Building on yesterday’s suggestion of expanding evaluation to the whole ministry of the congregation, an alternative would be to have the session and the staff look at their perception of the expectations of ministry within a congregation.
With the session and staff gathered together, have each person write out 10 statements as to their perception of the congregation’s expectations of ministry within the congregation. The ten-statement approach pushes the conversation beyond the surface. It can be used either for the staff as a whole with respect to the congregation or to an individual staff and that person’s area of ministry.
Each elder and each staff person is asked to write six statements of what the congregation expects from the ministerial staff. (Or if this is an individual staff person, the congregational expectation in that particular area of ministry.)
Four statements of what the congregation expects of the officers with respect to this congregation’s ministry.
This recognizes the team understanding of the ministry.
Initially, in sharing the statements of expectations, those of the officers should be recorded separately from those of the staff.
This permits some conversation if there is any distinction between what the staff perceives and what the session perceives.
Building on that conversation, the next ten statements should be about the perceptions of the strengths and concerns about the church’s overall ministry.
Six statements about areas that are perceived as strengths of this congregation.
Four statements about challenges or concerns as the congregation faces the future.
Concerns or challenges are better than weaknesses because it avoids the negative and focuses on the future.
When the challenges or concerns are discussed, it would be good to identify three areas of responsibility.
With respect to each concern, what are steps the staff can take, the officers can take, and equally important, what steps can the congregation take.
Again, this emphasizes that this is a ministry of the whole Body of Christ and removes the perception that the congregation is a passive recipient of ministry.
What you are doing in this type of evaluation, is expanding it to include the whole congregation, building on the strengths (and gifts God has provided) and looking to the future together. In this way, we embody what it means to be the Priesthood of All Believers.
Tomorrow we look at an expanded version of evaluating the ministry of the congregation.
