Whew. Easter weekend is over. After all the months of planning, and a whirlwind weekend of executing, you now have a chance to take a breath. Spending time recovering, physically and mentally, is a vital task in the weeks to come. Yet it’s also important to spend some time as a team debriefing. Here are a few thoughts on how to structure the time you spend reviewing how Easter went.
Do it while memories are still fresh. The longer you wait to debrief, the less clearly you’ll remember the experience. It will also be easier to just gloss over mistakes, or successes, the further away you are from Easter. While it can be beneficial to take some time to breathe and put experiences into perspective, don’t wait too long to meet.
Create an atmosphere of honesty. Meaningful debriefing will never happen if people can’t openly share their opinions. Leaders or strong personalities can’t dominate the conversation or shoot people down. That behavior is toxic and will never let your church reach the full potential it has to connect people with God. Commit to having a respectful environment where true, open conversation can happen.
Identify key lessons learned and opportunities for growth. Failures are an opportunity for growth and successes are a foundation for future initiatives. During your conversation, be sure to dig to the roots of what’s being said. What are the true underlying issues? Identify them and create action points to either avoid them, or embrace them, in the future.
Write it down. A year is a long time. Keep notes of your debriefing so you can actually use action points when planning Easter next year. Talking is only part of the process. Action is the other. Documenting your debriefing is a concrete step in committing to being better in the future.
Don’t miss the good. It’s natural to focus on what did not work, but don’t let that dominate the conversation. I guarantee there were plenty of great things that happened in your church during Easter. Spend time celebrating and documenting those achievements, too.
