This week I’m doing a five-part series to help you critically examine and sharpen your own ministry. The goal is to create a template that will allow you to serve as a consultant for your own ministry… a way of reflecting, assessing and clarifying where you are and where you want to go.

Today is step 4: leadership specializations. Assuming your leaders have the basic character and life skills qualities outlined during the previous blog entry, you’ll now need to move on to consider specific leadership qualities for different ministry areas. In other words, what kinds of leaders do you need? Engage in the exercises and reflection questions below to determine your specific leadership needs.

Exercise:

  • List each ministry area. What kind of leaders are needed?
  • Unpack all the different behaviors you want them to do, then try to categorize them.
  • Now look at the lists you’ve generated, and try to simplify them down to the essentials.
  • What competencies are needed for each of these leadership areas?

Check for alignment:

  • How does all of this align with the leadership essentials previously developed? (see previous blog entry on leadership essentials)
  • How does all of this align with the vision and values previously developed? (see previous blog entry on vision) (see previous blog entry on values)

Discernment of calling:

  • What spiritual gifts or gift mixes are needed for each of these areas? How will you discern between skills and gifts?
  • How will you help individuals assess their gifts and their motivational pattern?
  • How will you help them discern their calling?

The outcome of step 4 is a list of the key outcomes (skills and competencies) needed for each ministry area. Click here to move to step 5: Starting where you are.