The Church Calendar, Don’t Drown! Stop, Start, Change And Swim w/ Amanda Mejias

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What if your calendar didn’t own your ministry — but served it?

Welcome to the podcast garage Amanda Mejias! Lifeway Specialist for Girls' Ministry and Women in Youth Ministry. Check this pastoral note: We to need to make the move from submission (giving in after the fight) to surrender (choosing trust before the fight begins).

In this episode, Zac and Amanda unpack a simple, repeatable framework to audit your year:

Stop – Start – Change

• Stop what burns energy without bearing fruit (even if it’s beloved).
• Start where your God is calling you out: only when you have conviction and capacity.
• Change the good-but-not-great by adjusting structure, timing, and goals to serve outcomes that actually matter.

We talk:

• Anchoring your plans to your church’s mission
• Working backward from your budget cycle
• Defining fruit before you plan
• Volunteer buy-in and giving ideas real runway
• Why leaders must measure what matters

Plus, a live case study: Her Good Retreat — a focused gathering for women leading in youth and college ministry. Born from real needs (belonging, rest, targeted training), it models how vision, people, and place shape events that last.

Key Points
• the value of discipline through a swim lesson story
• moving from submission to surrender
• defining fruit before planning
• annual audit using stop, start, change
• aligning events to church mission
• budgeting timelines and approvals
• volunteer capacity and early buy-in
• when to kill traditions and when to tweak what you inherited
• launching Her Good Retreat for women in youth and college ministry
• links to Youth Pastor Summit and  Experience

Check the links below for the Her Good Retreat this March, the Youth Pastor Summit locations in April, and the Preaching Experience in May. Like, rate, subscribe, and review, and we’ll see you next time

Her Good

https://www.lifeway.com/en/events/her-good-retreat

Preaching Experience

https://www.lifeway.com/en/events/experience-2026

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