Consider who created the pattern, the model, "the how" of your particular ministry area or ministry responsibility. Did it come from a book, another church (conference), the previous pastor? Someone was the designer. Who was it?
Step Two: Ask "Why?"
Consider the motives and the intent of the person who designed the ministry you lead. Why did the originator of the ministry make the decisions they made? Why is your ministry designed the way it is? What problems were they trying to solve? What were their assumptions?
Step Three: Ask "What's Changed?"
Somewhere between the original design or latest modification of the ministry you are leading, things have changed. Make a list of things that are different. Is your ministry reaching the same people? Who is coming now? Who has left? How has communication and technology changed? How have peoples' values changed. What's new in our community? Is your leadership style different now? Obviously these are a small sample of the countless questions you may ask.
Step Four: Ask "What Change Can We Make?"
After the list of what's changed, consider how you can modify the pattern, design, for strategy of your ministry area or responsibility. What new problem needs to be solved today? What new challenge or new opportunity is most important to address? How do you need to add value? How can it be done less expensively? How can you reach more people? How can you reach different people?
In the end you want to be able to answer, "What is the most important tweak to our ministry that we can make today?"
Step Five: Engage Flux
Flux is the new reality. And flux is good. Fast Company magazine's cover story this month is on Generation Flux. It's not about an age segment demographic, but a way of thinking that successful people of any age must embrace. Prepare yourself to change and to change things. Think not like a fast follower or best practicer, but like a future designer and better experimenter. This last September I released a little digital experience with Leadership Network called FLUX: Four Paths to the Future. If you want to keep thinking and pushing yourself as a courageous tweaker of ministry, I recommend that you check it out as part of the Leadia App, for iPhone and iPad.