If you’ve ever been on a road trip, you know how crucial a dashboard can be.
The dashboard helps you monitor your speed, the car’s temperature, how much gas till the next stop and how many miles you’re putting on the vehicle, amongst other things.
Dashboards help you measure crucial data as you travel along on your journey.
Ministry is a lot like a road trip. You have a starting point. You have a destination. And every day, you move forward toward that destination.
Having a “dashboard” for your ministry to men can help you gauge your effectiveness as you head down the road.
As you measure various aspects of the ministry, you have data that can help you plan, adjust, and make decisions.
Here are some things you can include on your dashboard for men’s ministry:
Newcomers. How many newcomers do you get to your men’s ministry? Do you see new people regularly? Once in a while? Never? If you want your ministry to grow, you need to see first-timers. How do you get first-timers? Invitation. You need to invite guys to join you. Which leads to the next gauge:
Invitation. Do your people invite their friends, family, and co-workers to join them at your events? How many? What is the response? If they don’t ask, why not? Tracking invitations can help you navigate whether or not the ministry is something guys feel they can invite others to.
Involvement. Do the guys pitch in to serve? How many? Is there high volunteer engagement? If not, this can be addressed by casting vision (see this previous article) and empowering guys to lead. This isn’t about berating guys to help; it’s about rallying guys to something greater than themselves.
Spiritual Life. This one can be harder to measure, but is there evidence that our men are growing in their walk with Jesus? Are they engaged in men’s ministry and on Sunday mornings? Are they digging into the Word? Are they learning and growing? Are they stepping out to live out their faith? Looking at how our guys are maturing in Jesus helps us see if our ministry is effective in this most important area.
Stories of Life Change. Always be looking for stories of life change. This doesn’t need to be huge transformations… just simple, daily choices that guys are making to follow Jesus. Celebrating these stories creates even more stories.
Development. Who in the ministry is being developed to lead the ministry or aspects of the ministry? Developing others is key to sustaining ministry effectiveness over the long haul. Invest in others and develop the people around you.
When it comes to the dashboard, you’re not going to be 100% in every area all the time. And there may be other areas that you decide you want to start tracking. But beginning to measure these things will help you understand where you are at and allow you to adjust your focus and attention accordingly.
Remember, you’re on a journey, and this will help you sustain ministry effectiveness as you move forward in your ministry to men.
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