Leadership Tips & Training Summer Session Ideas

The summer is often a time when people want to take a break from First Place. However, I recently talked with many leaders who say that their members want to continue to meet through the summer months. Leaders often feel they need a break. If your members want to continue to meet, I have some ideas that may help you, the leader, feel that you are taking a vacation from leadership. Sometimes, just doing some things differently during the summer session will bring freshness and energy to your leadership. Here are some ideas for making it through your summer session:

• Have members volunteer to share each week about what they learned from a specific day of the Bible study. Assign this to the members a week in advance so they will be prepared.
• Have a “taste-it” each week. The first day of class, have the members sign up to bring a prepared First Place recipe for the group to just have a taste. This provides a “snack” for each class time and a way for the members to be involved in the leadership.
• Plan a meal for one meeting. Ask the members to bring the ingredients to class, and then actually prepare the meal during class. Sandwiches or salads work best for this activity. Use menus and recipes from the First Place Bible Study book.
• Have members use their prayer journals when they go on vacation. Have them write in it like a travel journal, noting things they did to stay on track and ways they recovered from a lapse. Ask members to share from their journal when they return from vacation.
• If you find that the members in the class have children or grandchildren who play baseball during the summer or who are in a swim league, take a field trip to see them play ball or swim. Use this as a teaching moment, pointing out possible healthy choices at the concession stand, or ways to pack a snack and carry it along to the event.
• Use the First Place devotional, Today is the First Day, in place of one of the Bible studies or use it as the scripture reading commitment for the summer.

Have a great First Place summer session and by all means have fun!
Nancy Taylor


Nancy Taylor is the First Place Leadership Training Director and joined the First Place staff in 1997. Nancy teaches leadership principles to First Place Leaders throughout the country and at Houston's First Baptist Church where she coordinates all the First Place groups. . Nancy also speaks at First Place workshops, rallies, retreats, and conferences, where she delights her audiences with humor and encourages them with boldness. She writes a monthly article, which includes helpful tips for leaders, for the First Place E-newsletter, and was a contributing writer to the Today is the First Day devotional book. Nancy is the resident First Place Bible Concordance because of her love for Scripture memory.