All church leaders want their ministries to grow. I believe God wants your ministry to grow, too. For our ministry to grow, though, we must be willing to expand our leadership abilities. Individual growth always comes before corporate growth.

The #1 key to growth as a leader is self-evaluation. If you don’t identify ways you can grow as a leader, you’ll never reach your next level. Let’s look at some areas we should evaluate on a regular basis.

Here are questions to ask yourself about your attitude:

• Do I have the heart of a servant?
• Have I made my pastor look good this week?
• Have I made my pastor’s life easier this week?
• Am I an asset or a liability to my pastor?
• Am I a team player?
• What’s my attitude about others around me?
• Am I grumbling and complaining?
• Am I enjoying the journey?
• Do I have a heart for God?
• Am I thinking about myself and my own wants too much?

The second area to evaluate is your priorities. Could you make a list of the top 10 priorities for your life and ministry right this moment?

If you don’t have priorities, you can’t keep them. Proverbs 28:2 says, “When a country is rebellious, it has many rulers, but a man of understanding and knowledge maintains order.” It’s one thing to know your priorities; it’s another thing all together to live according to those priorities.

The third area is time management. Questions to ask yourself:

• How am I spending my time?
• Am I spending time daily with the Lord?
• Is my family suffering while my ministry is flourishing?
• Am I making time for my personal growth and development?
• Am I identifying the time robbers in my life?

Once you identify the areas that need improvement, you must come up with a plan to implement the needed changes. It’s your time—act like it!

The fourth area is your performance. Ask yourself:

• Am I being a team builder or a one-man band?
• What am I doing that someone else can do (delegation)?
• Have I communicated clearly to all my team members their responsibilities?
• Speaking of communication, am I a clear and skillful communicator?
• Am I skilled at solving problems?
• Can I be relied upon to complete assignments and keep commitments?
• If I had to rate my level of leadership on a scale of 1 to 10, what would it score?
• Am I meeting the needs of the children and families of our church?

It’s up to you to evaluate your strengths and weaknesses regularly. If you’ll make personal evaluation and improvement a habit in your life, you’ll grow as a leader.