Last week Richard (my pastor for the past 8 years who is also leading our church plant effort) asked me this question: What do we need to do to have more effective ministries at the church? He shared with me that in the past 15 years when he has had the opportunity to conduct “exit interviews” of folks who have left the church for one reason or another, the predominant theme he gets is that the Sunday morning service is good, but that the ministries that go on through the week leave something to be desired.

So that got my wheels turning. Why is there this disparity? What can we do to change things to make it better? This is crucial both for our existing ministry at Noelridge and our upcoming ministry at Imago Christi. Are there processes we should put in place that would help? Are there things in place right now that are unnecessary hindrances to the effort of ministry?

I had a few answers for him there in our conversation, but I want to take the chance to explore them more fully here on the blog. So over the next few days I am going to explore some areas where I think we can improve things in our ministry - and I’m hoping it’s applicable and useful for my non-Noelridge readers as well as the locals.

As a note to my Noelridge readers: please don’t read any of this and feel that it’s a criticism of you, of your efforts in ministry at Noelridge, or of your dedication to the Lord. The responsibility for this stuff falls on the leadership. We are the ones that need to take a hard look and then, if need be, change things. It’s entirely possible that some of the ideas I explore here won’t even be good options for Noelridge. What I am hoping these accomplish is to get us to think on some things and have a productive discussion. So please, leave comments and discuss.

Also in this series: