How often do you celebrate wins? Many pastors and leaders are careful to start their meetings with each department offering up a win from the weekend or previous month. This is a great way to set the tone and give everyone an opportunity to celebrate.

But what about really celebrating? It may be with cake and ice cream, even balloons and decorations. Or it can be a more formal celebration, a special dinner with your hardest working volunteers or a group event with the staff — not just acknowledging wins, but celebrating in a way that lets everyone know something special has happened.

Celebration is an often-overlooked device in the leader’s toolkit. As you spend time motivating and releasing people into their skill set, delegating tasks, and helping set goals, don’t neglect the power of stopping to celebrate with your team. In the sports world, good coaches celebrate, not just after the victory but throughout the game.

What are the things we should celebrate as church leaders? Here are a few ideas.

Milestones

As you grow, you will continue to hit big milestones. This is true for established churches, as well as younger ones. The birthday of the church is an obvious one; churches often celebrate significant anniversary dates, such as one year, five years, 10 years or 50 years.

Other milestones might include the launching of a new campus, paying off debt, meeting a pledge-drive goal, a community event or even a national holiday. Look at your calendar, and find six upcoming milestones that deserve a bigger celebration.

Staff Members and Ministries

How do you celebrate staff members? Do you have a system in place to honor your staffers on their birthdays and anniversaries? How do you celebrate a staff member’s ordination? What is a cause of celebration for your entire team?

Likewise, how do you celebrate each ministry at your church? Think about hosting an annual ministry fair to highlight the role of every area to the whole church and point out big wins from the year. Not only will it showcase your ministries, but it can become a fantastic recruitment tool as well.

Conversions and Baptisms

Most churches share conversion and baptism information regularly with the staff, and only sometimes with the rest of the church. But even then, how often is it shared with a sense of celebration?

Don’t neglect the  power of stopping to celebrate.

At one time — and it probably still happens in some churches — congregations posted each week’s offering, attendance and salvation numbers on a wooden board for all to see in a sort of silent celebration.

This is such an important piece of a church’s life. Can I suggest you make a bigger deal of it, not just as a line in a report, but as the center of celebration? Consider throwing a party once a year for everyone who decided to receive Christ as Savior or follow Him in water baptism during the previous 12 months. Serve cake to highlight these important spiritual birthdays. When you make it a big deal, your people will see it that way too.

These are just a few of the things that you can celebrate each year. The list is only limited by your desire to celebrate wins.

Why Celebrate?

What are the benefits of developing a culture of celebration? Outside of the good time you have and the goodwill you get from it, there are tangible leadership advantages as well.

First, celebrating honors those who deserve it. When you acknowledge wins, your people realize that you notice and appreciate all the hard work they’ve put in. Instead of a silent observer, you become part of the active crowd. And when you honor your staff, they will honor you in return. So, give honor where it is due (Romans 13:7).

Celebrating also shows your staff you’re a leader who likes to have fun. When you celebrate, get involved. Enjoy the moment. Join in with the games, laughter, worship or whatever the event may include — and don’t worry about looking silly. Volunteer to help lead the celebration. Your staff will follow your lead.

Celebrations give people a break, letting them catch their breath and recharge. This is especially true at the end of a difficult season. Two natural times of celebration for your church should be right after Easter and at Christmas.

I’m not suggesting you take the week off, because after a highly attended weekend there’s plenty of work to do. But consider celebrating and allowing some time off to reflect the effort and overtime your people exerted. This provides an extra boost to hit the ground running for the next initiative, season or big event.

Finally, celebration can motivate your staff to go to the next level. Once they see how you repay their efforts to get to this level, they’re more willing to move up another peg, anticipating more joy ahead. Motivation through celebration can be one of the best ways to share vision because it makes the energy that much more tangible for all involved.

When is your next celebration? How will you celebrate? Maybe you didn’t plan anything big. Take the time to go all out and kick it up a notch. Celebration is a potent way to keep your staff happy, keep your people engaged, and keep the ball rolling toward the vision for God’s kingdom.