It is crazy to me that 2015 is almost over. For our group, we only have one more meeting for the year and then we pick back up in January. The New Year is a time of change. It is a perfect time of the year to introduce some new things to your ministry, for people to jump on or off your leadership team and to really evaluate your ministry and how it’s going. 

I feel like we always talk about change. This January will be one year of when we decided to split our junior high and high school students up for teaching. We had a change in how we do events. We changed our volunteer process and how we invited people to come and be a part our ministry. Change needs to happen as we keep pushing forward. 

Looking back over the last year of changes I couldn’t help but think what were the things that helped us move forward, what are the things that are required to make change happens.

Flexibility and grace: Sometimes we as leaders keep change from happening because of our inability to be flexible. Sometimes, whether we know it or not, we are not flexible and sometimes we are stuck in our ways. Sometimes this happens from our volunteers as well. Sometimes leaders who have been around for a while love how things are done now because it is comfortable. They know the routine. But in order for effective change and growth to happen, all leaders need to know and understand that being flexible is key to moving forward and know that God is not limited to our ideas of where to go.

Openness to change: Everything in our student’s world is constantly changing. How we run our programs should be able to meet the needs of the community in which you find yourself immersed in. I can look back and think, “Man, what would have happened to our ministry if we didn’t change up our program style and split our teaching times?” We felt that change needed to be made and even though it took a ton of work, we thought it was best for our ministry and made it happen. We adapted and God has been moving.

Faith: Our ministries are not called to play it safe. We are called to try and do things to reach teenagers for the Gospel. Successful change does not come from keeping staus quo. The healthiest and move thriving ministries are the ones that try and do things in which they need God to show up otherwise we will look foolish. It requires a whole team who is willing to have enough faith to try something and have God show up in a major way.

 

@justinknowles3