Develop & Manage Your Agenda
Having a ministry agenda is essential for leading an effective ministry. There are specific tasks you must do every week and programs/tasks that your ministry must do every week. does every single week. There are also recurring events and projects that you do every quarter or every year. Learning to create an agenda, manage the tasks, and deploy them to your teams will significantly improve your effectiveness as a leader.
Manage Your Calendars On A Continuous Basis
Managing your personal calendar and ministry calendar may seem difficult at first. First, plan out your personal calendar and block out times in your personal schedule to be able to accomplish your tasks then it will be easier to manage your ministry calendar. I map out my quarterly schedule the first day of each month. Then, I program my calendar into my planner and computer calendar that synchronizes with my phone. Planning your personal and ministry calendar planned out months and even years in advance will improve your ministry’s long-term success and sustainability.
Build Multiple Ministry Teams
Ministry leaders should never try to do everything by him/herself. It is vital to reallocate required tasks to volunteers and ministry leaders. We must always be looking for things that we can give away for others to do so that we can do what only we can do. By doing so, we give ourselves the ability to coach and train our future ministry. Many ministry leaders dread allocating tasks to others, but that is one of our primary responsibilities. As the Apostle Paul says in his letter to the Ephesians (4:11-12) “Christ himself gave … pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up…” It’s our job to equip the church to do the ministry. We can’t do that if we don’t relentlessly empower people to fulfill the calling to which God is leading them through our invitations.
Time Management
It is so easy for us to lose track or time or even take on more work than we can actually handle. Sometimes, while preparing for a message or a lesson, our thoughts can drift, and we start spinning our wheels. Sometimes, while caring for the people around us and enjoying time with others, we can unintentionally lose time to accomplish the things that must yet be done, regardless. If we are not careful and intentional about using our time efficiently, it can lead to low productivity.
Effective Communication
Poor Communication is the most common complaint church people have about church leadership. The best leaders find ways to do well with communications. It seems to me that there three major categories of communications that are necessary for ministry leaders to utilize. They are 1) Verbal (word-of-mouth, personal and corporate invitations), 2) Digital (Website, social media, Email, Texting), and 3) Print (handouts, mailings, and info packets/brochures).