Kay Kotan's Blog, page 2

Offer Fresh Eyes to Really Look at the People in Your Neighborhood

Even though fall is a time when trees begin to lose their leaves and some plants move into their dormant season, it is typically a kick-off season for the church.  Folks are getting back into their routines after summer breaks and vacations.  Churches generally see an increase in congregational engagement and therefore find it a prime season to launch new ministries and programs.  And due to milder weather conditions, there are more outdoor activities and fall festivals which may sometimes include events intended to reach new people.

When we look at what all the fall season has to offer, all I see is opportunity and possibility!  Does your church view the season with the same lens?  How are you using your resources to invest in your neighbors this fall season?  Are you planning new ministries designed specifically to reach your neighbors?  Are you offering ministries that you have traditionally offered every fall?  If so, have you evaluated them for their effectiveness and fruitfulness?  What is the intended outcome for the ministry?  And, is the ministry meeting the intended outcome?

Now that we’ve looked inside the church at its ministries, let’s peer outside your church into its neighborhood. Is your congregation a reflection of the neighborhood’s demographics?  If not, you will likely need to acquaint yourself with your neighbors before you are able to really offer relevant ministries for them.  Start first with running demographic reports.  But, do not rely solely on those reports.  They’re a great starting point, but they are not the end all be all.  You’ll need to also immerse yourself in the neighborhood to really know your neighbors.  This is especially true if the majority of the congregation no longer lives in the direct neighborhood.

Start by dining and shopping in the neighborhood.  Observe how the neighborhood goes about their normal daily activities.  Find out where the neighbors hang out for conversation and a sense of community.  Take walks in the neighborhood.  Be friendly and curious.  Next, start friendly conversations with people.  The purpose of the conversations is not to find out how to get people into the church!  Nor is the purpose to guilt people about coming to church or to talk about the “good ol’ days” when the church was full of people. The purpose is to get to know people, hear their stories, and to understand how the church can be helpful to the neighbors.  Where are there gaps in the community?  What keeps people up at night?  What opportunities are there that an organization needs to step into and address?  What makes the people in the neighborhood tick?  What are their hearts’ desires?  Approach the conversations without judgment, preconceived notions, or ministry ideas that you want the neighbors to fit into.  Instead, approach the conversations (and hopefully new relationships) with fresh eyes and ears.

It’s only when we see our neighbors with fresh eyes that we can begin to imagine ministry in new ways.  In fact, those very neighbors will likely tell you what ministries (although they won’t call them ministries), would be most helpful and effective.  Too often, we launch new ministries based on what we church people “think”  will reach the neighbors without ever checking with (or really “seeing”) the neighbors.

Before ramping up your fall ministries to reach your neighbors this fall, consider seeing your neighbors with fresh eyes.  If your leaders would like additional resources for seeing your neighbors with fresh eyes, consider these:

Book:  Journey Preparation: Surveying Your Church’s Landscape

On-Demand Webinar:  Connecting with Your Community Through Bridge Events

On-Demand Webinar:  Who is Your Neighbor?

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Simplify Ministries for Greater Impact: Being Strategic Isn’t Difficult!

Too often churches are working too hard.  Yes, you read that right.  Many churches are working too hard without gaining a significant impact in return.  In other words, we are using way too many assets (i.e., time, energy, hours, capacity, dollars, facility usage) without furthering the mission of making disciple-making disciples. Instead, we are frustrating and burning out people.  The church is spinning its wheels. The world (let alone our communities) is not being transformed.  

Let’s stop the madness!  Let’s work smarter rather than harder.  Perhaps what we’ve done in the past is no longer working.  Let’s try something new.  Let’s evaluate our effectiveness.  Let’s narrow our focus and do fewer ministries well. Let’s concentrate on ministries where a church can have missional impact in their context.  Let’s be willing to experiment, evaluate, and pivot as needed. It doesn’t have to be complicated.  It just needs to be focused, intentional, and strategic.  It’s quite simple. Let’s take the small church as an example. In Mission Possible for the Small Church: Simplifying Leadership, Structure, and Ministries in Small Churches, we identify eight different principles for simplifying ministries for greater impact.  One of those principles is to team up with community organizations who already have infrastructures in place. Lean on their expertise. Don’t reinvent the wheel.  Come alongside them, build relationships, and increase the impact.  Just make sure your organizations’ visions align.

Give yourself permission to stop ineffective ministries.  If a ministry, event, or program is no longer serving the original purpose, is no longer effective, or no longer has the support it needs, give it a celebration of life and a funeral!  Quit placing valuable resources into a dying, ineffective ministry.  Reallocate those resources into a ministry with some energy and some potential impact.

Give yourself permission to say no or not in this season.  No church has endless resources. No church has the capacity to do all they want to do. Not every ministry idea lines up with the vision of a particular church.  Someone may have a great ministry idea, but it doesn’t align with the church’s vision. Or there may not be enough capacity or resources to carry the load of that ministry.  Or perhaps it is an individual’s ministry and not the church’s ministry. Release them to do their own personal ministry on their own time and their own dime. It is okay to say no or not now.  In fact, it may be the most faithful answer. 

Being strategic doesn’t have to be complex.  Being strategic doesn’t have to be complicated. Being strategic doesn’t have to be difficult or hard.  In fact, being strategic and intentional makes ministry easier.  Being strategic provides clarity and focus for leadership, budgeting, asset allocation, time allocation, and decision-making.

If you are a small church who has maybe resisted the idea of becoming a strategic church because you thought it was difficult, consider gathering your leaders and studying Mission Possible for the Small Church: Simplifying Leadership, Structure, and Ministries in Small Churches together.  You might be surprised by how simple yet impactful becoming a strategic church can be!

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Three Ways to Unleash the Power of Goals for Remarkable Church Effectiveness

Churches are certainly unique in the context they serve and in their congregational makeup.  At the same time, they have some commonality.  Most every congregation I work with has a desire to reach new people and certainly was initially planted with the same purpose of being disciple-making disciples.  

 

Yet, many churches today struggle with how to actually accomplish this core purpose of their existence (the mission being disciple-making disciples).  For the most part, it’s not for a lack of desire or activity.  Most often, I find churches lack focus and direction. Churches get tied down to certain methods (ministries, events, programs) rather than the mission. Furthermore, they often allow relationships with one another to trump their responsibility and accountability to the mission. These obstacles can be overcome by unleashing the power of goals in your church.

 

In strategic planning, leaders often pull goals out of thin air. Instead, goals should be based on the faithful next steps to live into the church’s vision (God’s preferred future for the church’s unique way of living out the mission of being disciple-making disciples over the next couple of years in their context). In other words, what are two or three different things that the church could focus on over the next year that would cause the vision to become more present – more real?  Once those are identified, the ministries and activities of the churches are planned and implemented around them. The budget is aligned accordingly.

 

Here are the three ways the power of goals unleash remarkable church effectiveness:

 

Ministries are the methods used to live into God’s preferred future (church’s current vision) of how we are to make disciples in our context over the next couple of years.  We mustn’t get tied down to our methods.  Instead, we must be sold out for our mission of being disciple-making disciples and set intentional goals of how we plan to do so each year.

 

Goals help us hold one another accountable.  Goals are set by the council/board.  With the leadership of the pastor, ministry team leaders plan the ministries based on the goals.  The pastor holds the ministry team leaders accountable for the ministries being effective.  The council/board holds the pastor accountable for the goals.  The board/council is accountable to Christ for leading the church in its mission of being disciple-making disciples.

 

Goals provide us with missional focus. Relationships are obviously very important in the life of the church. However, too often we allow relationships to stand in the way of being faithful to the mission – the Great Commission. Leaders are sometimes reluctant to make the hard decisions that might hurt another person’s feelings (i.e., stop funding an ineffective ministry of a beloved congregant).  Having goals based on mission and vision helps leaders stay missionally focused and accountable to one another and to Christ and keeps ministry decisions from being so personal.

 

Fall is the perfect time for churches to set goals for the upcoming year.  By setting goals, the leaders will set the church on a pathway toward more missional effectiveness.  If your church is ready to set goals but is looking for some assistance in doing so, check out these resources:

 

Strategy Matters – A book on strategic planning

 

Strategic Ministry Planning – An on-demand webinar outlining how to set goals in a retreat setting

 

Gear Up – A book identifying the nine essential processes a church needs and how they align for church effectiveness

 

Accountable Leadership – An on-demand webinar explaining accountable leadership, its importance for today’s church, and how to implement the model

 

Consultation or Facilitator – Request a consultation to help you to lead a goal-setting session with your leaders or Request a facilitator to lead a goal setting session for your church

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Here is Why Strategy and Intentional Planning Really Do Matter

It is the first church council or board meeting of the year.  The leaders certainly desire the church to head in a positive direction in the upcoming year.  How will they be assured this is the case?  How will the leaders monitor their progress throughout the year?  

 

These are all great questions that we hope all church leaders are asking.  However, these are questions they should be considering NOW, not in January.  In order to start the first of the year off well, strategic ministry planning needs to be conducted in the fall of the year preceding.  Typically this strategic ministry planning retreat is held in the early fall so that ample time to complete all the necessary steps that follow can be conducted before year end. 

In Strategy Matters: Your Roadmap for an Effective Ministry Planning Retreat with co-author, Ken Willard, we outline the entire strategic ministry planning process. The book is a complete guide for how to plan, conduct, and follow up after a strategic planning retreat.  Here is why intentional and strategic ministry planning really do matter to the overall missional effectiveness of your church: 

Without intentionality, church council meetings become full of report presentations on events, programs, and ministries without any connections to their fruitfulness on how people on becoming more mature disciples, becoming disciple makers, or how new people are coming to know Christ.  In other words, the reporting (and the activities they represent) are often disconnected from the mission of the church.

Strategic ministry planning causes the council/board members to take a deep dive into current reality and determine if the church’s vision is still driving the church or if it is time for the church to discern a new vision – God’s preferred future for how the church uniquely lives out the mission of making disciples in their mission field who transform the world.

The goals are based on what steps the church needs to take in the upcoming year so that the church intentionally lives into its discerned vision.  Too often churches grab goals (if they set goals at all) out of thin air instead of seeking goals that will intentionally help them live into their discerned vision.  It’s no wonder churches often report disliking the visioning process since they lack an intentional process to live into the discerned vision!

A couple of weeks following the council/board’s strategic planning retreat, the pastor will hold a staff/leadership retreat where strategies are set with ministry staff and ministry team leaders based on the goals set.  The ministry budgets are set based on those strategies.

There is intentional accountability for the mission built in at all levels since each is built on the same missional foundation.  Each person can see how their ministry is directly connected to the mission and vision of the church and consequently how each individually and their ministry team are impacting each.  The board/council is accountable to Christ for leading the church in its mission to make disciples who transform the world. The board/council holds the pastor accountable to the vision through the accomplishment of the goals.  The pastor holds the ministry team leaders accountable for the strategies.  The ministry team leaders hold their ministry team members accountable for carrying out the ministries effectively and for the intended purpose and outcome.

Everyone is on the same page which allows for alignment and focus. This alignment legitimizes leadership, multiplies generosity, and increases momentum, energy, and excitement throughout the congregation.

Congregations have a clear method of identifying if they are indeed effective in their mission of making disciples through their current ministries.

Many congregations are busy doing good things.  But are they busy doing the right things?  Without a strategic ministry plan based on their mission and congregationally discerned vision and their church’s core values, it is difficult to really know if they are doing effective, contextual ministry.  Now is the time to conduct your annual strategic ministry planning retreat to have all the pieces in place for the start of next year.  If you need assistance, check out these resources:

Strategy Matters: Your Roadmap for an Effective Ministry Planning Retreat  – Book

Strategic Ministry Planning Retreat – On Demand Webinar 

Strategic Ministry Planning Retreat Consultation or Facilitator – Contact Us

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Don’t Miss This Exciting Time to Build Community With Your Neighbors

It is back-to-school season – a time of launches, starts, restarts, and acquiring new routines for many.  Cooler weather will arrive soon and before we know it there will be Friday night football games and bonfires. It is also a natural season to kick off new programs and ministries in the life of the church. 

 

As our neighbors are settling into their new routines, don’t miss out on this new season filled with new opportunities and possibilities.  In a world filled with people experiencing loneliness and desiring a sense of community,  the church has an opportunity to step out into their community in this season of launches and restarts.  The church is in a perfect position to offer hope, relationships, encouragement, and community.  

 

Notice there is the distinction to challenge the church to step out – not invite, attract, or expect the neighbors to come in.  This may be a shift for some churches and even a bit uncomfortable for other churches.  Jesus modeled this type of “stepping out” ministry offering most of His ministry outside the Temple (i.e. woman at the well, tax collectors, Good Samaritan, eating with commoners).

 

As we step out into our communities, we must step out in ways that are meaningful, impactful, authentic, and demonstrate we truly care about the well-being of our neighbors.  The purpose of reaching out is not to gain new members or grow the offering plate collection.  The purpose is to build new, meaningful relationships with the neighbors.  In order to do this, we must start with their needs, desires, preferences, and interests in mind instead of our own.  Too often the church starts with insider focus and ideas.  We must evert our thinking and our doing to start and end in different places.

 

What is missing in your neighborhood that your church can (or is being called to) provide?  What problem needs to be solved in your community that your church can bring people together to solve?  What kind of activity would your neighbors love to participate in but there is currently no space to host the activity?  The church doesn’t always have to be the initiator of brand new ideas or events.  What’s already going on in your neighborhood that you can help promote, grow, and support?  You will likely need to get out into your community to find out what’s going on and how to best connect with your neighbors.  First and foremost, don’t sit in a church meeting room and make decisions about reaching the community without asking them first!

 

Fall is the perfect time to connect with your neighbors as people recalibrate their routines.  Don’t miss this exciting opportunity to build authentic relationships with your community!  If your church is looking for resources to help equip you for this season, consider these options:

 

Connecting With Your Community Through Bridge Events – On Demand Webinar

Connection is Key: Stop Losing People in the Black Hole – On Demand Webinar

Inside Out:  Everting Ministry Models for the Postmodern Culture – On Demand Webinar

Inside Out:  Everting Ministry Models For The Postmodern Culture – Book

Ultimate Relaunch Playbook – On Demand Webinar

Who Is Your Neighbor? – On Demand Webinar

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How Would You Rate the Effectiveness of Your Leadership Board Meeting?

 

Yikes, that’s a loaded question for many, isn’t it?  If you ask a Millennial or Gen X-er and a Boomer this question, you might get different answers. Their expectations and desired outcomes of board meetings might be different. Their measurements of effectiveness might also differ.

First, to fairly measure the effectiveness of a leadership board’s meeting, we must clearly understand the mission/purpose of the organization (church).  Secondly, we must clearly understand the role, purpose, authority, and responsibility of the leadership board as it serves the organization (church). Third, is the meeting moving the mission/purpose of the organization (church) forward within the scope of the leadership board’s role, authority, and responsibility? 

If all three of the steps are clearly defined, understood, and clearly being executed, then the meetings are likely effective. If any one of the three steps are unclear, undefined, misunderstood, or no one is being held accountable to, then the leadership board meetings are likely not effective. It sounds pretty simple, right?  Actually, it is in theory, but in practice leaders struggle with it – especially in the church.  This is especially true when board meetings have been ineffective for years or sometimes decades.

 

Here are leading the ineffective church leadership board meeting practices which in turn further result in ineffective missional focus and accomplishment:

 

Leadership boards tend to manage instead of govern.  Not only is this ineffective, but it is not practical since board members are not at the church on a day-to-day basis to manage the day-to-day operations.  Therefore, the board becomes the bottleneck to the whole operation.  In addition, when the board manages, no one is doing the important governing work (i.e., generative, strategic, and accountable).

 

Leadership boards tend to ignore their responsibility and accountability to Christ to lead the church in its mission to reach new people.  Years can go by without reaching one new person and no one seems to notice, hold themselves accountable, make any noticeable changes, or really spend time doing the deep spiritual and strategic work to find out why and make course adjustments.  

Leadership boards tend to focus more on maintaining the relationships of the church people already gathered (and keeping them happy – especially the big givers) rather than focusing on building new relationships with new people in their mission field.

 

Leadership boards tend to focus more on scarcity rather than abundance.  Rather than seeing how their church has been blessed to receive assets and now their responsibility is how to best leverage those gifts for ministry today, they tend to store up these gifts for future rainy days. Church gifts have gold plagues affixed for recognition to a people instead of recognizing all gifts ultimately come from God.

Leadership boards tend to focus on hearing reports rather than measuring whether the activities of the church are actually helping the church live out its mission of making disciple-making disciples who are transforming the world.  Leaders are not determining if what’s going on in the life of the church is actually helping existing people mature in their faith and if the church is reaching new people.

 

There are more practices that lead to ineffective leadership board meetings and the resulting ineffective mission implementation. However, these are the top practices that hold them back. If your church leadership board would like to move toward more effective leadership board meetings and even more effective missional focus and implementation, check out these resources for assistance:

 

Accountable Leadership Overview, Complimentary Overview Video

Accountable Leadership, On-Demand Webinar

Ten Most Common Things That Stunt Church Growth, On-Demand Webinar

Being the Church in the Post Pandemic World, On Demand Webinar,  Book

Gear Up: Nine Essential Processes for the Optimized Church, Book, On-Demand Webinar

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Why Reclaiming Leadership Development Can Be An Absolute Game Changer

“The single biggest way to impact an organization is to focus on leadership development. There is almost no limit to the potential of an organization that recruits good people, raises them up as leaders and continually develops them.”  

John Maxwell

 

The church is full of good people.  And for the most part, those good people are busy doing good things.  Unfortunately in the life of the church we often are so busy doing good things that we don’t often take the time to evaluate if we are doing the “right” good things or if we have the “right” people doing the “right” things.  In other words, we just keep doing those good things for the sake of us good people being busy doing the things we have always done simply because we’ve always done them.

 

In working with organizations, the words intentional and strategic have become my two most favorite words.  Not just because I like and thrive on systems, but because of the meaning and action behind these two words.  When a church acts with intention and strategy, they live out their transformational disciple-making mission with more focus, clarity, and effectiveness.  In our ever-changing world, leaders need help navigating their culture and context in how to lead their churches.  What worked effectively a decade or even a year ago does not necessarily work today or tomorrow to reach people for Christ. 

Just like how we do ministry has to adapt, how we go about equipping leaders must also adapt.  However, churches can’t expect to raise up leaders without also investing in leadership development. That investment includes time, dollars, and mentors inside and outside the church.  What is your leadership development line item in your budget for your pastor, staff, ministry team leadership, and board members?  What conferences are your leaders being sent to for intentional development?  What mentoring and coaching is being provided?  What expectations are set for leaders for leadership development?  How is leadership development tied into the church’s goals and evaluations process for the pastor and staff or the nominations process for ministry team leaders and board members?

Since the Committee on Nominations and Leadership Development is responsible for the leadership development in your church, what is their intentional leadership development process?  How are existing leaders being equipped on-going?  How are new leaders identified, recruited, and equipped for future leadership?  How are current leaders pouring into the next class of leaders?  What mentoring is occurring at your church?

No one wants to be thrown into a leadership role where they feel ill-equipped and unsure what is expected.  It is better not to launch a ministry than to place someone in a role without training.  Furthermore, no one wants to attend a meeting where no decisions or impact are made.  That’s a sure way to keep people from serving or leading.

If your church is looking to reclaim leadership development, here are some game-changing resources to help you take your leadership development to the next level:

 

On-demand training for Committee on Nominations & Leadership Development  LINK

Launching Leaders – Leadership development process  Book 

Launching Leaders – Leadership development process  Small Group

Launching Leaders – Taking Development to New Heights On-demand Webinar

Strategic Ministry Planning -On-demand Webinar

Strategy Matters – Book

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Why It’s Critically Important and Church Leaders Need to Care About Governance

On a recent coaching call with church leaders, I inquired if the leadership board had set their annual goals. After a long explanation as to why, the bottom line answer was no they had not.  The reason they had not is that they had not had the time to do so. And, why was it that they had not had time for this important work?  They were too busy managing the day-to-day operations of the church. Many of you may be wondering why this is a problem.  Isn’t this the role of the leadership board/council?  Historically or in typical practice, this is how many of our boards/councils function.  However, in best practices, this is not recommended.  When a board/council is managing it leaves no entity to govern.  Thus, the governance work is left undone!

What is this important governance work?  In the life of the church, there are four areas of focus for governance work: fiduciary, strategic, generative, and accountability.  Church leaders typically do a fairly good job in the fiduciary area.  However, because of the tendency to manage instead of govern in the role of the board/council, the other three areas of governance responsibilities are neglected.

What is the outcome when strategic, generative, and accountability responsibilities are not carried out by boards/councils?  Typically churches are not missionally focused, but are instead maintenance-focused (i.e., building, ministries, funding) or perhaps even focused on living in the past. Leaders are many times concentrating on maintaining existing relationships and pleasing the existing congregants as the highest priority rather than focusing on reaching those in the neighborhood who do not yet have a relationship with Jesus Christ. Churches often become irrelevant and invisible to their neighbors.

In contrast, what is the outcome when councils/boards govern instead of manage?  When boards stay in their governance lane and empower ministry leaders in their day-to-day ministry within healthy boundaries through guiding principles created by the board, the board then has the bandwidth and focus for their own work. This work includes annual strategic ministry planning to set church-wide goals, routinely reviewing demographics in their area and making needed shifts in the life of the church, aligning and leveraging the resources of the church with the mission, vision, and core values of the church, holding the pastor accountable for the church’s goals, monitoring the community context for any changes, and modeling spiritually mature leadership.

Too often the management lane in churches is overcrowded and the governance lane has long been abandoned.  Without governance, a church will meander into the ditch!  It is absolutely critical to have leaders concentrating on this important “balcony work” or the church will not be effective in its mission and fruitfulness.

If your church leadership is stuck in managing and desires to move into governance, there are resources available to help you take next steps to get there.  If you haven’t already picked up a copy, consider using Mission Possible 3+ as a resource.  Or perhaps consider the Local Church SAS Subscription for access to a host of resources or work with a Certified SAS Coach.

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Five Shifts Nominations Committees Must Make to Grow Stronger Leaders

One consistent concern heard in churches today is the lack of strong leadership. No matter the size of the church, this concern remains true.  Why is this a common struggle?  There are several reasons, but according to TeamStage.io:

 

“All nonprofits are dependent on volunteer labor to some degree, though some nonprofits are more dependent on it than others. It’s also been shown that 80% of nonprofits that rely on volunteers don’t have the managerial knowledge to engage them properly. Project management statistics tell us that 70% of all projects fail, so a lack of good project management may be what hinders volunteer organizations.”

 

In the nonprofit church world, growing stronger leaders can start with these five important shifts in the Nominations Committee:

 

Start with having potential leaders complete an interest form for the leadership position. Inquire about their spiritual practices, why they feel called into leadership in this season, what their hopes are for the church, what they would offer to the particular leadership position they have interest in, etc. (You’ll find a sample of an Interest form and questions in Mission Possible 3+.) These questions not only inform the committee, but they set the tone for different leadership expectations and commitment.  The committee will then have holy conversations with those leaders inquiring further about their interest, fit, skills, experience, spiritual maturity, commitment, and leadership motivations.  The committee will be in deep prayer and discernment over their nominations decisions.

We must shift from our focus on secular experience and skill expectations to having spiritually mature leaders in key leadership roles. Too often we have chosen professionals with HR, construction, and finance experience and not paid attention to spiritual maturity or even living out the membership vows.  When the committee is solely focused on leaders with professional experience, we often have secular leaders leading without a spiritual focus and missional priority.  No wonder churches are struggling!

Because of our desperation for leaders, we often set the bar low just to get people to serve. Churches even have people serve on committees that no longer function, but still have to get a “yes” from a certain number of people to fill out the required judicatory paperwork.  It is better not to have optional standing committees than to ask people to commit to non-functioning ones.  Furthermore, if people are not passionate about serving, it’s not the right time to offer that particular ministry.  For key required leadership positions (i.e., board/council members), it is more effective to set high expectations than low expectations just to get someone to say yes.  When we set low expectations, that’s exactly the level of commitment and service you’ll receive.  People want to serve in places where they can make a difference, have impact, and their time is worth the investment.  Have a leadership covenant, job description, and leadership expectations (i.e., meeting times, prep work, retreats, training) and share it with potential leaders before they say yes.  

Invest in a leadership development process.  After all, in the UMC it is the Committee on Nominations and Leadership Development.  How are you investing (dollars and time) and preparing leaders for serving in structure committees and ministry teams?  Here is a resource to help you get started.

Identify, recruit, equip, and deploy leaders for ministry.  It is a four-step process.  Too often the leader equipping process is to beg for a yes and then deploy.  Be sure people are matched well in their passion, spiritual gifts, and commitment for the position to serve. Train people before deploying them for ministry so they are confident in the how, why, and intended outcomes of the ministry.

Over a billion people volunteer in the world each year. According to Michael Walter, they do so because they want to do good, find belonging, find their purpose, and gain energy for life.  As your Nominations Committee begins their work this season, consider these shifts to develop stronger, more committed, and effective leaders.  Also, consider using this On-Demand training video for the Nominations Committee as a resource to equip them and begin making these five shifts for growing stronger leaders.

 

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Eight Practical Principles for Really Effective Ministry in Small Churches

Why plan ministries? Can’t we all just show up? Well. . . we suppose that’s possible, but it is certainly not the best stewardship of everyone’s time and valuable ministry funds. The small church often operates on a thin margin of sustainability and accountability to the mission Jesus Christ has given us. The church is called to be stewards of Jesus’ people and resources, all for the building up of the Kingdom of God. We believe those are reasons enough to invest in some simple planning!  As you consider the different expressions of ministry, take note of some common principles for simple, practical, yet effective ministry planning in the small church. Following, you will find the quick list of principles outlined in our newest book, Mission Possible for the Small Church: Simplifying Leadership, Structure, and Ministries in the Small Church. You’ll find a more detailed dive into each principle in the book.

 

We, Not They – “All Hands on Deck” is the rule, not the exception, so plan with all active attendees of all ages being involved in implementing the ministry, and include the assets of the larger community.

 

Get Face-to-Face – Focus on building relationships, not complex systems.

 

Evangelism is not an Extra – Embed evangelism (reaching new people for Jesus) into every ministry, every event, and every opportunity. 

 

Dream Up and Team Up – Partner with local institutions and nonprofits, especially for organizing the infrastructure for community ministry, leaning on their expertise and organization.

 

Deep, Not Wide – Who is God calling you to build relationships with? Choose one niche and go deep relationally and with ministries for this one group. You’ll reach more people using fewer resources without burning your volunteers out.

 

When in Doubt, Experiment – Allow yourselves to try ministry experiments. In a season when many of our inherited ways of doing ministry are no longer effective, try something new every season or at least twice a year.

 

Simple with a Signature – Instead of having multiple low-impact ministries, take a simple approach by discerning and focusing on one or two signature ministries. 

 

Keep Accountable – Be good stewards of God’s people and resources by pruning ministries regularly and using the Accountable Leadership Cycle (found in Mission Possible for the Small Church) to keep the church on track and always learning.

 

If your small church is looking to simplify your ministry to provide a deeper community impact, gather a small team to study Mission Possible for the Small Church.  Your team will find applicable small church resources, suggestions, practical tips, and next steps.  Each chapter includes team questions to help your leaders process the information in the chapter, apply it to your context, and make decisions towards faithful next steps for your church to be more missionally focused to reach more people.  

 

If you are interested in a Mission Possible for the Small Church workshop or fall cohort experience, let us know Here.

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