How to Debrief Ministry

We offer some very distinctive advice in this series and frame it as lessons for a chief executive officer in the church. By chief executive officer, we may be referring to the lead pastor as CEO over everything, or anyone that leads a particular ministry as CEO over that particular endeavor. From that perspective, we have asked whether numbers matter, and the conclusion is that they absolutely do matter. One of the key components of measuring your ministry success is through debriefing. We want to teach you how to debrief ministry.

When we commit to measuring ministry success, we are effectively replacing the guesswork that is inherent in an assumption with actual data. This data aids in effective decision-making, because we are no longer just guessing or supposing. We now know the true current state of an initiative, program, or church as a whole and can decide whether it is an appropriate time to go all in, make a few changes, or completely alter the direction.

Another critical component of measuring ministry success is the concept of debriefing. This is something that often gets brushed aside, but this is vital in order to assess for the future. As you experience success, it is imperative that you debrief. Debriefing allows for success to continue on for the future, rather than stop at your recent event.

Following an event, rather than sigh in relief, we must debrief and not immediately look toward the next undertaking or ministry event. One reason debriefing is so crucial is that it saves time. When we repeat an event or something similar, we will be able to refer to the notes from the debriefing meeting and reconstruct the resource list and procedures.

In this video:

We present seven steps explaining how to conduct ministry debriefing. These steps will really help you save time and assess how to improve. It may also be the best time to celebrate success when your team delivers a win.