Are you a ministry leader who wants to grow your ministry? Then consider implementing this simple strategy for ministry growth. These “3 E’s” can help you identify how to prepare your ministry for growth, both now and in the future.
Effective
What is the most important aspect of your ministry? That it is effective. If your ministry isn’t effective, then either you need to improve it, or the ministry may have run its course.
What are the “wins” for your ministry? Consider creating goals that involve:
- Depth of Spiritual Growth: How are people growing deeper to Christ and becoming more like Him as a result of this ministry right now?
- Number of People Reached: Are you reaching more people in the church and/or outside of the church with this ministry right now?
If you are hitting the desired goals that you are creating each year for the ministry, then congratulations! Your ministry is effective. If it’s not effective, then consider asking yourself if a change needs to be made, or if you are still headed in the right direction by continuing this ministry.
Efficient
Once a ministry is effective, then it needs to become efficient. That means that you have developed a good system for:
- Communication
- Promotion
- Planning details
- Follow-up after gatherings or events
- Delegating to volunteers
- Empowering others to help lead the ministry
Eventually, you may even reach a point where you can raise up someone else from within to lead the ministry itself. Along the way, any processes that you can implement to increase the efficiency of the ministry is a big win. Just make sure that the processes don’t comprise the effectiveness of the ministry. The more efficient a ministry becomes, the more time it frees up for you (the ministry leader) to begin to expand the ministry or your ministry responsibilities down the road.
Expand
After you have led your ministry through the “effective” and “efficient” stages of growth, then you are ready to truly expand your ministry. This might look like:
- Numerical growth: You may now be ready for more people to take part in the ministry itself. Additionally, you can now raise up more volunteers to help lead it as well.
- Ministry initiatives: You may also be ready to expand your ministry responsibilities by taking on more, or pursuing new ministry initiatives for the church.
You can take this simply strategy and apply it to any ministry in your church. You may also consider sharing this strategy with other staff members or volunteers. That way, you can work together to implement these steps for how to prepare your ministry for growth.
