Do you have a strategy for the preschool, children, college, or student ministry you lead? Let me clarify. Do you have a unique strategic plan that helps you navigate the direction of your ministry? I am amazed at how many leaders lead with no plan…no reason for their choices other than this is the latest idea learned at a conference. Just doing ministry is not enough. Copying other ministry ideas is not enough. Implementing suggestions from you team is not enough. You need a strategy. When you become intentional with your strategy you will finally come to grips with why you do what you do in your ministry. When you slow down long enough to develop your strategy here are some things that happen naturally…
- You will be able to say NO and YES to ideas with confidence because all ideas will be filtered through your strategy. Without a strategy you will end up doing everything.
- You will know who to recruit as leaders because you will be recruiting to fulfill your strategy.
- You will know how to budget and utilize your resources because your strategy will determine how resources are divided.
- You will know how to manage your time. I find many leaders struggle with time management because they have no strategy to help determine what is most important.
- You will be able to lead with confidence. When it comes to strategy in ministry we must filter everything through prayer and scripture. There is a confidence that comes from knowing we have processed our ideas and searched for God’s wisdom simultaneously. Our hope and strength comes from God.
What is your strategy? How did you arrive at it? How do you evaluate the effectiveness?
Great post!
Brandon…yes great questions. Since we launched the church 5 years ago we have tried to build our strategy around our church strategy while at the same time filtering it through ORANGE principles. We Gather (create environments where people can worship, grow and invite their friends) Connect (kids teens and college students to small groups) and SERVE (help kids teens and students find a place to use their gifts and serve others)
Evaluation – we track numbers, look for life change, look for growth, and evaluate effectiveness // mostly subjective BUT it is working
That’s great. I’d love to see pics of your environments. I know Orange is intentional in that area and I’m curious as to what works best within youth ministry specifically, but also the other ministry spaces.
The most frustrating thing is when the rest of the church refuses to adopt a strategy and is out there just swinging the figurative bat at anything just hoping to make contact. Great post, every ministry needs a strategy.