New Year’s resolutions are often self-focused. It is understandable; successful people frequently reflect on who they are, striving for greater self-awareness and personal development. Consequently, many leaders set resolutions involving individual goals, desires, and objectives. However, effective pastors also prioritize the well-being of those they lead. This year, rather than focusing solely on personal growth, consider making resolutions centered on the people around you.
Here are five areas to consider when crafting specific church leadership resolutions that directly benefit your congregation. By shifting your focus outward, you can foster a healthier community and a more engaged ministry. For further inspiration, you may want to consider resolutions straight from scripture to guide your planning process.
Serve first. Everyone in an organization, from top to bottom, serves the mission. As a leader, you cannot fulfill that mission without serving others. The most impactful leaders are passionate about their calling and are willing to support those who join them in that work. Adopting biblical resolutions for your church can help maintain this servant-hearted focus throughout the coming year.
These leaders realize organizational and individual goals cannot be attained with an attitude of “me first.” Leaders who show the way by serving others (as opposed to being self-serving) help create a culture of sacrifice for a mission. Resolve this year to serve the mission by serving your church members and staff.
Simplify work. Many people look for ways to simplify their lives this time of year. But the mantra to simplify lasts about a month before the complexities of life sneak in by Groundhog Day. One of the best gifts a leader can give followers is simplicity. Complexity may dominate your followers’ lives in every way, but you can grant them simplicity in the one area in which you have control. Managers who simplify work for their subordinates often create more work for themselves. Resolve this year to simplify for your followers, even if it means more complexity for you.
Release problems. Some problems are unsolvable. This dilemma becomes a significant hurdle for leaders who have an innate desire to fix everything. Unfortunately, idealistic leaders will often present good solutions to the wrong problems.
Sometimes the “best” solution will not work. In some instances, followers may never grasp the best solution. Let it go. Leaders serve people, not ideals. Resolve this year to release your church members and staff from the burden of idealistic solutions to unsolvable problems.
Yield preferences. Most followers have a keen radar for the personal preferences of a leader, especially when these preferences are spun as vision. Leaders have positional authority over followers, and those in charge have more opportunities to voice opinions and vocalize what they like.
The best pastors find ways to create a collective vision with input from various church members. They do not champion their preferences as the vision for all. Resolve this year to yield your personal preferences and build a collective vision from a variety of followers.
Recognize pride. Humility is the most difficult leadership trait to see in ourselves. The opposite of humility, pride is the most destructive leadership predisposition. Great leaders never stop fighting the battle to recognize pride and remain humble. It’s the quintessential leadership struggle. We stand on a sliding scale somewhere between healthy humility and unhealthy pride.
Even at our best, determining where we are on this scale is tricky. We rarely recognize our pride until it’s too late. Followers often see it long before leaders become self-aware of arrogance.
Great pastors appoint accountability partners at all levels of the church to call attention to potential problems originating in pride. Resolve this year to put measures in place to recognize prideful tendencies and give key people around you permission to call out problems associated with your pride.
Leadership is a gift from followers. Graciously accept this gift by resolving to serve the people around you by putting them first. Make 2023 the year of serving others.
This article originally appeared on ChuchAnswers.com and is reposted here by permission.