Goal Setting For Your Ministry
Every ministry leader wants to grow in attendance, build up their volunteer teams equip their parents, and create more opportunities for families to experience God. It is a tall order and on top of that, Sunday morning programming happens every seven days! Kids ministry has a lot of moving pieces and if you don’t know where you want to go it is all too easy to get to the end of the semester or even a year and realize you never took one step forward. One can have many lofty dreams, but if you don’t spend time figuring out the how behind the what your dreams will never become reality. When you set goals, you are serving yourself, your family, and your staff well by looking ahead and making intentional steps toward keeping rest rhythms in place throughout the busy seasons (hello, Christmas & Easter!)
Here two simple ways to get started in the goal setting process…
Download the Goal Setting Guide. Fill this out by yourself or with your team and it is sure to be incredibly helpful when reflecting, planning, and building a strategy for your ministry.
[Click the button below!]Watch the Goal Setting YouTube Video. Hear Lauren speak more in depth about the process and how to really take your big dreams to practical steps and answer the question, “what now?”
A new calendar or school year brings new opportunities to make plans, set goals and hope for what is to come. You may already set goals for yourself or for your family at the start of each year, so why not take that approach to your ministry? Goal setting is not the same as setting resolutions. Resolutions by definition are decisions to do or not to do something. That may be applicable for your personal life, but in ministry you want to set goals, have ambitions and work toward a desired outcome.
This is a process and simply cannot be done in a one hour timeframe or even an afternoon. You will want to block off a day or even more to allow you to spend time listening for where God wants to lead you and thinking through practical steps on how to get there.
We all learned that sometimes goals change by living through the year 2020 (& 2021), but that shouldn’t stop you from dreaming and planning. As you plan and dream, remember that God is still working. He has gone before you and there is a good chance that your plans will change throughout the year. When that happens, we have the opportunity and responsibility seek wisdom as we pivot, give ourselves grace to follow Him, and to trust when we aren’t sure what’s next. Here are 4 steps to setting goals for your ministry.
1. Look back:
The first step is to look back and remember. You made it through another year and that is worth celebrating! We see all throughout the Old Testament, God’s people stopping to remember what He has done and celebrating. It is one of my favorite practices in my personal life and ministry.
There are so many ways to remember & celebrate. You can do this on your own, with your staff, or with your volunteer team. Use a journal, a big piece of paper, rocks, or take videos. Collect stories of the ways you have seen God move in the lives of your kids and families, how He provided financially, with volunteers, or with strength and wisdom.
Make it fun and use it as a way to remind yourself that God is provider and sustainer of us all!
2. Go Deeper:
After you look back and celebrate, it is time to assess the present and take a look at the current state of your ministry. This step is all about what your ministry looks like today, not what is once was or what you want it to be. What is currently happening week to week.
One tool that can help you to assess the present is to first split up your ministry by categories (ex: Sunday morning, volunteers, parents, curriculum, and discipleship). Once your categories are set, you can make a big list of all the strengths and weaknesses of each category. This is no time to hold back and I would encourage you to bring in one or two very trusted voices to help you think through strengths and weaknesses. You may find out that certain things are going better than you thought or that there are certain weaknesses you are not seeing.
3. Plan for What is Next
That statement sounds silly and pretty unattainable after living through the past two years, but if you want to move your ministry forward, goal setting is crucial to help you stay on track. So far you have celebrated what God has done, assessed where your ministry is currently and now you get to dream for what is ahead (the fun part!) How do you do this? Don’t set aside your categories from the assessment step just yet, because you will need them. Look through your categories and pick 1 or 2 things that you want to make a priority to work on this year. Maybe you want to switch to a new curriculum, recruit more volunteers, plan a family-friendly Easter event or create a new space for 4th & 5th graders. Once you pick you top 7-10 areas that need improvement, take a moment to look through them and see if you can notice a common thread. A common thread could potentially be discipleship, volunteer care or making improvements to your environment. You can’t do all the things at one time so it is important to narrow down your goals so they are specific and attainable.
4. Get Into the Weeds
This is the final step! You have your big dreams and goals written out and now you need to figure out how you are going to make it happen. It is crucial to have some actions steps for each goal so you can track your progress and see the tasks you can tackle next. Answering these four questions will help you think through the action steps needed to complete your goals.
1. How am I going to make this happen?
Write down specific tasks that will need to be accomplished to reach this goal.
How much time do I need to set aside for this goal?
Is this a change to your weekly rhythms or is this a seasonal event?
Who do I need to bring along?
Do you need to recruit a team of volunteers or bring along an Elder or Pastor?
What will my ministry look like after I reach my goal?
What does success look like?
How will you know you’ve accomplished your goal?
Don’t forget to come back to your goals often throughout the year. Put them on your wall, talk about them in meetings and invite people to keep you accountable.
Happy goal setting! I can’t wait to see how God moves in and through your ministry over this next year!