Getting better is hard! We all want to see improvement in the ministries we lead but it’s strenuous work. Raising the bar is difficult in any organization but it begins with raising the expectations of the people on your team. It starts with your key staff and volunteers choosing to do the needed work to improve. When you look around and decide that normal is not enough you have to raise expectations for everyone around you and you can’t give up. Most of the time we raise expectations, someone complains, and then we lower them again. Improvement only comes when we push through complacency. The truth is most of us forget that leading people toward Jesus is the most important thing we can do with our lives. In 100 years what we do with Jesus will be the only thing that matters. We view ministry as a nice option, a thing we do on the side when in reality it’s what matters most in life. We raise expectations because seeing the lives of kids, teens, and college students transformed by Jesus Christ matters. We raise expectations because partnering with parents matters. We raise expectations because mentoring the next generation is the heart of life change. We raise expectations because next week may be the week for someone to discover the unfailing love of God for the first time. Never apologize for raising expectations, it really is the only way to improve.
