Poor Management May Cost The Church its Ministry Potential

"Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won’t you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it? For if you lay the foundation and are not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule you, saying, ‘This person began to build and wasn’t able to finish.’" Luke 14:28-30

This passage speaks to the importance of planning and budgeting—key elements of effective management. In the context of ministry, it underscores the necessity of thoughtful preparation and resource management to ensure that the work is completed successfully and reflects well on the ministry's efforts.

Poor management can cost a church its potential in ministry. When leaders are unable to see the big picture, manage their resources in pursuit of their goals, communicate and coordinate multiple efforts toward the accomplishment of those goals, don't listen well to the community in which they minister or those engaged in the ministry itself, or fail to inspire and manage creativity in a generative way, a church's ministry can falter. One way to assess your church leadership's management competence is to ask yourself these questions:

Do church leaders set clear and achievable goals?

Does the leadership align goals for each ministry team?

Do leaders check in with each other on progress and challenges?

Do they share feedback?

Do they adjust their strategy to use the gifts the congregation offers?

Do they listen well to the community in which they minister and to each other?

Do our leaders change and grow through creative reflection and learning?

In this next series of blogs, I will address each of these leadership tasks individually to help focus the attention of Church leaders on practices that can make Christ's church healthy, relevant, and significant.

Effective management begins with the crucial task of setting goals:

   Setting goals through prayer and discernment is essential for church growth and service.  When leaders aren't skilled in setting specific, trackable, relevant, attainable, and motivating goals, the result is multiple priorities, unclear action steps, and a poor line of sight to how the ministry resources, human and financial, given to the church contribute to the larger mission.

Too many churches are treading water, continuing to prop up programs that have not been evaluated for years, and failing to engage in creative discernment, asking what God may call them to do differently. Members and leaders trapped in this cycle of perpetuating ministry designed to meet the goals of a church ten years earlier wonder why leaders and members are no longer enthusiastic about serving and giving to such a ministry. Standing at a distance, it is evident that the program has lost relevance.  So why do we keep doing the same old thing when Christ's Spirit is anxious to reveal new and meaningful ministry opportunities all around us?  The answer is poor management of the discernment process. 

Not only are these programs outdated, but the church's ministry resources, human and financial, have changed. Often, current members were never involved in the discernment process that initiated these programs. They don't own the goals established ten years ago. They also may bring different gifts than those who imagined these ministry goals years ago. Today's members may not be equipped to carry out these programs, or they may seem irrelevant.

While the mission of Christ's church is quite clear: to make disciples, serve the disadvantaged, and bring the realm of God into our historical context (Thy kingdom come, Thy Will be done, On earth as it is in heaven), the actual needs, historical context, and ministry gifts are constantly changing.  Listening to God and neighbors regularly allows us to set relevant ministry goals.  It also lets us assess the gifts we have to accomplish the call and monitor our progress toward fulfilling specific objectives Christ calls his church to accomplish. Whether it is the development of a homeless shelter, pantry, or counseling center, choosing a new curriculum and spiritual formation model for the children of the church, or new patterns of worship, if the church does not regularly engage in discernment and goal-setting, the ministries can become stale, irrelevant, and a drain on the resources the church may have for effective, healthy, engaged, ministry.

Leadership must consistently practice good management by setting and aligning goals for each ministry team and leader. This clarifies how their unique gifts can be utilized to fulfill the church's mission. The next two blogs will reflect on the management of communication and adjustment, and the last blog in the series will be on the management of creativity and learning.