How to Encourage Your Team after Big Moments and Wins

Recently we had a pivotal month in our ministry. We saw it coming a few months before and knew it had the potential to be a big month so we prayed and we worked hard. It was a stressful month, a hard month with lost of work to do, but when the month was over we had one of the most successful and biggest impacting months of ministry we’ve had in years. The leaders worked hard and God did amazing things! It was great!

What do you do when you have powerful, impactful month in ministry? More importantly, how do you encourage your team after such a month?

I don’t know if this is you, but it seems that oftentimes when we see big moments we celebrate by getting excited by writing an encouraging email to the leaders saying, “good job” or “job well done” or even “this is exciting”. We may even give high fives and share the excitement when we see each other.  And while those are great, if you really want to encourage your team, you need to really celebrate!

And by celebration I mean CELEBRATION. Take time out, get a meal catered, maybe treat them out to a Dave & Busters or a Top Golf type place and celebrate what God has done and how He has used them all to do a big work.

After all, when you put a lot of time and effort into ministry, you need to celebrate the big wins. Why? Because when you celebrate as a team it encourages your team in a different way than just sending a “thank you” email. When you celebrate it does a few things:

• It honors what your team does.
• It motivates your team to work hard in the future.
• It recognizes God’s movement in the ministry.
• It provides an opportunity to cast vision.

Not much encourages your ministry team like when you take time out of the norm and celebrate big wins and victories you all experience as a team. It brings your team together and hopefully keeps the positive momentum going in your ministry as you rejoice your hard work and all that God is doing. Make sure you make it a priority in your team to not only work hard but to celebrate when God does amazing things. You and your team will enjoy it but the students will benefit from it the most because your celebrations together builds a stronger, more cohesive team.

What do you think? How do you encourage your team? Do you celebrate?  Share your experiences below or on social media using #ymsidekick when you share.

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