Let’s face it, we’re all busy. We’ve got stuff to do. When men volunteer to lead men’s ministry, it’s in addition to the many other things they are already doing. We want to make sure that their investment of time and resources yields results. How do we do that? By setting and tracking goals.
And this is where many people throw their hands up and say things like, “there are no goals in ministry”, “just go where the Spirit leads”, or “how can you track the work of God?” And I get all those arguments but what we’re talking about is a clear direction and path on which to plot our ministry course. We’re not talking about setting this unattainable goal or making ministry all about achievements. Think of it like this, “if you want to go somewhere, think about how you’ll get there”. And that’s what we mean when we setting goals in men’s ministry.
Let’s talk about three goals every men’s ministry leadership team should set.
Growth Goals
This is where we look at how many men we currently serve and set a goal to increase that. You don’t need to increase it exponentially, a healthy rate of ministry growth is 12-16% of your existing attendance. Setting growth goals challenges you to ask the questions, “how do men even hear about our ministry?” or “what happens when someone new shows up?”. This gets you thinking about invitation, hospitality, and assimilation. These are all ministry systems that help you reach more men.
Evangelism Goals
This is where you ask, “how many men do we want to see make commitments to follow Jesus this year?”. Of course our answer is “millions”, but a healthy rate of conversion growth is 10% of your current attendance. So, if you had 10 guys in your men’s group, seeing one guy come to Christ in this coming year would be a huge success. This goal will get you thinking about the guys who are outside the church walls. What do they need? What questions are they asking? Men’s ministry is not just about discipling Christian men, it’s about introducing Non-Christian men to Jesus and helping them follow Him.
Leadership Development Goals
The first two goals are about increase, this last goal is about depth. If you don’t have this goal, you’ll reach a lid on how big your men’s ministry can grow. Leadership development provides the bench depth every ministry needs to multiply itself. If there are no leaders in the pipeline, the ministry will seize up eventually. Every men’s ministry should be focused on developing the men in their group to be leaders. This takes intentionality to select, inspire, recruit, develop, train and release leaders. If your ministry is focused on doing this for one man per year, you will be able to increase your capacity to minister to more men.
These three simple goals should be set every year and revisited every 3 months with your leadership team. The point is not to make anyone feel badly but to create conversation around the opportunities to close any gaps we might be seeing in order to reach more men with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
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