Today I want to talk to you about a ministry program audit. Think about all the programs at your church. Often over the course of time a church tends to add program after program after program. This was done with intentionality at the time it was done and was meant to serve the people and serve their needs. However, from time to time we need to audit to see if these programs are still working in the way they were intended. Here is a quadrant to help you evaluate your existing programs and what you should do about them.
First of all, a program should be aligned with your church’s mission, values, and strategy; and you need to make sure that you are measuring those to that end. If a program is not aligned to those things, it’s not working. You need to repeal it sooner rather than later. Its opportunity cost. It takes up announcement time, space in the bulletin, and it’s taking people’s time to run that ministry. You need to make sure that it goes away and you can do so honoring the work it did, but recognizing its time has passed.
If a program is aligned with your church but is not working well in your context, you need to replace it with something that will.
If a program is not aligned with your church, but is working well, it may be a rogue ministry. See if you can repurpose that ministry in a way that does align with your church.
If a program is both aligned and working well, you need to reproduce it. Once you figure out why it’s working, poor gas on it and doing so will multiply its impact to the church and most importantly its impact to the kingdom.
Now that you understand this ministry program audit, what are you going to do with it, and what are you going to do about it?
