How to Evaluate Your Ministry at the End of the Year
By Glenna Marshall
Every December, I buy a new planner for the new year. I’m a bit picky about what kind of planner I use, and though I utilize the calendar on my phone, I am still very committed to a paper version to keep track of tasks and deadlines. I love January because that turn of the calendar feels like a fresh start. I can close the door on the hard stuff and look with hope towards the future.Sometimes, though, in order to plan and consider what’s next, I need to appreciate and reflect on what has ended.
Just like setting New Year’s resolutions can help us make goals to focus on and work towards in the coming months, pausing to reflect on the last year can help us evaluate what God has taught us, how He has blessed us, and where He might be leading us to focus. In other words, looking back can aid us as we look forward.
In ministry, metrics can be tricky. You might not have seen a lot of numerical growth in your church; in fact, you might have seen a fair amount of loss. Your church (and thus your family) may have suffered financially. It might be tempting to judge whether or not 2021 was “successful” by examining numbers. Did our church grow? How many new members? Baptisms? New ministry endeavors? Did we meet our budget? Do people think we did a good job? How many people are mad at us? These are valid questions, and yet, there’s a better question to ask yourself at the end of the year. Was I faithful? Better still—was God faithful?
God’s calling on your life in ministry is simple. Not necessarily easy, but not complicated.Faithfulness—being wholly devoted to Christ—is the calling of every believer. Before you are a ministry person, you are a Christ-follower. Faithfulness is what He has called you to, and faithfulness is what He has equipped you for (see 2 Peter 1). No matter what, keep your eyes on Christ today. And tomorrow. And the day after that…until you see Him face to face. Above all else, keep looking at Jesus. Maybe you feel like you didn’t do that well in 2021. The good news is that there are new morning mercies for you each day that you wake up. Even if you feel you weren’t faithful, God was. He is. And He always will be.
I remember years when I closed the cover of my yearly planner feeling a little ominous about the future. The last year hadn’t been a good one at our church, and the new year didn’t seem promising either. We’d incurred a lot of numerical loss after months and months of turmoil. Things didn’t look great, even when I opened to the first page of a new planner. All we could really do was to keep seeking Christ and trying to obey Him. But no matter what the last year had been like and no matter what was coming ahead, God had been faithful. He had been with us. He had been with our church. He wasn’t surprised by what had happened or what was ahead. No matter how successful our ministry may or may not have appeared to us or anyone else, God was unquestionably faithful, even when we wondered at His plans.
As you close the door on 2021, it might be helpful to think through your year in ministry. But be sure to factor in the most important part of ministry and Christ-following in general: faithfulness. Below are some questions to get you started:
Did I seek the Lord in His Word and in prayer regularly? Did God faithfully teach me from His Word and faithfully listen to me in prayer?
Did I respond to God’s love for me by loving others? Did God faithfully love me even when I didn’t?
Did I worry about ministry, finances, and church relationships? Was God faithful to carry me through my fears?
Did I pray for my church regularly? Did God faithfully soften my heart towards others and protect me from bitterness as I prayed?
Did I speak the gospel to both believers and unbelievers? Did God faithfully strengthen and uphold my own faith in the gospel?
Did my church express care for me and my family? Did God faithfully care for me and my family even if the church failed to do so?
Did I serve as unto the Lord, knowing that God faithfully sees what others don’t?
God will never stop being faithful to you, no matter how things are going in ministry and in life. It’s His very nature to be faithful to you. And you can lean on His faithfulness. It’s what upholds your own faithfulness. Paul encourages us this way, “Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord, your labor is not in vain” (1 Cor. 15:58). Because our ministry is done ultimately for, through, with, by, and to Christ, it can never be in vain. It’s never wasted, even if the metrics don’t look great through earthly eyes. Press on. Walk into this new year of labor knowing that God will faithfully walk with you every moment, every step. He is always faithful to you.
Glenna Marshall is married to her pastor, William, and lives in rural Southeast Missouri where she tries and fails to keep up with her two energetic sons. She is the author of The Promise is His Presence: Why God is Always Enough (P&R) and Everyday Faithfulness: The Beauty of Ordinary Perseverance in a Demanding World (Crossway, June 2020).