Seven Practices for Effective Church Ministry (Full Version)

[Note: you can read a shorter version of this article here]

Long days. Endless complaints. Burnout. That was Moses’ life in the desert.

All day long, day after day, Moses listened to the people and then explained to them the word of God. Moses was a prophet. Everybody wanted to talk to him. It seemed like a good use of his time.

But someone did not agree—Moses’ father-in-law Jethro. “What you are doing is not good. You and the people with you will certainly wear yourselves out, for the thing is too heavy for you. You are not able to do it alone” (Exodus 18:17–18). Jethro thought Moses was taking on too much himself. He worried Moses would wear himself and the people out. He was probably also concerned for his daughter-in-law.

What happened next is remarkable. Moses could have said to his father-in-law, “You know, I’m a prophet. I think I know what I’m doing.” But he didn’t. He listened. “So Moses listened to the voice of his father-in-law and did all that he had said” (Ex. 18:24).

What Moses recognized is that wisdom—knowing how to pursue the good in the best way—is not the province of the covenant community alone. It will always be surprising how much people in the world understand about creation, organizations, and even God. God’s common grace is a marvelous gift.

Moses was open to it, and we should be, too.

In this article, I want to highlight seven practices I have learned from a variety of sources. They are distilled in a very helpful way in The Seven Practices of Effective Ministry by Stanley, Joiner, and Riggs, to which I am particularly indebted. It is similar to Covey’s The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. These practices contain timeless wisdom for running our lives and our organizations well. They are the principles that help us be effective and avoid “wearing ourselves out” while accomplishing little.

Before we get into the principles, allow me to expand on why we should think carefully about what we are doing as churches and ministries. It might seem more holy just to rely on the Holy Spirit in the moment and not plan too much. It might seem that love is more spontaneous and that planning inhibits the free flow of love to those who need it.

This is not completely wrong. Every plan can become a straitjacket and an idol. We can turn our plans into self-reliance and forget God. Scripture constantly warns us: “Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me . . .” (Jer. 9:23–24). This warning is not because wisdom is bad but because it is good. However, it is not as good as knowing and relying on the Lord, who can do far above all that we ask or imagine.

So, why should we even worry about wisdom or strategy in our organizations? Here are five reasons:

First, we need organizational wisdom because churches get bogged down in what matters least. Stanley et al. describe a situation that is all too familiar: “some ministries seem routine and irrelevant; the teaching feels too academic; calendars are saturated with mediocre programs; staff members pull in opposite directions; volunteers lack motivation; departments viciously compete for resources; and it becomes harder and harder to figure out if we are really being successful” (65). When we talk about organizational wisdom, we’re not fixing what already works well. We’re addressing the frustrations, the distractions from real ministry.

Second, we need organizational wisdom because not everything we do is equally important. The distribution of food to widows was quite important, but the Apostles said: “It is not right that we should give up preaching the word of God to serve tables” (Acts 6:2). They didn’t say food distribution was unimportant. They said they had a more important task they could not abandon. So, they delegated it to seven deacons.

Third, we need organizational wisdom so we can raise up leaders to contribute more ministry. One of the most common marks of a lack of organizational wisdom is the failure to raise up leaders. Notice what the Apostles’ organizational wisdom in ordaining deacons did: it raised up a Stephen and a Philip, who made a huge impact on the church and the world (see Acts 7–8).

Fourth, we need organizational wisdom because loving well requires wisdom. It’s not enough to have sentiment. We need wisdom. The Apostle Paul prayed for the Philippians that their “love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment . . .” (Phil. 1:9). In an organization, loving well requires wisdom about organizations.

Fifth, we need organizational wisdom because it helps us see people and not just tasks. It helps us ask: what do people really need, rather than simply, what do we have to do? The Apostle Paul did not have one timeless way of acting. Instead, he said, “To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some” (1 Cor. 9:22).

Thinking about what we do as an organization is crucial. It is about focusing on what is important, developing leaders, and loving people well. It’s about doing what God wants us to do and not just taking the easier path. Of course, this requires not only wisdom—it requires resolute endurance to carry it out. That’s for another article. For now, simply note that, as with Moses, such wisdom is available, often in surprising places.

Principle 1 – Clarify the Win

“I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some” (1 Cor. 9:22b).

A lot of times, we don’t have clarity on the win. For years, my church had a fellowship meal on Wednesday nights at 6. Sometimes, we had a good turnout. Most times, we did not. We never got the whole church to come.

One day, we realized: what if we did our fellowship meal on Sunday morning? After all, that’s when everybody was already there. So, we tried it. Literally everyone came, including visitors. I thought it was a huge win. We got everyone mixing, including the visitors.

Afterwards, I talked to the woman who was in charge of the meal. “How did it go?” I asked her.

“It was OK. We forgot the ketchup for the burgers.”

I said, “I thought it went great. Getting the meal just right is not the win. The win is that people stay and connect. That happened in a big way.” Thinking about ketchup is fine, but the win was not getting the meal just right. It was getting people to stay and fellowship.

In the verse above, the Apostle Paul knew what the win was. It’s crystal clear. Being more like a Greek or Jew was not the win. The win was that he would save some. So, he adapted himself in the ways that he could to the culture of each so that he could win them to Christ. That was the win for him. He had clarity on that.

Clarifying the win means thinking through what it would look like for you to be successful in what you are doing. Once you have it clear in your own mind, tell people. If you don’t clarify the win, expect people to focus on ketchup.

Clarifying the win answers the question of what success looks like. Seeing the next steps is what helps us move toward that win, which is what we’ll explore next.

Discussion question: How would you state the win of each of the programs in which you are involved?

Principle 2 – Think Steps, Not Programs

“And he said to them, ‘Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men’” (Matt. 4:19).

Jesus envisioned fishermen becoming great evangelists. That was a big step. In fact, Jesus did not send them out at once. He brought them with Him while He did ministry. He sent them out two by two for a short time. Finally, He commissioned them to go out and make disciples. Jesus knew they needed steps to get where He wanted them to be. He thought about steps.

When we think about steps, we begin with asking, “Where do we want people to be?” If they are not there, we start to think about giving them steps to get there. We don’t just ask whether people are motivated to go. We ask whether it is clear and obvious where we want them to go and how to get there.

One of the most important reasons for churches is to build community. If they only come to the worship service, it is much less likely that they will connect.

In my previous church, we had a good fellowship time after church. But we knew that people really connected best when they got together outside the four walls of the church. So, we had small groups. However, only a portion of the congregation would sign up. Not everyone wanted to commit to a weekly gathering.

So, we came up with the “four for four.” That was four families or singles getting together four times over a semester to have a meal—one meal per month. Almost everyone signed up. They couldn’t make the step for a small group, but they were willing to commit to once a month. As a result, our church had much more community than it might have had.

What if we had just focused on the program? What if we had just tried harder and harder to get people into small groups? We probably wouldn’t have made much progress.

Thinking steps helps us remember that if we are going to make apostles, we have to get people out of the boat. If people aren’t moving, think of steps. If you give them clear steps, you will see movement.

The next principle deals with another problem: what if there are too many steps leading in too many directions? You’ve got to narrow the focus.

Discussion question: Where’s one place in your program where people are not where you want them to be? What’s one small step you could give them this month to help them get there?

Principle 3 – Narrow the Focus

“And he said to them, ‘Let us go on to the next towns, that I may preach there also, for that is why I came out’” (Mark 1:39).

The difficult thing about narrowing the focus is that you have to reject good things. Tarik Skubal came out of nowhere to become the most dominant pitching force in the MLB for my favorite team, the Detroit Tigers. He has the most potential to improve his game by working on his hitting, but that would detract from what he can do best: pitching. To really be great, he has to narrow the focus.

Jesus acted in the same way. He had a mission: to preach the good news of the kingdom of God. He had success in Capernaum. The people responded well. They wanted Him to stay. But Jesus had different plans. He was focused. He was sent to preach. So that’s what He did. He kept His focus narrow to have the impact His Father wanted Him to have.

Narrowing the focus means concentrating on the things we can do best rather than simply what we can do well. It means giving our attention to what will make the biggest impact and letting go of other things. It’s about sacrificing many good things so that we can make the greatest impact possible.

In 2019, I asked this question to the leaders of our church: What could we do in 5 years that we could not do in 1 year? We all agreed that building a building was one thing we thought would make a difference, but it would require a long-term view. We had to choose. We had to narrow the focus in order to accomplish anything significant.

We did not build a building in five years. Covid kept us from moving forward as we would have liked. However, in four years, we raised half a million dollars. We didn’t launch a massive fundraising drive, though we did do some things. The power of focus moved us forward. By 2023, we were in a position to buy a six-acre property in a great location for about $600,000 (we already had $300,000 in the bank when we started). That church is now in a much better position because we focused and moved forward.

So here’s the half-million-dollar question: where can you make the most impact? That’s what it means to narrow the focus. But narrowing the focus also means concentrating our communication. That’s the next principle.

Discussion question: Of what you are doing now, what is your greatest opportunity for doing something great? What is diluting your energy from pursuing it?

Principle 4 – Teach Less for More

“For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures . . .” (1 Cor. 15:3–4).

We often do communication in our churches by committee. We ask, “What are all the important things that anyone would like to communicate?” Announcements are notorious for taking a long time because of this.

But what if we asked instead, “What do people really need to know this week?” It changes the scorecard. In my last church, we always asked that question when we gave announcements. It helped us keep the most important things before people so they knew where to focus.

The Apostle Paul did this same thing with spiritual matters. He knew that certain messages were more important than others. He wanted to keep them at the forefront. These truths were already known to the Corinthians, but Paul knew they were worth repeating again and again. As he said to the Philippians, “To write the same things to you is no trouble to me and is safe for you” (Phil. 3:2).

Teaching less for more means thinking about what each person needs to know and focusing on communicating exactly that. This demands thinking not only about what we do but also about what we communicate.

Think about the teaching you have experienced. Some things are more important than others. Some things are more important at one stage of life than another. The most important teaching for a teenager may not be the same as for someone in retirement. Loving God is more important than knowing the kings of Israel. Both are important, but both are not equally important.

This principle teaches us to be strategic in our communication. If we clarify the win, define our steps, and narrow the focus, it demands that we communicate this precisely to those who need to hear it. When people are anxious, they don’t need genealogies. They need God’s promises.

Teaching less for more helps us get people where they are going inside our organization, but it’s not generally enough for those outside. Something more is needed—an imagination that will get us beyond our routines. That’s our next principle.

Discussion question: Take some time to think about what the people in your area of ministry really need to know the most for their spiritual growth. Is that what you are teaching them regularly?

Principle 5 – Listen to Outsiders

“If, therefore, the whole church comes together and all speak in tongues, and outsiders or unbelievers enter, will they not say that you are out of your minds?” (1 Cor. 14:23).

Most churches say that they are friendly. But that’s because they know people in the church. The outsider does not. I’ve visited countless churches, and I always wait to see if people will come up and talk to me before I start initiating. It almost never happens. I have come in with my wife and kids—the very type of family most churches say they want—and they have not done so. It’s as if there is too much centrifugal force pulling churches inward.

The Apostle Paul warned us against this tendency. When he thought about what the church was doing, he did not only think of those who were there. He thought about those he wanted to be there. He encouraged the church to be mindful of this. This is in line with his basic axiom: “I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some” (1 Cor. 9:22).

Listening to outsiders means thinking about—or even talking to—those whom you want to reach, not merely those you already have reached. Those inside the church have a perspective shaped by years of familiarity. Outsiders do not. It’s good and necessary to know how they experience your organization, especially if you want to reach them.

The problem is that most people have forgotten what it’s like to come to church for the first time. To correct this, I encourage church leaders to visit churches where they don’t know anyone when they travel. Go through the full church experience: Sunday School, worship service, fellowship time. You will learn a lot. Then take those experiences back to your church and become more empathetic toward visitors.

If the people we want to reach aren’t coming, maybe it’s time to listen. But listening isn’t enough if we’re carrying the load alone. That’s why the next principle is about raising up others—replacing ourselves so ministry can multiply.

Discussion question: What do you think outsiders would say about entering an environment at church of which you are a part? What steps could you take to understand this better?

Principle 6 – Replace Yourself

“What you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also” (2 Tim. 2:2).

Most churches struggle with volunteers. Few organizations rely on volunteers like the church does. Many churches also think very little about recruiting. It is often a source of frustration and scapegoating. But what if every volunteer thought, “Who will replace me?” If even a quarter or half of them did that regularly, it would make a huge difference. This is a very different approach from simply asking for volunteers (which may get some of the enthusiastic but not always the most competent).

In 2019, I was preparing for a 2.5-month sabbatical. I had about seven or eight responsibilities besides preaching that I needed to hand off to other people. So, I did it—and I never took them back. That got more people involved in the work of the church and freed me to do the things I alone could do, like focusing on my preaching.

In the book of 2 Timothy, we read that the Apostle Paul knew the church in Ephesus needed attention. But he didn’t go himself. He sent his associate Timothy. And he didn’t want Timothy to be the last word either. He wanted Timothy to “replace himself” with faithful men who would be able to teach others. That is the principle of replacing oneself.

From Jesus to the Apostles, the New Testament church was always replacing leaders and raising new ones. Ministry was never meant to be one Moses for 600,000. It was about equipping the saints so the whole body could be built up. But there’s one more crucial piece: stepping back to think. That’s our final principle.

Discussion question: What are your current ministry positions in which you are serving? Do you have someone you are training to do what you do? If not, who could you bring alongside you to begin to learn this?

Principle 7 – Work on It

“Consider your ways” (Haggai 1:5).

The people of Israel had returned to the land, and they were working hard. But there was little fruit in their labor. Instead of working harder, the Lord called them to “consider their ways.” They needed to reevaluate their priorities, their goals, and their methods. That’s the essence of principle 7. You don’t just do the work of the ministry—you step back and think about it.

At my previous church, we always had a big-picture meeting with a large group of leaders. I was amazed at how much clarity came from those gatherings. They always helped us see things in new ways. They brought us together on a mission. Over time, we gradually formed a structure for what we wanted to do and eventually set bigger goals. This was taking time to “work on it.”

All of the principles we’ve considered require reflection and thought. Where do we want people to be? Is there a place we want them to be that they are not reaching? That requires time to “consider our ways.” You can do this yourself by asking the kinds of questions in this article. Better yet, gather a group of people to do it together. Then, come up with some action points based on what you’ve discovered. This is “working on it” rather than just “working at it.”

Stephen Covey had a memorable way of explaining this. He said to imagine someone cutting down trees with a saw. He can just keep working harder, but the saw gets duller and duller. He needs to take time to sharpen the saw. That’s how Covey summarized principle 7: Don’t forget to “sharpen the saw.”

Discussion question: Do you have time set aside to evaluate what you are doing? When could you do that? Who could be involved?

Conclusion

Like Moses, we don’t have to go it alone. God has already provided wisdom—through His Spirit, His Word, and the people He places around us. If we listen and act, we won’t just avoid burnout. We’ll see His church flourish, His people built up, and His name glorified.

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Photo by Kirsten Frank on Unsplash