7 Practices of Effective Ministry | Andy Stanley, Lane Jones, & Reggie Joiner

Andy Stanley, Lane Jones, & Reggie Joiner. 7 Practices of Effective Ministry. Multnomah, 2004. 192 pp.

Every Monday morning I sit down with our staff leadership for a time of learning. These are valuable times. And honestly, these are often frustrating times, because we look beyond where we are to where we could and should be as an organization.

These discussions lead to new beginnings and untimely deaths. The debate is unfiltered. At times it gets personal. We’ve all lost our cool at one time or another. I’m not always right. And it seems there are mornings when we’re wasting everybody’s time. But we continue to meet. We continue to harness our differences. Consequently, we continue to learn and grow.

These are the seven practices that have enabled us to punch through the fog of information and emotion. Our commitment to these guidelines has enabled us to find clarity and make tough calls. They provide the context for all of our discussions and decisions.

#1: Clarify the Win. Define what is important. It is impossible to know if you are making progress if you are not clear about your destination. This means examining every event and program and asking the question, When all is said and done, what is it we want to look back on and celebrate?

#2: Think Steps, Not Programs. Before you start anything, make sure it takes you where you need to go. Your programs should take people somewhere, not simply fill up their time. Ask yourself, Where do we want our people to be? What do we want them to become? Is our programming designed to take them there?

#3: Narrow the Focus. Do fewer things in order to make a greater impact. Focus is the key to achieving excellence and making an impact. Each ministry environment should be designed to do no more than one or two things well.

#4: Teach Less for More. The less you say, the more you will communicate. You will be more effective at every level of your organization if you say only what you need to say to the people who need to hear it.

#5: Listen to Outsiders. Focus on who you’re trying to reach, not who you’re trying to keep. The needs and interests of insiders have a tendency to determine the agenda for the organization. This is especially true of the church.

#6: Replace Yourself. Learn to hand off what you do. One day someone else will be doing what you are doing. Whether you have an exit strategy or not, ultimately, you will exit. So embrace the inevitable and prepare now for the future.

#7: Work On It. Take time to evaluate your work, and to celebrate your wins. To maintain your relevance, your sanity, and your effectiveness, you must carve out time in your schedule to step back and evaluate what you are doing and how you are doing it.

We have come to depend more on God and less on ourselves as these practices forced us to let go of some comfortable yet ineffective approaches to ministry.

Excerpted from 7 Practices of Effective Ministry by Andy Stanley, Reggie Joiner, & Lane Jones. Copyright © 2004 North Point Ministries, Inc. Used by permission of Multnomah Publishers, Inc. Excerpt may not be reproduced without the prior written consent of Multnomah Publishers.

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