TOSS THE NICKELS AND SKIP THE NOSES | A better year-end review
If you care about a better 2019 you also care about what happened in 2018. Our traditional go-to is to count average attendance and income vs. expenses; both done with scrutiny and care. Lord help us if this is the only kind of reflection we do!
How will you evaluate the wins and misses of 2018?
Here are 5 steps you should consider:
Prayer. I’m huge on prayer before everything else. Our human understanding runs to human results; our spiritual understanding runs to spiritual results. As you reflect consider whether your spiritual understanding or human understanding takes the lead.
Spend time during this season to ask God to illuminate what He deemed as significant in this previous year.Spiritual Impact: It is easy to quantify human results and be elated or frustrated. It is difficult to quantify spiritual results, but I would ask you to elevate the spiritual impact of the pervious year above nickels and noses. Were people saved, discipled, transformed, and loved? Did you go beyond your doors and impact the spiritual climate of your community? Here is why I love the small church – it is much easier to reflect upon the church’s impact within a small group of people. In the small church you can see, know, and intimately rejoice with your church members. The stories of healing, breakthrough, and service are tangible to everyone because everyone knows each other.
What did your spiritual impact look like? Make sure you share those wins with the church at large!What About Mission? Did you live out what you said you would? Does your church culture reflect your stated mission and purpose? The challenge I posed to myself and my leadership team each year was this: Did we live out our purpose to Love, Mend, Train, and Send? Because our purpose was clear, it was easy to reflect on each of these strategic drivers of the church. How did we love? Who was mended (healed)? Was our discipleship pathway successful? In what ways did we “send” the church out into the community? These tough questions challenged the “feel good” images too easily printed on posters and banners and touted through video.
Did you really live the message you preach? If not, what do you need to do different in 2018?What About Vision? Vision is different than mission. Vision paints an inspirational picture of tomorrow. Vision excites and invites people toward a God-ordained and defined future. If you are anything like me, on the first Sunday of this past year, you preached an incredible message on vision Sunday – right? I’ll bet it brought the house down!
Consider pulling that message out and re-reading it to see if you and the church lived up to the supernatural vision you cast.Here are some challenging questions to ask about your vision from 2018:
Did your vision have a clear strategy?
Did your congregation understand the vision?
In a few sentences could anyone in your church tell someone the vision?
Did the vision “leak.” I’ve heard it said, and I believe it, that vision leaks; in other words, did you regularly re-cast that vision?
Were you the only one carrying the vision banner, or did you raise leaders and teams to rally around that vision? Don’t be a Lone Ranger leader; you’ll never grow if you are.
These questions, and the answers to them, are filled with opportunities to converse with your leaders, look realistically at next year, and even fuel plans and strategies for a more effective 2019.
What About You? Transformational leaders need personal transformation. Take time to reflect upon your personal life. Here are some questions to internalize and reflect upon.
Are you spiritually dry?
Did you take personal retreat time to be refreshed and refocused?
If you are married: Did your marriage become closer or more distant? Was your wife or husband your priority, or did church get too much in the way?
If you have kids, did you miss out on their growth due to business?
Did you engage with your mentor/coach enough? Do you even have one?
I suppose the questions could go on and on, but the point of this article is to challenge you to think beyond attendance and finances – something too easily driven to the top of our review list. Take time to prayer over this past year and allow the Holy Spirit to speak to you. Consider the spiritual impact you made in the lives of your church members and community. Were you on mission, and did the vision you cast in January become a reality, or were those just emotional words that excited for a season and faded? And finally, what does your emotional and spiritual health look like today as compared to a year ago.
