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Great endings can lead to great new beginnings! As you prepare to close out this year of ministry you might consider asking for some feedback from your leaders. This can help you keep your finger on the pulse of your church and develop a plan for shepherding your leaders in the new year. Meredith King, Executive Director for Integrus Leadership, shared some great and simple suggestions for having end of the year conversations. Meredith wrote this from the perspective of a business work environment. I have tweaked it to relate to a church ministry environment.


Taking time to close out this year with intention and care is one of the most important opportunities we have as leaders.  I want to encourage you to wrap up your ministry year with some really powerful one-on-one conversations that will help you lead your leaders in the coming year, whether they are volunteers or paid staff.

Asking for feedback can be scary, but it is crucial for healthy teams and fruitful ministries.

Here are 3 questions to ask your team:

  • Question 1: How’s our communication – any tweaks or changes that could be helpful going into the new year?
  • Question 2: What are one or two specific things that make you feel valued as you serve?
  • Question 3: What is one thing I do that frustrates you or makes your ministry (job) harder?

A few quick tips:

  • Send these questions in advance.
  • Incorporate these into one-on-one meetings that you schedule with each leader — perhaps a meeting at lunch where you treat the leader to a meal.
  • Don’t let them off the hook on Question 3! And remember, your response should be, “Thank you for telling me!”

By taking just a few minutes to ask these questions, you’ll gain a wealth of valuable insight AND you’ll model what it looks like for a leader to ask for feedback.

Hope you enjoy some great year-end conversations with your ministry leaders!


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Content provided by Meredith King
Meredith is the Executive Director at Integrus Leadership.