When you’re in the midst of the day-to-day grind of ministry leadership, sometimes the bright spots or high points can get dismissed kind of easily. They might even be missed entirely depending upon the level of stress in business that you’re experiencing. I was encouraged last week to sit in a staff meeting with a local church where they were taking the time to celebrate the wins. I came in a little bit early and sat in the back. Before I knew it, they had filled up half of the whiteboard with win after win after win. Some of these things were the culmination of a lot of work over a lot of time. Some of those were high points of things that happen over the summer celebrating what God had done through things like VBS or camp. There was a genuine spirit of gratitude and excitement about what God has done and is continuing to do in this place. They also took the time to acknowledge some the losses and challenges. Many of them were directly related to the unique things of the last 18 months — covid, political changes, etc. 

I think it’s easy for a ministry to focus on what’s not working and minimize the wins. But I think this was a great example of celebrating the wins first, allowing people to be excited about it and participate in it. Then acknowledge the losses as opportunities to grow. I think there’s a great lesson in this and even a personal reminder for myself as I lead people to celebrate what God is doing first and to work on what’s not working second.

How can you see this playing out in your ministry or even in your next meeting? Be honest — if you had to think of all the wins right now, how much could you come up with? What do you consider to be a win, and do you think it’s what God considers a win? These are really important questions to ask yourself and I encourage you to reflect on them.