The Healthy Church Staff Podcast
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The Healthy Church Staff Podcast
Ministry Goal Setting That Actually Works
This episode emphasizes the importance of setting sustainable ministry goals that can withstand interruptions and challenges. Listeners are guided through tailored adaptations of the SMART criteria for goal-setting and the critical roles of systems and accountability in achieving meaningful impact.
• Emphasizing the unpredictability of ministry
• Adapting SMART goals for ministry context
• Importance of specificity in goal setting
• Measuring outcomes effectively
• Setting realistic and achievable goals
• Aligning goals with church missions
• The significance of timeline flexibility
• Necessity of systems in realizing goals
• Establishing accountability through regular check-ins
• Encouragement to write and share personal goals
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How many times have you set a ministry goal only to watch it quietly disappear just a few weeks? Yeah, I know I have. I start all fired up, I'm full of vision, nothing's going to stop me. And then life happens Crisis moments, shifting priorities. And then life happens Crisis moments, shifting priorities. You just get busy and, let's face it, it's really hard. But here's the thing right Role setting doesn't have to be a cycle of frustration, and that's what we're talking about today here on the Healthy Church Staff Podcast. Hi, I'm Todd Rhodes, one of the co-founders over at chemistrystaffingcom, and this is the Healthy Church Staff Podcast. Hi, I'm Todd Rhodes, one of the co-founders over at chemistrystaffingcom, and this is the Healthy Church Staff Podcast.
Speaker 1:Today we're talking about how to set ministry goals that actually withstand the test of time, that actually stick, so you can kind of remove all that wishful thinking that's going on in your head but never really makes itself evident in your goal being achieved and achieving the real impact that you want to have. So let's start with the big problem here. At least, I think this is the big problem whenever I try to set a goal, and that is that ministry is unpredictable. Matter of fact, not just ministry. Family is unpredictable. Finances are unpredictable. Sometimes Life is unpredictable. Finances are unpredictable. Sometimes Life is unpredictable and you can plan your calendar down to the last detail. But if you serve in a church, I mean if somebody has a crisis, you know if you're on a staff and your senior pastor wants to shift directions. Or you know somebody forgets to show up for nursery duty and you're in charge of making sure that the nursery's covered. All of a sudden, your day and all of your good intentions are right out the door. It's just upside down. So how do you set goals that don't crumble under the weight of all of these unexpected interruptions? Right Today, I want to talk about three principles that I think will help you set and achieve ministry goals that hopefully will get some traction and actually work.
Speaker 1:Now I'm going to suggest that you make them smart. We've all heard of smart goals S-M-A-R-T but I'm going to suggest, maybe, a ministry twist to this. Okay, so smart usually means specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound. Lots of business executives use this corporate America, but in ministry, we just need to tweak it just a little bit. So here's how I would suggest that you tweak this. If you've got a goal that you want to work on or a hill that you want to climb, okay. So let's start with the S specific.
Speaker 1:Instead of maybe saying improve volunteer engagement, try something like personally connect with five volunteers every month to encourage and train them For measurable. You can't track a better culture, that's pretty vague but you can track how often you check in with your team, you can control that and you can measure that Achievable. You know ministry is not a sprint. If you set a goal to triple your attendance overnight, you're going to set yourself up for disappointment. The R the relevant Align your goals with your church's mission, not just with your personal preferences. Make sure everything is relevant and in line there and the T time bound. Give yourself some deadlines, but also give yourself some margin for some of those ministry curveballs that are going to come your way. So here's what I think you should do. Here's what I would suggest Focus on systems, not just goals.
Speaker 1:Okay, focus on systems, not just goal. Let's say your goal is to grow your small group by 20%. All right, that's a great goal. But what happens when it doesn't happen? Or what happens when you get off track or you don't know how you're doing? What happens when you don't really have a system. You really need to have a system in order for that to actually happen. So here's how I would rephrase that Instead of saying I want to grow my small group ministry by 20%, instead of just aiming for 20%, you know, maybe build a system around that SMART goal. So, develop a clear, repeatable small group leadership training process, for example. Create consistent follow-up systems for new members. Set up a schedule for quarterly group launches.
Speaker 1:Goals without systems are just hopes. So systems are going to be what helps you create those habits, and habits are going to be what drives the success, not just kind of saying I want to do this and setting the goal out there. Have an accountability and an adjust plan. You know one of the biggest reasons for ministry goals failing. You know guess what it is? Well, we all do it, maybe at the end of the year, the start of the year, where you know, maybe we're forced to you know, todd write down your goals for this next year. We set them and then we forget about them, because either we forget about them or the person that we gave them to doesn't hold us accountable. We just set them. We set them and forget.
Speaker 1:So find a way to regularly check in and see how you're doing. That could be a personal check-in, maybe. Block time once a month to review your progress. And just a little side note here for me, if I don't put it on my calendar, it doesn't happen. So, as you set out these systems for your goals, make sure that you block off some time, maybe once a month, just to put on your goals. Make sure that you block off some time, maybe once a month, just to you know, put on your calendar. Hey, how am I doing in this goal or this process? Okay, so personal check it.
Speaker 1:Make sure there's some team accountability. If you can, you know, share your goals with a trusted team member or a mentor and say, hey, how's that going? Now, maybe you work on a team and you're being held accountable, and that's good too. You know, instead of sharing your goals, you're already doing it. Instead of you saying, hey, how's that going? People are coming to you and saying, hey, how you doing on that, todd? That's really good, that team accountability. And then what I want you to do is, once you have those check-ins and you've got this system and you've kind of put it into place, adjust if you have to. I mean, if your plan isn't working. Maybe you're trying to increase your small group by ministry by 20%, but it's only up 2% and you hoped it would be up 10% by now. Adjust right. Don't just ditch the goal, just adjust the approach. Now, ministry is fluid and your goals should be too. So here's your bottom line Ministry goal setting works best when it's specific, right, when it's system driven and when it's supported by accountability. So here's what I'd love for you to do today Take five minutes, that's it.
Speaker 1:Five minutes. If you have to put, if you can't not going to do it right now, put it on your calendar. You won't do it if you don't have it on your calendar. Take five minutes today. Write down at least one ministry goal that you would like to achieve in the next year. Okay, one simple goal, again, no longer than five minutes.
Speaker 1:Get out a plain sheet of paper, a blank sheet of paper, plain sheet of paper, blank sheet of paper. So you've got some writing on it, I guess. But get out a blank sheet of paper and write down one ministry goal. Then start to outline a simple system that will support that goal and then share it with somebody who can help keep you accountable. Now, are you going to want to take longer than five minutes actually before you get all the stuff down on paper and go share? Yeah, absolutely, but five minutes should give you the opportunity. Plenty of time before you'd like get all the stuff down on paper and go share. Yeah, absolutely, but five minutes should give you the opportunity of plenty of time to come up with one goal. You know what it is. You've been putting it off, probably, or you already said it and it's not happening. Five minutes to write down your goal and identify that simple system that will help support that goal.
Speaker 1:Okay, I'd love to hear your thoughts on this. Have you set a goal that actually worked in ministry and, if so, leave it in the comments wherever you're listening or wherever you're watching. Tell me what made it work. Was it the accountability thing? Was it a system thing? Was it maybe something totally else? Or maybe maybe, like me, you've had a goal that totally flopped and for me, honestly, just between you and me, the culprit is I set it, I get really excited about it and things happen and I forget it. You can shoot me an email anytime. Podcast at chemistrystaffingcom. Let me know, I would love to hear. Or you can leave a comment here on the podcast. And you know what, if your church is hiring or struggling to find the right team staff members, I'd love to help you at Chemistry Staffing. You can reach out to me anytime. Podcast at chemistrystaffingcom. All right, thanks so much. Have a great day. We'll be back here tomorrow on the Healthy Church Staff Podcast. You.
