What Is? What If? What Can?

A huge part of children's ministry is leadership. Just like every other area of ministry, everything rises and falls on leadership.

And a key part of leadership is being aware of where the ministry is currently, where it needs to go in the future and how to lead it there.

One of the best ways to accomplish this is to regularly gather a group of your key leaders and discuss three key questions. Here are the questions:

Question #1 - What is?

Here are some "what is" sample questions:

What is the spiritual health of our team?

What is our current number of our volunteers?

What is currently going well?

What is the number of kids who are attending?

What is not working well?

What is our current ratio of kids to volunteers?

What is hindering us from getting to the next level?

What is our guest follow-up strategy?

What is the overall experience we are offering families?

What is our current strategy to connect with and partner with parents?

What is our greatest strength at this time?

What is our biggest weakness at this time?

Now that you've got some solid information about your current status, it's time to ask the next question that will help you solidify where you want to be and what ideas have the greatest potential if implemented.

Question #2 - What If?

Here are some "what if" sample questions:

What if we stopped doing _______________?

What if we started doing ________________?

What if we tweaked ________________?

What if we put more time into ______________?

What if we invested more in _______________?

Now that you've got in writing some ideas or plans that you believe can help you, it's time to write down the results or benefits that the change can bring. This is vision casting. Showing people what can be. Showing people that the results of the changes will far outweigh what the current status is.

Question #3 - What Can?

Here are some "what can" sample questions:

What can happen if we change _______________?

What can happen if we tweak ________________?

What can happen if we stop doing _________________?

What can happen if we start _______________?

What can God accomplish through us if we _______________?

What can happen if take a chance and go for ________________?

This third set of questions gives you the opportunity to make changes and see the dreams God has placed in your heart become a reality.

The answers that emerge from this conversation could change the course of the ministry and help you get to the next level.

Just remember, these kind of questions are not a one and done. I would encourage you to have this conversation at least twice a year.

I believe the best is just around the corner for you. Let these simple questions and the answers it generates take you there.