Taking a good hard look at your service and asking for feedback and dissecting everything is a good thing for your ministry. This is actually something I feel many youth pastors fail at. Why? This is a grueling process, a painful one, but necessary one. Leaders don’t like feedback but good ones do. So we HAVE to make this a priority. 

Why?

So many times we are so head down in our ministry that we create blind spots. We are so focused on the week to week, the never full beast of weekly programming, that we have not had the time to look and see where we ended up. As a leader we need to have some heads up time to know where we are at right now and be able to see where we need to go and make adjustments. This assessment is step one of that heads up time. We have to do a status and damage report of where we stand right now in order to move forward.  

There are 4 categories (Part 1 in this post, part 2 coming later) in which I challenge you to think through (and be honest with) and I challenge you to send these things to both some core leaders AND core students and get feedback. It might sting, but I promise it would be worth it. 

Self/Ministry Assessment Questions (Part 1 of 2):

Personal – Obviously, this is about you as a leader. But it does start with you. IF you can sit down and be honest going through these questions then you will only be a better leader on the other side. And again, if you want to be brave, send this to your leaders and then compare your answers. 

  • On a scale of 1-10, how excited are you in regards to the vision and strategy of the ministry? Why?
  • On a scale fo 1-10, how clear do you think your vision is for the ministry? Do people know what they are striving for exactly?
  • On a scale of 1-10, how well do you think you communicate as a leader in all areas?
  • On a scale of 1-10, how good/consistent is your personal time with the Lord?
  • What are some of the best things you bring to the table when it comes to leading in your ministry?
  • What are areas in which if you got better in, your leaders, students and church would be better off?
  • On a scale of 1-10, How organized are you?
  • On a scale of 1-10, how far in advanced are you planned out? How far do you need to be planned in order to be more successful as a leader?
  • Who do you need to ask out to lunch once a month because they are more seasoned than you so you can ask questions?
  • What is one habit you NEED to add in order for you to be more effective?
  • What is one habit you NEED to give up to be more effective?
  • If you have family, what are you going to do to actually “be home” when you are home?
  • What exactly do you need to do to pour into more leaders?

Program – This is your weekly service and events. What I have experienced is that we as leaders love to plan things that we like but we are hear to serve our ministry. The thing is, most of the time we don’t stop and ask questions to the people that we serve to get their feedback. We spend a lot of time, energy and money planning programs and events but most of the time we dont ask our students about if they are effective. We tell them all of the time, “Bring a friend” but what if they don’t want to because a non-churched friend would never come this what you have to offer? Hard question, but a needed one. So these questions are to help you process that. 

  • What is something this year that needs to go in your ministry?
  • What is something that needs to start in your ministry?
  • When it comes to your students inviting friends, is your service worth being invited to? Ask your students. 
  • What do I need to do in order to have online ministry be more prominent in my ministry?
  • How do you know if your curriculum is being effective for your group of students?
  • Does a new student feel welcome to come as they are? How do you know?
  • Do the events you plan have a purpose behind them or are they just random and “just for fun”?
  • Is your service/groups new person friendly? Do they assimilate well? How do you know?
  • What is the language you use? Is it for only insiders who know all the ins and outs of your ministry? Or can a new person/in-believer come in and know what is going on?

I know this seems like a bunch of questions and this seems time consuming… and you would be right. But it’s worth it. Before you can even move forward and begin to write out your own playbook you have to sit down and go through these questions honestly because you have to address the current state of your ministry right now in order to really take practical steps forward.

I am sure there are better questions to ask or to add but these are the ones I have wrestled with in order to help me assess the ministries I took over this last year and helped us take the next step to the next level.

Part 2 later this week.

@justinknowles3


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