Why the Best Ministry Leaders Aren't Waiting for January 1st

The end of the year in ministry is a whirlwind. Between Christmas services, budget finalizations, and volunteer appreciation events, the pressure is immense. It’s tempting to push through the chaos with a single thought: "I'll deal with improvements in January. I just need a fresh start." This common mindset, however, may be the very thing holding your ministry back from its full potential.

The counter-intuitive but powerful truth is that the best time to plan for the year ahead isn’t January 1st—it's right now. The most effective way to prepare for the future is by first taking a disciplined and honest look at the past. Don't wait to get better when you can begin today.

This article outlines six critical areas every ministry leader should evaluate before the new year begins. Based on key insights from Craig Groeschel, this framework will help you move beyond good intentions and into a new year prepared with the clarity, focus, and faith needed to lead effectively.

The Foundation: Brutal Honesty Over Comfortable Excuses

Before diving into the six areas of evaluation, we must establish the non-negotiable foundation for any meaningful growth: honesty. As leaders, it’s far too easy to make excuses for missed goals or justify lackluster results with external factors. We can tell ourselves stories about why something didn't work, but those stories rarely lead to progress. True growth begins the moment we decide to tell the truth about what happened.

Growth doesn't start with excuses. Growth starts with honesty.

The 6 Areas to Evaluate Before the New Year

Successes: Autopsy Your Wins, Not Just Your Failures

Smart leaders don’t just celebrate successes; they analyze them. When a ministry initiative, event, or team thrives, it's tempting to take it for granted, celebrate the win, and move on. However, this is a missed opportunity. If you don't stop to understand the specific "ingredients" that created that win, you won't be able to reproduce it. Worse, you might accidentally drift away from the very things that made it work in the first place. In short, success leaves clues if you're wise enough to look for them.

Evaluating your wins is critical for sustainable momentum. You must understand the specific decisions, disciplines, systems, and people that contributed to a positive outcome. As Andy Stanley famously said:

"If you don't know why something is working when it is, you won't know how to fix it when it's not."

For example, a church with multiple locations might notice some campuses growing explosively while others are stagnant. The easy answer is "good leadership," but a deeper analysis might reveal other X-factors. A detailed look could show that the pairing of a charismatic leader with an organizational one is crucial, that community demographics (Is the community growing? Is it aging?) matter, or that practical issues like parking availability are significant contributing factors. Don't just celebrate desired outcomes; study the ingredients that created them.

Misses: Don't Waste a Failure You Already Paid For

The danger in ministry isn't in failing; it's in failing to learn from the mistake. In fact, if your ministry isn't experiencing occasional failures, you are likely playing it too safe. Whether it was a wrong hire, a poorly timed project launch, or a gut decision that backfired, every miss is an expensive lesson. The key is to make sure you get your money's worth.

When something doesn't work, you must stop and ask why. Where did you get it wrong? More pointedly, as Groeschel suggests, ask: "What did we overlook?" and "Where did we lead with ego and lack humility?" And most importantly, what will you do differently next time?

A mistake you don't learn from is a mistake you'll likely repeat.

Craig Groeschel shares the story of a failed church plant in Phoenix where an autopsy revealed over 30 distinct mistakes. Those expensive lessons became the foundation for their successful multisite strategy today. Failures are only truly bad if you don't learn from them. Don't waste a failure you already paid for.

Patterns: Your Culture Is What You Repeatedly Allow

What happens occasionally is a circumstance, but what happens repeatedly is your culture. If a deadline is missed once, it’s understandable. If deadlines are missed five times in a row, it reveals a pattern—a lack of accountability in your culture. It is crucial for ministry leaders to evaluate these patterns because, without intentionality, your culture will drift away from your core values.

The culture of your team or church doesn't naturally become what you want it to be; it becomes what you allow. You must look back and identify where you are drifting away from what you truly value.

What you permit you promote.

Consider the example of pastors who are given a five-minute slot to welcome their congregation. Over time, without a strict guideline, ten seconds over becomes thirty, which becomes a few minutes. Soon, services are ending seven minutes late. While it seems minor, this pattern reveals a cultural drift away from the core values of excellence and integrity and, on a practical level, is "the difference between being able to add another service or not." Evaluating patterns allows you to correct course before a small drift becomes a major problem.

People: Your Ministry's Potential Rests on Your Team's Strength

You can have the right vision, the right strategy, and the right plan, but still fail if you have the wrong leaders in the wrong seats. The wrong leaders can make the best plan look bad, while the right leaders can make an average plan look brilliant. The potential of your ministry's future rests on the strength of your people.

As you reflect on the year, evaluate your team members. Ask yourself: Who's thriving? Who's coasting? Who is quietly disengaging? Who needs a new challenge, and who needs a hard conversation? Your role as a leader isn't just to find great people; it's to intentionally develop them.

You don't find great leaders, you build them.

Take the time to be acutely aware of what is happening in the lives of the people you lead. Ask who is ready for a promotion, who needs more coaching, and who needs personal care. Your investment in your people is a direct investment in your ministry's future.

Priorities: Your Focus Determines Your Future

Most ministry leaders don't struggle with a lack of passion; they struggle with a lack of focus. Because you care so much, you are often trying to do too much. But busyness does not equal effectiveness. If everything is important to you, nothing is important to you. The spiritual enemy knows that if he can't destroy you, he will distract you—and distraction is almost as effective.

One of your most vital leadership assignments is resource allocation. You have a limited amount of time, energy, money, and attention. You must intentionally invest those resources where they will produce the greatest kingdom impact, not just in whatever screams the loudest. Your focus determines your future.

Give your best energy toward what drives your greatest impact.

Take an honest look at your calendar and budget from the past year. Did your allocation of time and money align with your stated mission and priorities? If not, now is the time to recalibrate.

Yourself: The Hardest Person to Lead is in the Mirror

True leadership growth begins with ruthless honesty about the person you see in the mirror. It's easy to spot the pride, excuses, and blind spots in others, but far more difficult to see them in yourself. Yet, you cannot correct what you are unwilling to confront. The areas you ignore privately will eventually hurt you and your ministry publicly.

Look inside at your character, values, and integrity. Are you overcompensating for an insecurity? Are you avoiding a necessary conversation because you want to be liked? Don't hide behind last year's successes. Face the things that are holding you back.

You cannot correct what you won't confront.

This requires asking hard questions. "Where am I making excuses?" This could be in your leadership, your family life, your physical health, or your spiritual disciplines. Be brutally honest. Then ask a question you might be avoiding: "What am I avoiding because it's uncomfortable?" And finally, ask the most important question of all: "What's the one thing you need to fix, but you haven't?" Remember, the most dangerous lies are the ones that we tell ourselves.

Conclusion: Start Early, Start Strong

Don't fall into the trap of waiting for January. The most effective leaders don't wait for a date on the calendar; they build a mindset of discipline now. They start early, and they start strong. This end-of-year evaluation isn't an exercise in criticism; it's an opportunity to learn, grow, and prepare to lead with renewed focus and faith.

By honestly assessing your successes, misses, patterns, people, priorities, and yourself, you are setting the stage for a new year of greater impact. You are positioning yourself, your team, and your ministry to step fully into everything God has called you to do.

As this year closes, what is the one thing you know you need to fix, but haven't faced yet?

Note: This article was generated with the help of NotebookLM