Two preliminary decisions with respect to evaluation need to be made.
First, what is the purpose of the evaluation process?
A) Is it for the purpose of correcting and/or determining the future of a staff person?
B) Or, is its intention to evaluate the overall health of the ministry of a church and the staff, session, and congregation’s roles in that ministry.
Second, who will conduct the evaluation?
If it is done by the personnel committee, this has the benefit of being more intensely personal, but restricts the value of the conversation.
This may be best for “A” above.
If it is done by the session and the staff together, it is more general but has the value of being more wholelistic. It shifts from micro-evaluation to macro-evaluation of the ministry of the whole Body of Christ as experienced in a congregation.
With those decisions made, then the next step is to focus on expectations.
One of the problems with many evaluations is that they often focus on the negatives and fail to build on the positive aspects.
A second problem is that they become very individualistic and fail to recognize the larger context of ministry.
Tomorrow, we look at a more positive alternative.
