Chances are, you want to win at being a kid’s pastor or a student pastor for a couple of reasons.
You believe in what you do. It’s your mission so you will always want to do it better because you know it’s one of the most important jobs on the planet.
You have a boss, and you are accountable to someone who evaluates or measures what you do.
So, redesigning your ministry to last is important to you and those over you. Let’s break down what that actually means.
What it Means to Redesign Your Ministry
Redesign – means you are willing to rethink what you do, consistently. You are a learner and are open and committed to change.
Your – implies the unique role that you play. You are positioning yourself as an owner of this ministry. Also, you have given your emotions and heart to your ministry.
Ministry – is the actual work. It’s how you lead, how you love, how you prioritize, how you program, and how you measure.
To Last – implies that you want what you do to make a difference and make a lasting influence. You want to influence their everyday faith, the kind of faith that they will own, and the kind of faith that will shape their identity, sense of belonging, and purpose even after they leave the doors of your ministry.
If you’re going to build something that lasts, you have to change what you build. You have to redesign your ministry.
The truth is, you’re probably already redesigning your ministry every day, every week.
There’s a sense in which you are always learning, improving, and redesigning what you do.
Every time you…
solve a problem
tweak a presentation
reorganize a process
recruit a new volunteer
world around you changes
choose to be an advocate
add someone to your team
debrief what just happened
you’re going to see things differently
and you’re going to change your mind;
you’re going to redesign something.
If you are a smart leader (and we think you are), you will probably always be redesigning some part of your ministry.
You will never really be done, but before that makes you tired, remember this:
The goal isn’t to be done redesigning your ministry.
Instead, the goal is to be a growing, living, dynamic ministry. There is no formula that works for every culture in every church, but there are some timeless values or priorities that can give you a baseline for how you redesign what you do.
If you’re just getting started in ministry, you may be thinking, “I’m not redesigning yet.” The good news is the same principles that work to redesign your ministry, also work to design your ministry. In some ways, you have an advantage because you can start with a pretty solid foundation.
But, before you can start redesigning your ministry and making changes, there is one overarching value you need to believe:
It’s OKAY to change your mind.
Actually, it’s imperative that you change your mind; it’s just that most of us feel like we need permission to actually change.
Changing your mind is not a sign of weakness. It’s a sign of strength.
Personally,
I don’t trust somebody who has never changed their mind.
It means they don’t LEARN anything new.
I don’t want to be around someone who has never changed their mind.
It means they won’t LISTEN to me.
I don’t want to follow someone who has never changed their mind.
It means they can’t LEAD me anywhere I want to go.
They can’t lead change. How can they if they won’t change?
There is a reason this idea is so important. The concept of redesigning something implies “change,” and there will always be a tension you have to acknowledge while you are building something that lasts. There is a tension between…
What needs to change
and what never changes.
Your ability to know the difference — and lead a team to know the difference — will be key to building a lasting ministry.
It’s the key to trust with the people you are leading because…
If you don’t change what needs to change, your ministry will become IRRELEVANT.
If you don’t highlight what never changes, your ministry will be INCONSISTENT.
You are the leader. And you are the one who has to decide what needs to change and what doesn’t change.
You may change the way…
you see the VERSE your grandmother used to convince you NOT to drink WINE.
or the way you THINK about the color you painted your bedroom wall.
maybe even the way you PRESENT or TEACH an idea.
However, you should never change the way…
you see every human as someone created in the IMAGE of GOD.
or you emphasize what JESUS said mattered most.
and especially not how you feel about eating BROCCOLI. (kidding)
You have got to be the leader and draw a line of distinction between these two things:
What needs to change: THE MODEL
What never changes: THE VALUES
The model of your ministry will need to shift and move depending on how things change around you.
And the values of your ministry should never change and actually give you the basis of how you redesign everything.
This will actually set the table to have some incredible conversations with the decision-makers in your organization. Because as long as you agree on the values, you can debate the model. As long as you agree about what never changes, you can wrestle and argue about what ultimately needs to change.
What changes is actually an incredible platform to highlight what never changes.
If you never change anything in your organization, the things that should never change will get lost. But when you change the models and platforms, it will ultimately affect everything else in such a way that people will be able to see what never changes.
So, you have to start believing that it’s okay to change your mind.
Because if you don’t change your mind, you can’t do the very thing you set out in ministry to do…
You can’t change the world.
If you want to get started redesigning your ministry for the sake of what never changes, take our new Orange Masterclass, Redesign Your Ministry To Last.
