Did I Make the Right Choice?

This question can haunt leaders who make changes, try something new, or remove a beloved activity from their ministries.

It can also pop up when others question your decisions or when you compare your choices to what other leaders are doing. Of the two, comparison might be the sneakiest (and deadliest) thief of a leader’s confidence and growth.

I felt a bit of this one Easter season. Our children’s ministry made the decision to nix our annual Easter egg hunt. Instead of spending a big portion of our budget on eggs, candy, food, and prizes, we chose to invest those funds into our Easter Sunday services.

We opted to give every family a resource—a book/board game combo. Inside each gift was a card with ministry info and a QR code linking to an online resource hub.

Moving away from a big event to giving gifts on Easter was no small shift. Thankfully, once we explained our reasoning, our staff and church members were generally understanding and supportive.

I was feeling good about the change… until social media started shaking my confidence. As I scrolled through my feed in the weeks leading up to Easter, I saw church after church posting pictures of incredible events. One church even had hundreds of eggs dropped from a helicopter with record-breaking attendance.

As these posts rolled in, I wondered for a moment, “Did we make the right choice?”

Comparison Is Poison. Conviction Is the Antidote.

Comparison is a poison, and the only antidote is conviction refined in community.

Conviction gives leaders solid footing when life and ministry feel unstable. It doesn’t always make decisions easy, but it does make them clear.

The word conviction comes from the Latin convictio, meaning “proof” or “to conquer.” To have conviction is to be so thoroughly convinced of something that it conquers all competing options.

Conviction needs proof, and proof comes from three places: values, goals, and evidence.

Our Easter Example

Our decision to forgo the egg hunt wasn’t random or trendy. It was rooted in our four core values:

1. Gospel-centrality

2. Biblical competency

3. Family equipping

4. Intergenerational community

We asked: Does the egg hunt actually fulfill these values—or could we do something that fulfills them better?

Ultimately, we realized we could use our time and resources to better live our values.

Here’s what the change allowed us to do:

• Host a family service where kids and parents worship together with the church (intergenerational).

• Give families donuts, praise packs, and a discipleship book/game to use at home (family equipping).

• Provide a book that walks through the entire story of Scripture (biblical competency).

• Share the same clear gospel message with everyone in the service (gospel-centrality).

Being able to see our values lived out in the new plan gave us confidence in the decision.

Gathering Evidence

Next, we asked a simple question: What was the goal of the egg hunt in the first place?

Everyone agreed it was meant to bring in more guests to our Easter services. But when we looked at past attendance records, the hunt didn’t seem to lead to higher Easter Sunday attendance.

Research supported our findings. One recent study showed that the most effective way to get people to attend church at Christmas or Easter is a personal invitation from a friend or neighbor. (See: Study Shows Less than Half of Americans Attend Church at Christmas, But an Invitation Often Accepted | AG News.)

So instead of putting all our “eggs” in one basket (pun intended), we equipped our people with tools and training videos to personally invite friends, family, and neighbors. It fulfilled the same purpose but much more effectively.

Conviction Refined in Community

Even with values, goals, and evidence, we needed one more thing to solidify our conviction: community.

We brought our plan to our staff, shared our reasoning and research, and asked for feedback. Their thoughtful questions and insights sharpened our plan and made us even more confident.

Conviction refined through community is conviction made stronger.

The Results

So—did the change actually work?

Yes. Equipping our members to give personal invites resulted in better outcomes.

Even better, we saw families engaging with the resources we provided. Instead of posting egg-hunt pictures, parents were sharing photos of the book/game they’d received and how their kids were learning about Scripture.

One mom posted this while sitting in the school pick-up line:
“I appreciate books that make learning about the Bible interesting and fun for kids! Thank you, Ridgedale Baptist Church!”

The Win

Conviction—built on values, goals, evidence, and community—helped us make a decision we could stand behind, even when comparison tempted us to doubt.

In the end, this wasn’t just about replacing an event. It was about using our resources to fulfill our mission.

Whether you have an Easter egg hunt next spring or not isn’t the point. What matters is whether your decisions have a sure grounding and direction.

• Are your ministry’s values rooted in Scripture and shaped for your context?

• Have you set clear goals for the events and moments you create?

• Are your decisions backed by data and research that give you confidence to move forward?

Without these essential ingredients, it’s nearly impossible to fight the poisonous effects of comparison.

In a fast-paced, ever-changing world, clear goals, guiding values, and solid evidence give you the conviction to stay the course—even when your decisions seem odd, unpopular, or unexpected.

Hunter Williams is the children's pastor of Ridgedale Baptist Church in Chattanooga, TN, and co-host of the Cross Formed KidMin podcast. He has served in various ministry roles, including chaplain, youth pastor, and missionary with Awana. He has written articles for numerous ministries such as INCM, The Gospel Coalition, and KidzMatter magazine and is the coauthor of How to Teach Kids Theology. Hunter and his wife, Sammie, have four children and love serving in their local church.