Leaders should be adept at leading change if they want to help their churches get unstuck.
Some call it “the summer slump.” Vacations, sports and other activities can certainly make church growth difficult during the summer months.
In January, churches launch into the brand new year (with last year’s strategy) expecting completely different results. Countless events are scheduled, and everyone is hustling to make things happen.
Typically, no one slows down long enough to measure how successful the year has been until school is out and attendance and giving have started to dip. Gaps and deficiencies overlooked during the year become painfully obvious during the summer months. Before a church is ready to get unstuck, the pain of staying the same must be greater than the pain of necessary change.
Fortunately, summer can also be an ideal time to begin implementing changes that will propel vision forward in the fall.
Here are 4 changes you should consider making now that will help you finish the year on a strong note:
Expanding the Front Door with An Outward Focus
Summer is a great time to re-evaluate who you should be reaching. This takes intentional effort and begins with developing a clear picture of who God has called your church to reach. It’s possible that you have spent a great deal of time focusing on the people who already attend your church instead of reaching those outside of your church who do not have a relationship with Jesus.
Enhancing Weekend Services
Are people inviting their friends to your church services? People won’t compel their friends to visit their church or seek a relationship with Jesus if they themselves aren’t compelled. The next two months are a perfect opportunity to evaluate your weekend services. What are you doing well? What needs to improve? How can you be more intentional about creating compelling services that make it easy for people to invite their friends?
Revamping Your Volunteer Strategy
How healthy are your volunteers? Before jumping into another busy cycle of ministry, it’s important to see whether or not your volunteers are thriving or struggling. Taking a fresh look at your onboarding process and establishing a clear strategy for equipping and empowering leaders to grow their leadership capacity will better prepare your team for growth.
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Raising Your Personal Leadership Capacity
This may be the most important change you can make during the summer. Your team will not be at a higher capacity than your personal level of leadership. Craig Groeschel says, “When the leader gets better, everyone gets better.” Some churches are stuck because their top level leaders are not admitting that their leadership is actually what is limiting growth. This change is so difficult because it requires a hard, realistic look at your own leadership. Noticing problems with staff members and ministry strategies is easy but recognizing faults in your own leadership can certainly be a challenge. It requires humility and a willingness to change.
Raising your personal leadership capacity may be the most important change you can make during the summer. Your team will not be at a higher capacity than your personal level of leadership. Click To TweetThis is why I’ve created the brand new Leading an Unstuck Church Course. The lessons in this online course are a mix of written and video content, self evaluation, discussion and exercises.
The course will not only guide you on some changes to make this summer, but it will also give you practical strategies and next steps to help you make the changes happen.
Enrollment for the Leading an Unstuck Church Course is still open, but only for a a few more days. I think people learn best as part of a community so we have also included a private Facebook group where I and other members of The Unstuck Group team will coach, answer questions and facilitate discussion in the community. We’re limiting registration so we can personally engage with you well.
Click here to learn more about course. We believe this will help you grow your ability to lead a church towards health and growth.
