Fall hasn’t worked out as planned, now what?
So, you went into the fall full of energy and excitement. Students were excited. Leaders were excited. You KNEW this was going to be the best year ever in your ministry.
And yet, the fall hasn’t worked out quite as planned. There could be a variety of different reasons why the fall didn’t work out the way you had plotted out. However, if you want to make sure the winter and spring seasons improve from the fall, you can’t sit around wishing things to be different.
You have to take action. And, in order to know what action is needed, you have to reevaluate the fall. How do you do that? By getting these 3 groups of people involved in the process:
- Gets STUDENTS involved. Pick their brain, especially your core students and see what their thoughts were on the fall and what needs to be done to make the winter better.
- Get LEADERS involved. When you get leaders involved it is really showing them that you care about their input and that their opinions matter.
- Get PARENTS involved. Sometimes teens not showing up to your program isn’t necessarily because the kids don’t want to be there. It could be because the parents couldn’t get them there or there was a constant conflict. That is why talking to parents and seeing what their thoughts are could make a big difference.
- Get GOD involved. Now of course this seems like a no-brainer. After all everything ministers do should be covered in prayer and Christ centered. But just because we know that to be true doesn’t mean we always have God involved. James 1:5 says, “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.” As decisions are being made about changes that need to take place, make sure you go to the Lord who wants to give you knowledge and wisdom – we just have to ask.
Now, as with any and all evaluations, once you decide to get others involved, you have to be prepared to make some of the changes you discussed with them. That is not to say you have to do ALL the changes, but if you fail to do any of them, then the next time you ask for their opinions on what needs to change, they will be a little more hesitant considering you didn’t do anything with their thoughts last time.
But here is reality, there is hope. Just because a season of ministry didn’t work out quite as well as you had hoped and plan, that doesn’t mean the whole year is lost. Learn from what you did wrong, continue to do what you did right and keep on making adjustments along the way. There is NO LIMIT to what God can do in your ministry this year.
What do you think? What do you do when you reevaluate? Who do you talk to and what steps to you take? Share your stories below so we can all learn from each other and be inspired to be better leaders. Or you can share on social media using #ymsidekick.
