First person: Preparing for the changes, challenges of 2026

As we turn the page to a new calendar year, are you ready for the changes it is bringing to your ministry setting?

While we cannot know all the challenges/changes coming, we can be assured every ministry setting will experience change this coming year. Key people in the church will pass away or move out of the area. Some churches will face changing economic climates in their community, loss of jobs, and business closings. Some will face financial challenges. Others will face challenges to belief systems and doctrinal issues. Yet, through all of these, the battles we fight are not against flesh and blood.

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It is the decisions and disciplines put into place ahead of the coming year that determine your fruitfulness in the coming year and the challenges it brings. Can you list disciplines and practices your church has in place for each of the above listed challenges, should they arise?

Key difference

One key difference found in consistent fruitful ministries is a culture of discipline and decisions made based on “What if…” questions. These ministry leaders do not live in fear, they apply wisdom, realizing we live in a fallen world that is not God-centered.

The decisions, disciplines and buffers you have in place today, and your determination to adhere to those, will govern the fruitfulness of your ministry in the coming year. Many churches, each year, fall short of their aspirations and God’s desire for lack of thinking ahead, planning for the “what if’s.” This is not to encourage living in the negative state of worry or fear of pending doom. Rather it is employing procedures and practices of preparedness for what we pray will never come to be, so that we can continue carrying out the ministry of God’s calling with little or no interruption in service to Him.

To make decisions and implement practices for challenges and changes that may come is to be proactive and not reactive. Greater fruitfulness always comes from a proactive stance rather than reactive. If you have not, as a leadership team, thought through the what if’s of 2026, why not put it on the agenda for the first week of the year. Do not dwell on the negative. Remember, there are no problems, only opportunities. Frame each what if as an opportunity. “What if God gives us the opportunity to minister to the financial needs of 10% of our community due to a factory shut-down? How will we respond?”

If God allows a need, He will also provide a resource. You may not be able to supply all the needs of those families, and it will likely affect your ministry income. Yet, what has God given you to sustain His church while ministering to the community?

Prayerful planning

Will you sit down with your leadership team and prayerfully consider how your church can be ready for the changes coming this next calendar year?

Also, why not go ahead and schedule a day next October to do the same for the following year. Proactive will always prove more fruitful than reactive.