Over the years the past 18 years of working in youth ministry I've had the honor of launching a few ministries from scratch. Over the past four years at Oneighty we have retooled our Turn Life Small Group Ministry, started a weekly campus ministry, launched a weekend Junior High program, started an all new young adult ministry and launched several volunteer ministries from scratch.
I love this stuff. There is nothing like rolling your sleeves up, getting alone with God, meeting with your team and strategizing on how together you can build the kingdom. Maybe you have a ministry you would like to start, here are a few steps to launching a new ministry.
1. Vision:
Have a firm knowledge of what you are going to do. As the leader you have to know three main things about the vision. 1) Why – we need to do this 2) How – we are going to do this 3) What – will happen because we do this.
2. Cast the Vision:
Cast vision in a compelling way to the right people. You can do this either corporately, individually or in small groups. No matter what your vision is, you cannot do it alone so cast it to someone else and allow the vision to become theirs.
3. Build your team:
Have a structural plan of who you need as well as what you need to make this ministry reflexive. Then have steps in place to recruit – equip – train – release – reward the people on your team.
4. Promote:
Advertise and get the
word out. For this vision to work
you have to have a season of advertising to build momentum before the launch.
5. Launch Ministry:
You only get one first impression so make it a good one.
Set things up to where
your first night is a big win.
6. Slowly Release:
Don’t just take hands off after the launch. Keep a close reign on how things are really going in the new ministry. You do this through observation, short meetings, and constructive criticism. As the workers prove themselves and the ministry becomes reflexive then you can begin to take your hands off the project and move onto something else.
A good rule to follow in
releasing workers is this ….
I
DO…
WE
DO …
YOU
DO and I WATCH…
YOU
DO …
I DO ….
For a short time you do
what your expecting your workers to do.
WE DO ….
For a short time you do
what is expected with your worker.
YOU DO and I WATCH ….
For a short time you let
your worker do the ministry and you observe them offering constructive
criticism and praise along the way.
YOU DO …
Now you release the work
of the ministry to your worker.
Allow them to succeed and allow them to fail. When they succeed…let them know they’ve done a great job. When they fail…let them know the areas
they dropped the ball, and pull them back to where you need them to be.