't.”
There are a lot of wrong people to get around the table and only a few right ones. You are looking for a person that is a hard worker and team player. A hard worker will do the needed homework before the meeting and will follow up on action steps after the meeting. A team player will keep the discussion robust by adding to ideas of others instead of subtracting from them. Keeping the right people at the table will help you design awesome event experiences.
7. Catch People Off Guard
One of the best ways to design event experiences is to catch people off guard. Everyone has expectations of what your event will be like. And in large part those expectations should be met. But you need to go beyond meeting expectations. For the event to have lasting power, you need to exceed them.
One of the easiest ways to do this is by doing the unexpected. I did this during a church service by adding refreshments during the meet and greet. If you're watching and have never been to church service before, let me explain.
Most churches have a moment in which they encourage everyone to stand up and greet their neighbor. No one enjoys this and I have no idea why we haven't retired it as an institution. So to at least make the moment endurable, if not enjoyable, I had the ushers hand out little cartons of milk and packets of cookies during this time. I did this because everyone loves milk and cookies and because I knew the moment would catch people off guard.
8. Interactive Elements Have Power
When people come to an event, they come as consumers. They come ready to receive what you've planned. But they want to leave as contributors. They want to leave having added to the event.
In other words, your events need to be a two way street. People receive from the experience and give back to it. So you need to have some type of interactive element. This can be difficult to do as an event scales up in size. It is easy to add an interactive element for a meeting of 10, but hard to add an interactive element for a concert of 10,000. But it is possible.
I once added an interactive element in a church when the pastor talked about the metaphor of the broken pottery in Jeremiah 18. Even though the pottery was broken, God wanted to put it back together again. During the event we broke a pot, had a potter start forming a new one and then invited people to come forward and write down their brokenness on a shard of pottery. That was a powerful interactive element.
During another service we talked about the theme of surrender. At the end we sang the song “White Flag” by Chris Tomlin and had people demonstrate their act of surrender by coming forward and placing a white flag on the cross–another powerful interactive element. These types of elements will make your event better, so use them.
9. Live Events Have Power
The majority of our entertainment (social media, movies, tv, etc) is screen based. For the most part, we even experience events that are live on a screen; I enjoy watching sports or listening to music, but I don't recall the last time I went to a basketball game or concert.
Because we experience so much through screens, live events naturally have a stronger impact on us. My kids watch TV shows with scary characters all the time. But when they first experienced a live drama with a “bad guy” they had nightmares for weeks. That's because live events have power.
This principle doesn't just apply to kids; it applies to adults as well. I was at Disney World recently and a Stormtrooper walked up behind me and said "Rebels. Blast them!" That was a memorable experience. Since your live events aren't reduced to the size of a screen they will have power. Leverage that power.
10. Respond to the Moment
We've talked about the importance of planning, being intentional and designing your event. But you also have to be present by responding to the moment. There will be unique and unplanned opportunities during your event that present themselves–opportunities to make your event better. But, if you stay handcuffed and bound to your agenda or run sheet, you will miss these opportunities. So, look to execute your plan but also look for chances to make it better while executing.
This applies to positive and negative moments. For a church service, a positive moment could be the congregation really engaging with a song–so you repeat the chorus a couple more times than planned. A negative moment could be starting a song in the wrong key. This happened once at a service I designed. The worship leader could have just awkwardly plowed through the song in the wrong key, which has happened before. But instead, they responded to the moment. They stopped the song dead in its tracks, apologized for the awkwardness and asked to start again. When they did the congregation was twice as loud and engaged with the song. And that's because the leader responded to the moment by admitting their simple mistake and starting again.
You don't just present or execute an event. You need to respond to how others are responding throughout the event.
Those are my t10 best practices on how to design an event experience. Reach out and let me know what ones I missed. I would love to hear from you and learn from you. And if you want additional help in this area then visit benstapley.com/coach to schedule a free consultation. I would love to help you win. Have an awesome day.
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For over twenty years Ben has created & captured moving and memorable moments for individuals, non-profits & corporations across the globe. He has served on the executive team of multiple megachurches and currently serves as the Executive Pastor at The Life Christian Church in New Jersey. Ben also coaches individuals, consults for churches, teaches at universities and speaks at conferences about leadership, communication and creativity. More info about him can be found at www.benstapley.com
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