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By Bruce Fawcett
Whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.
1 Corinthians 10:31
Have you ever been asked to lead a ministry at your church?
As most of us grow older and more mature in our faith, we are often asked to
provide leadership to ministries in our church and elsewhere. As we begin to
direct a new ministry, we often start with dreams of partnering with the Lord
to build a ministry that will be successful and effective. Sometimes though, as
time progresses, our ministry falls short of what we had hoped for.
How can we avoid the mediocrity that so easily creeps into Christian ministries?
Here are 10 obstacles to ministry excellence that we should avoid in order to
ensure that we lead well:
Being ‘good enough’: Sometimes, being recognized as good at what you do can prevent you from
reaching your full potential. For instance, if you are good at leading worship,
it is easy to neglect practice and prayer – and just stand up on the stage and do what you do easily.
To avoid complacency, ask God to make you unhappy with any effort that is less
than your best. Also, when you can, expose yourself to excellence in your
ministry area so that the bar is raised for you and you are challenged to aim higher.
Parched spirituality: If your quiet time is becoming less and less frequent, if
you are becoming more critical, and if you are not experiencing the joy in
worship you once did, perhaps you need to pause and take your spiritual pulse.
Excellence in leadership flows from a full spiritual tank. Take the time to
renew your relationship with God, and then watch your ministry begin to gain
traction again.
Unbalanced personal and family life: Do you ever feel stressed – and just too busy? If so, you are not alone! Ask 10 people how they are, and I
suspect more than half of your friends will reply that they are busy. Some wear
it as a badge of honour. Others complain and are looking for a trap door to
escape their promises. What about you? Do you currently feel out of balance?
Let me encourage you to live counter-culturally. Take a day off like Genesis
says God did. If you have a job, take all your vacation days – enjoy God’s creation. Be the person the Bible calls you to be, and lead your ministry from
a sense of balance and clarity.
Failure to keep relevant: Same is safe. The safest thing to do when leading a
ministry is to keep doing what worked well in the past. By doing the same
thing, you can often avoid conflict and disagreement. By staying the course,
you can also save time and energy – since change takes a lot of effort and heavy lifting.
However, failing to keep your ministry relevant to the ever-changing needs of
those in your community is probably not the most God-honouring choice you could
make. Take care not to embrace change for change sake; but remember that when
God tells you and your team that the kingdom could be best advanced by
modifying your program, you had better pay attention.
Not asking / not listening: Are you a good listener? Listening is hard work; but
it is an investment that pays off, if you want to lead an excellent ministry.
Your staff and those in your care will tell you how to make your ministry
better if you ask them.
If you are a youth leader, ask your students, their parents, the pastor, and the
church board how you can improve the ministry. If they feel safe enough to tell
you the truth, and if you can listen without defensiveness, then you will have
discovered a gold mine of advice that can lead you to ministry excellence.
Not investing in your staff: Great ministries are led by teams whose point
person invests in them. Do you have people who help you in your ministry? When
was the last time you said “thanks”? When was the last time you had fun together? When was the last time you paid for
them to have training? If your staff feels appreciated, the quality of their
service will increase at a rate disproportionate to your investment in them.
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Failure to gain confidence of parents: Church programs take off because of word
of mouth. You can spend a mint on flyers, signs, and newspaper ads; that may
generate a crowd at first, but ultimately, a program will gain traction because
someone tells another how good it is.
In most churches, the key audience for successful children’s and youth programs is parents. If parents are convinced that their kids are
safe and benefiting from what your church is offering, they will endorse it to
their peers. This informal endorsement is the fuel most ministries need to race
ahead.
Shoddy facilities: Has your family ever tried to sell a house? If so, you may
have learned that poor curb appeal makes it difficult to draw prospective
buyers into your house. In the same way, poor curb appeal makes it difficult to
attract attendees to the program you are leading. If your church property is
not clean and attractive and if the interior is not well kept, your ministry
may never reach its full potential.
People’s expectations of facilities are high. New parents expect a church nursery to be
spotless and safe. Adults expect clean washrooms. Seniors expect wide, safe
stairways and maybe even an elevator. In the same way that we can overlook
piles of laundry and dirty dishes in our apartment, it is also easy to miss
church facility shortcomings that seems obvious to new sets of eyes.
To avoid this, take a walk around your building when it is empty. Pretend you
are seeing everything for the first time. What do you notice that a visitor
might also see? You might also decide to invite a visiting friend or relative
to walk through your building and give you friendly, but frank, feedback.
Inattention to details: A mentor of mine once said: “The shine is in the details.” Sometimes the extra few minutes given to test the audio/visual equipment, find
the ‘just right’ image for your PowerPoint slide, or put away the clutter in the corner can
change your program from good to excellent. To put a shine on your ministry,
avoid last minute preparation; delegate tasks to free up time, so you can sweat
the small stuff, and consider appointing someone with an eye for excellence as
your quality control coordinator.
Secret sin: Finally, don’t try to fool yourself – unconfessed sin matters. If you are involved in something you know you shouldn’t be – then stop it right now! No justifications. No excuses. Get rid of that barrier
between you and God, and lead your ministry with a pure heart. Don’t let your selfishness be the reason why the ministry entrusted to you never
becomes what it could have been.
Excellence is something many of us aspire to when we are called upon to lead a
new ministry. It’s a noble goal, but it’s also easily derailed. My prayer is that God will give you a passion for
excellence, and that you can steer clear of these and other barriers to
excellence in ministry. Hopefully, this will result in effective ministries in
churches across our great nation that glorify God and advance his kingdom.
Bruce Fawcett is associate professor of leadership at Acadia Divinity College,
in Wolfville, N.S. adc.acadiau.ca.
August 2009
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