Your church’s leaders are at the core of your ministry’s success over the next 12 months. To make the most of your church’s ministry, you’ll want to keep your leaders unified around your vision.
An end-of-year meeting to review the past year and look forward to the year ahead will help you align your team and set a unified course forward.
Your review isn’t about looking at your numbers from the past year. It’s a time to celebrate what God has done and plan for the year ahead of you.
If you do this well, you’ll transform your ministry next year from reactive to proactive, allowing you and your team to steward your resources more effectively.
This blog post will take you through planning so your church can create an effective end-of-year review meeting.
Step 1: Gather Key Metrics
Before meeting with your team, gather all the essential metrics related to your church’s vision and ministry goals. Some of the most valuable data points include:
- Attendance (weekly)
- Giving (weekly)
- Small group participation (number of new groups)
- New members (tracked monthly)
- Volunteer involvement (weekly or monthly)
Break down these metrics by age group or ministry area to gain deeper insights.
In addition to quantitative data, consider conducting a quick survey of your congregation and staff to collect qualitative feedback. This will provide a fuller picture of your ministry’s impact and highlight areas that might not be obvious through numbers alone.
Once you have your data, share a brief outline of the review meeting’s goals and main topics with your leadership team. This helps ensure everyone is on the same page and ready to contribute meaningfully during the session.
Step 2: Start Your Meeting with Celebration and Gratitude
You’ll want to start your review meeting on a positive note. Focus on areas where your church has made strong progress toward its vision.
Note important milestones (big round numbers in attendance, baptisms, etc.).
Spend some time letting ministry leaders share wins from their specific ministries.
Then, thank leaders for how their ministry contributed to your church’s effectiveness for the year. Consider handing out small gifts to remind leaders of what God has done throughout the year.
Starting with this time of celebration will set a tone for the meeting and help people become more grateful for the past year.
Step 3: Conduct a SWOT Analysis of Your Ministry
A SWOT Analysis gives you a structured way to review your church’s year. You’ll go through the four stages of SWOT. Treat it like a brainstorming session. Let everyone talk. No ideas are out of bounds.
The components of SWOT are:
- Strengths: What areas have been particularly successful this year? Include programs, ministries, engagement, new leaders, etc.
- Weaknesses: What areas have not met expectations? (Declining attendance, volunteer benefits, etc.)
- Opportunities: What emerging trends or community needs could your church address?
- Threats: What potential challenges might hinder future ministry? (Changing demographics, budget constraints, etc.)
The effectiveness of this session will depend upon having diverse views in the room. Expanding your definition of who is on the leadership team will be worth it to get different voices in this discussion.
Step 4: Review Key Ministry Goals and Metrics
Look at any goals you set before the year began. Revisit the main objectives you had for each of those goals.
Then, analyze the metrics you’ve collected—from attendance records to engagement statistics to surveys you’ve passed out. The more information you can bring to the discussion, the better. For example, if you set a goal to grow your number of volunteers by 20 percent, consider why you may have fallen short.
Processing these gaps between your goals and results is crucial, particularly as you begin to set next year’s goals.
Step 5: Identify Key Learnings and Adjustments
You want to convert your observations into actionable insights from your SWOT analysis that will shape the following year (and beyond). Start by reflecting on your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats to identify what worked well and where there’s room for improvement.
Ask questions like:
- What successes can your church build upon?
- What weaknesses does your church need to address?
- How can you engage in new opportunities in the new year?
Now, take that learning and translate it into targeted adjustments to your existing plans and strategies. For example, if your assessment showed low volunteer engagement, you could allocate more resources toward recruitment and training.
Remember, this step is about fine-tuning your current approach and making course corrections based on your evaluations of the past year. Once adjustments are made, your team can focus on setting new goals for the coming year.
Step 6: Set New Goals for the Upcoming Year
As you look toward the new year, put a copy of your church’s vision and mission in front of your leaders again. Walk through them together a few times. Any new goals you create should be anchored in those two documents. This helps your goals focus on the “why” that should drive your church strategies.
Considering what you recognized in earlier steps of this process, lay out some SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Bound) goals. Aim for 2-3 significant goals that push your church toward the vision you’ve set.
For each goal, lay out the actions that lead to accomplishing that goal. For example, if you’ve decided to expand your digital discipleship efforts, you’ll likely have several actions you need to take (hire a digital content manager, develop a content calendar, etc.). Make sure every action on the list has someone responsible for completing it!
Your end-of-year review with your leadership team is one of the most important meetings of the year. But don’t just leave those reflections in that room. An end-of-year impact report can be a powerful tool to help you mobilize involvement for the year ahead. To learn more about creating a compelling impact report, download our free guide, The Ultimate Guide for Creating a Compelling Year-End Impact Report.
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