Seek wise counsel. It is said that President Kennedy had between 900 and 1,600 advisors. That’s a lot of advisors! You don’t need that many, but to have some trusted people that you can bounce ideas off of and process things with is always a good thing. The more input you can get from the right people, the better your decisions will be as you seek to make changes.
Keep seeking students who can be leaders and invest in them. Times in my ministry career where I have had off season, I have lacked good student and volunteer leadership. When that happens, I realize I have to spend more time with them, giving them vision and ownership of the program. Sometimes when bad years happen, oftentimes it is because I have young students who don’t have/get the vision of the program yet. By spending time with them, investing in them and sharing the vision with them, they will hopefully “get it” and really become the leaders the program needs.
Keep evaluating. As you seek wise counsel from leaders and students, it’s important to keep evaluating what you are doing and make improvements.
Unfortunately, the problem is that sometimes, no matter what you do, you are going to have off years. I have found that the biggest thing you can do is continue to learn from these experiences and grow as a leader and ministry team. If you rush to make changes and confuse people you are only going to worsen your already “bad year”. However, if you are able to make the proper adjustments, you can begin to put the pieces together to where the long term health of your program will be strong.
Thoughts? Experiences? Post a comment so that we can all benefit.]]>