I steward Productive Pastor, a podcast and community of ministry leaders focused on how productivity and strategic ministry in the average church. I write about practical approaches to ministry productivity. I also write emails about church stability/development and my own theological musics in our current social moment.
How I'm preparing for 2025 | Productive Pastor
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I love the end of the year. Each year, I try to reserve the week between Christmas Day and New Year's for planning and review. This isn’t so much about ministry, but family and personal goals I want to have. We are going to talk about this idea over the next few weeks. I’ve done several emails about using personal values and beliefs to help understand growth and goals. You can listen to them here. Setting Personal Goals Through Values | EP 107 Core Values and Decision Making | EP 77 I like this approach because it helps me get beyond some random list of 5-10 goals. Sure, I’ve got those. Over time, I have found more valuable in drilling deeper into who I am personally. If I focus on who I am and aspire to be, hitting an objective goal will be easier. Starting off with some reflection around “what do I want to embody over the next year?” is a much better assessment. Sure, you could say you want to lose weight. Or you could say, I want to strive for physical fitness long-term and begin the pattern of getting 15,000 steps in every day. This sounds like a goal, but I attach a personal wellness goal to my core value of being healthy enough to not be physically unfit. That way making a goal to go on a strenuous trip or event isn’t just a one-time thing, but pointing my life towards what and where I want to be. Currently, I am having to level up my administrative skills. I could attach a goal or two to that. Where I am more likely to be heading is instead embodying better communication practices, reviews, and using systems to get long-term results. I’ll share more on this in the next couple of emails, but I want to give you a specific call-to-action. What would the one-step better version of you be next year? Think about this with 3-5 bullet points. These are what we want other people to say about us when we aren’t around. Next week we will hit the specifics and some systems, but think about those bullets. Yes, these might need to be ministry related. Or personal. Think holistically. I’ll see you back next week. Chad |
Hey. I'm Chad Brooks.
I steward Productive Pastor, a podcast and community of ministry leaders focused on how productivity and strategic ministry in the average church. I write about practical approaches to ministry productivity. I also write emails about church stability/development and my own theological musics in our current social moment.
What church doesn’t want more visitors? I’ve never met one that doesn’t. What I have encountered is churches trying to get an understanding of what it means to see an appropriate amount of visitors. For some, they are in so much anxiety over growth they can’t even begin to think about it. It might even be a point of argument when leadership meets. If the conversation stays in an emotional zone, you will never be able to start to understand where to begin. Also, in many of these situations,...
Hey Friends - This is email 8, the last email in our Vitality Matrix series. If you missed an email, here are the archives. Also, I’ve got some special news to share with you first at the bottom of the email. Is my church healthy? | Email 1How healthy are the relationships in your church? | Email 2How good are your metrics (and do they really matter)? | Email 3What does financial vitality look like in your church? | Email 4Beyond biscuits and Coffee (what is your ministry strategy?). | Email...
I’ve practiced Lent in some manner for almost 20 years of my life. I didn’t grow up with it as a spiritual practice, but it came into my life in early adulthood and has stayed. Lent and Leaving Louisiana Behind I live in Louisiana, so it is impossible to not know something about Lent. As a child, during Lent, public school cafeterias stopped serving hamburgers during Lent and instead gave us fried fish. All I knew back then was Lent was this season when Catholics gave things up. I learned in...