Starting a Dance Ministry (part 3 of 3)

April 28, 2009 by Lakita
Filed under Practical Advice

The Administrative Side

This is the last article in a 3 part series on Starting a Dance Ministry. Part 1 dealt with the spiritual requirements, part 2 dealt with the practical concerns. This final portion will address some of the administrative concerns and provide a few sample documents to get you started.

Administration is often overlooked because of the level of attention needed to tasks that are often viewed as mundane or insignificant. However, these items left unattended can cause turmoil later.

Some leaders are also administrators. If you find yourself planning every step of the way, highly organize, and detail oriented – then you may have the gift of administration. There are some leaders however, that are graced with an exceptional ability to lead and motivate people. They see the big picture and are not concerned with how it will be accomplished. If that sounds like you, it is important to pray about who is supposed to be the dance ministry administrator (hint: it does not need to be a member of the dance ministry, but should definitely be someone gifted in administration!)

Here is an example of a leader / administrator roles in action:

The ministry receives an invitation to minister at a guest church in a month

The leader’s focus is probably on ensuring the group is ready to minister effectively

The administrator has a few more questions:

Who from the group can commit? Will we need to purchase garments? If dealing with youth – permission slips? Etc etc….

Many leaders are administrators and are capable of leading and carrying the details. Other ministries are fortunate enough to have an administrator. But if you are newly formed, perhaps you don’t have an administrator and the idea of dealing with details is a bit intimidating. Here are some documents that can be altered to suit your ministry for a variety of needs. Some of these are modified templates that can be downloaded freely from Microsoft Office Template Directory.

- Attendance sheet (Excel format)

- Calendar (Word Document)

- Letter to ministry (parents) (Word Document)

- Thank you letter for ministry opportunity (Word Document)

- Permission slip (Word Document)

- Medical Information Form (Word Document)

Some other items that would be good to have are a dance ministry handbook, ministry agreement contract, garment tracker and income/expense report to name a few.