You’ve heard of spring cleaning and closing the accounting books at year-end, but have you considered doing a mid-year checkup?

The halfway point of the year is an excellent time to make sure you’re on-track with your annual goals, budget, and other aspects of leading the church. It’s also an opportunity to check on facets of church administration that are easy to overlook when you’re busy with the day-to-day.

Here are several items to assess when starting a mid-year review:

General health:

• Is attendance trending up, down, or about the same week over week?
• Are more people getting involved in small groups? Are those already involved participating consistently?
• Do you have a sufficient number of volunteers for each ministry area?
• How many baptisms have you had this year? Is that number more, less, or about the same as in prior years?
• Talk with volunteer leaders, small group leaders, and elders/deacons. What do they see regarding the overall health of the church? Do they have specific concerns or recommendations? Are you receiving similar comments from multiple people (positive or otherwise)?
• How many first-time guests do you have each week? Is that number more, less, or about the same as you’ve seen in prior years?
• Talk with leaders around your community. What is their impression of your church?

Facility:

• Walk around your church property. Look for areas that need repair and items to replace or refresh.
• Review maintenance records. Are the HVAC units due to be serviced? Do you need to have the roof inspected?
• Check all playground equipment and children’s spaces. Is everything clean, working correctly, and well-secured? Do you have security cameras installed in children’s areas? If so, are all of them working properly?
• If your church has a kitchen, is that area clean and stocked appropriately? Do individuals required to have food handler permits have them up-to-date?
• Have you spoken with your church’s insurance agent to see if your coverage is up-to-date and sufficient for your current needs?

Policies and procedures:

• Review volunteer background check records. If you’ve committed to conducting background checks on volunteers annually, are you meeting that commitment?
• Evaluate church policies and procedures. Have they been reviewed or updated within the last 12 months? If not, schedule time for that to occur.
• Do you have an employee handbook? If so, when was it last updated?

Finances:

• How does the church’s financial health look? Do you have a reasonable amount of savings? Are you over budget on any line items?
• Are weekly tithes/offerings trending up, down, or about the same?
• Who has access to the church’s bank account, financial software, or ChMS? Does that list need to be updated? Does anyone on that list no longer work at the church and need to have access revoked?

This isn’t an exhaustive list, but by reviewing these items, you should have a better view of how to prioritize tasks for the remaining months of the year.

Conducting a mid-year review may not be an urgent item on your to-do list. However, it can be a helpful exercise that could prevent issues later on in the year.