Celebrating Ministry Successes (Big and Small)

Celebrating small wins is essential for maintaining morale and fostering gratitude within ministry teams. This episode explores practical strategies for incorporating celebration into everyday practices, emphasizing the transformative impact of acknowledging both minor and major accomplishments.

• Importance of recognizing small victories 
• Building a culture of gratitude 
• Overcoming the mentality of not having time to celebrate 
• Beginning meetings with acknowledgments of success 
• Writing notes to appreciate team members 
• Sharing stories of success within the team 
• Encouraging spontaneous celebrations 
• Creating a positive environment through small wins

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:08

When was the last time you actually stopped to celebrate a win? And no, I don't mean a massive, like earth-shattering moment, I'm talking about just maybe a little victory. Maybe it was a volunteer that stepped up, maybe it was a tough conversation that went really well. Maybe it was a sermon that didn't completely flop. In ministry we move so fast from one challenge to the next that we forget to realize what's really going right. And here's the thing if we don't celebrate the small wins, we miss the joy in the journey. So today we're going to talk about that here on the Healthy Church Staff Podcast. We're going to talk about why we celebrate successes, big and small, and why it should matter in your ministry. My name is Todd Rhodes and I'm one of the co-founders over at chemistrystaffingcom. You're listening to the Healthy Church Staff Podcast.

Speaker 1: 1:00

So ministry a lot of times can feel like an endless to-do list. I don't know if you're a list maker, a list keeper, but if you make a to-do list, my guess is there's very few times where you tick off everything on that list. There's always more to be done. There's always more people to serve. There are always more to be done. There's always more people to serve. There are always more meetings to go to and sometimes, if we're not careful, we fall into the trap of not only seeing what still needs fixing and what still needs done and we forget that there's probably a good amount of stuff that's already going really well.

Speaker 1: 1:44

But celebrating wins, both personal and ministry wins. It's essential because a few different reasons. It boosts morale. A staff that only hears about what's broken gets discouraged fast. I've seen it in tons of churches where they're only fed go fix this, this is broken. That sucks. But when we take the time to take advantage of and acknowledge the progress that we're making, it really does build motivation and it enforces healthy behaviors as well. What gets celebrated gets repeated. So if you want more collaboration, recognize teamwork. If you want more outreach, highlight the impact of a recent outreach ministry effort. So it reinforces those healthy behaviors. But it does even more than that. It creates a culture of gratitude Instead of getting stuck in what's wrong when you celebrate what's going or something that already went right. It shifts our perspective toward gratitude, and gratitude is just. It can be absolutely contagious.

Speaker 1: 2:58

Now I know some of you might be saying all right, todd, there's so much to do, I don't have time, not today, I don't have time for this, I can't slow down to celebrate every little thing. And to that I'd like to say really, you can't afford not to, you can't afford not to. So how do you do it? Well, all right, that's a really great question. I'm so glad you asked.

Speaker 1: 3:21

Here are some practical ways, and you don't have to do all of these, but take these and just ingest them and see how can I, with very minimal effort, put some of these celebration practices into place. Okay, the first one is just when you're having meetings with your team and with your staff and with your board, start with some wins. Before you dive into the agenda, ask what's something good that's happened this week, it's something that you could share. Hey, here's something that's happened good to me. But it's also something to start the meeting with. And ask the other people hey, what's going on, what's going well and that makes a difference. How much effort does that take? Doesn't cost any money, it doesn't cost even any time, right? Just even put it in your agenda if you need to. So start your meetings with a win. Maybe this one takes a little bit more effort. Maybe Write a note, a quick email, a sticky note. That's quick. That just recognizes a team member's effort. That will make their day. I'm telling you, that will make their day. Just write a quick note, write a quick email, say, hey, you hit it out of the park. Hey, I saw what happened, that was awesome.

Speaker 1: 4:39

Another thing you can do is share stories, again in staff meetings. Does this take any time to prepare? No, it doesn't take any time to prepare. It really doesn't. But you do have to be intentional in order to do it, because if you're not intentional, if you don't think about it, it just won't happen. So share stories, maybe in a staff meeting, maybe it's from the pulpit, maybe it's on a Sunday morning. Highlight how God is working in your church and on your team and even in your life, and you can also celebrate personal growth. If a young staff member nailed their first sermon or a volunteer stepped up in a big way, just recognize that.

Speaker 1: 5:13

When you see good things happening, say something about it. If you see something, say something I think I've heard that somewhere before and have spontaneous celebrations. These things don't have to be. You don't have to plan a meeting once a quarter to say we're going to talk about how things are going great and celebrate. No, you don't need to do that. Make them spontaneous.

Speaker 1: 5:37

Maybe you bring donuts in for no reason. If you don't do that and you do that's going to make a huge impact Just bring donuts in and say, hey, our team's awesome, here's some donuts. It's that simple. Celebrate your bottom line. Don't wait for big wins to celebrate Small victories. Add up and when you build this culture of celebrating progress, your team will become more energized and encouraged and it's going to help you, it's going to help your team, it's going to help your church. It's just a good thing, but you got to be intentional. Okay, I'd love to hear from you what's a small win that you can celebrate today. Pop it in the comments wherever you're listening or watching, or just shoot me an email. You can email me anytime podcastchemistrystaffing. I would love to hear from you, and if there's any way that I can help you or your church with any staffing-related issues or any kind of transition-related issues, reach out to me podcastchemistrystaffingcom. All right, thanks so much. We will be back here again tomorrow on Healthy Church Staff Podcast.