Everyone wants to look like an expert, but no one can be an expert in all areas. That’s why your clients need you: you can bring added expertise to them in key areas. If you are coaching ministry leaders, one of the areas that gets so often overlooked is ministry assessment. It doesn’t always require something fancy. A simple way to identify what is working and what isn’t is a powering ministry tool. Your clients can get so caught up in the day-to-day execution of the ministry and dealing with problems that arise that they can easily forget to take a step back and look at their ministries from a fresh perspective. 

Help the ministry leaders you coach take a clear-eyed snapshot of where their ministry current is. Even if they’ve done this before, it needs to be redone at least once a year. And you can give them the tools they need to assess their ministry like an expert. This Simple Ministry Assessment is a fresh take on the tried-and-true SWOT analysis (which assesses strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats). In this case, the four questions are designed specifically for ministry and in ways that lead readily to action items. 

Simple Ministry Assessment

Strengths

What is functioning well that could be expanded?

Always start with what is working. In every ministry, something is going right. And when you begin with the good, people are able to tackle weaknesses from a healthy place.

What is working well? What bright spots can you highlight? How can you expand on areas of strength? Maybe relationships between members are strong. How could you capitalize on that to help those people reach out to others in their network of relationships as well, spreading the relational love of Jesus further afield. 

Weaknesses

What is broken that could be fixed?

Assessing the strengths is like determining the house has good bones. Every homeowner knows that something is always broken. By keeping up with needed repairs, you can forestall a total collapse.

Maybe you have a newcomer’s class, but there’s no clear pathway for what people are supposed to do from there. You have identified an important hole—now you can look at what you could do to patch it. Maybe you need a path, a connection, or a communication. 

Opportunities

What is missing that could be added?

Looking at what is working and what needs to be fixed often surfaces outward focused opportunities. What needs do you currently see in the community that you can meet by utilizing your strengths?

No ministry can do everything. But you may be able to branch out from where you are with other initiatives that are on-target for your vision. Maybe you’re offering tutoring for neighborhood kids, but you see food insecurity in the families you are serving. What could you add that would help? 

Threats

What is confused that could be clarified?

The heart of ministry leaders is for growth and the hope is that growth will be in people who are just discovering Jesus. Take a look at your ministry from the eyes of someone who is entering a church for the first time. Is it clear where they should go? Are you communicating in a way that someone new can understand?

There are always points of confusion in every ministry. Possibly you have a vision statement that is often repeated, but you realize people don’t know what it means really lived out. What does it look like? How do they know if they are accomplishing it? This question will help you consider what you can do to clarify the fuzzy areas where people really aren’t quite sure what they are supposed to be doing. 

Encouraging a Rhythm of Regular Assessment

Using a method like this can help your clients reflect on their ministries, as well as empowering them to foster reflection throughout their ministries. In doing exercises like this, you can facilitate your clients slowing down to take a deeper dive—and coming up with fresh ideas for growing and strengthening their ministries.

You can certainly begin by walking your clients through this process themselves. Helping them brainstorm their responses will yield some great action items and talking points. But what’s even better is that you put this simple tool into the hands of your clients so they can use it to work more effectively with their teams. By definition, every individual’s viewpoint is limited. But when they can gather feedback on these key areas from across their team members, then they’ll really be onto the key areas that need to be addressed. And what’s more, in the process they’ll get increased buy-in from their team, as well as functioning like an expert consultant.  

CLICK HERE to get a FREE downloadable handout that you can use and share with your clients. 

Photo by John Price on Unsplash

Cover Photo by Kenny Eliason on Unsplash