The Overflow

Feb 07 2009

Congregational Evaluation Guide

As promised, here’s the congregational evaluation guide I typed up. This may prove to be a useful resource for some of you.

CONGREGATIONAL EVALUATION/REFLECTION QUESTIONS

This guide has been written with the intention of prompting discussion among the members of the ministry team. As we study, think, and discuss together, more relevant questions may arise that will need to be added. Our goal in moving forward shouldn’t be simply to ask questions and find answers, but to ask the right questions, and to strive to find the answers that will move us forward.

1. Purpose?

a. Leaders must endorse and model.
b. Purpose must be understood by the whole church.
c. How could we package our purpose statement so that it is easily communicated and understood?

2. Surrounding Community?

a. Needs of the community should shape our approach to them.
b. Key Community Questions:
i. Who are we trying to reach?
ii. What are their spiritual needs?
iii. What does the Bible say about their needs? Can we tailor our lessons to meet them?
iv. What areas of commonality do we share with them?
v. How are we different?
vi. Do we need to make changes to reach them?
vii. Are we willing to make the changes necessary to reach them?

3. Name/Image?

a. Would changing our name be beneficial to our mission?
b. Would changing our image be beneficial to our mission?
c. How should who we’re trying to reach effect our image?
d. How do we want ourselves to be viewed in the community?
e. What does our church building and our worship environments say to the people coming in to them?
f. What does the printed material we put in people’s hands make people think about us?
g. What does our website make people think about us?

4. Facilities?

a. What does our church building and worship environments say to the people coming into them?
b. Are our worship environments aesthetically pleasing?

5. Assembly Format?

a. Are our assemblies something we can be proud of?
b. Considering our community’s makeup/spiritual needs, are our assemblies formatted in such a way that would be attractive to them?
c. What do our assembly styles make visitors think about us?
d. What do the sermons make them think about us?
e. What does our Bible class format/curriculum make them think about us?
f. Are they something a visitor would speak positively about to their friends/family?

6. Discipleship Structures?

a. How do we help our members develop deep spiritual roots?
b. How could an effective, church wide small group program help us provide outlets for members to be discipled?
c. Could we become a small group driven church? What would it take?

7. Promotion & Community Outreach?

a. Do people in our immediate area know who we are?
b. Do they know what we stand for?
c. Could we effectively utilize mass media to get our message out (TV ads/radio ads, direct mail campaigns, website integration)?

8. Evangelistic Equipping?

a. How could we see as many conversions as possible?
b. Could we make an effort to equip every member to share the gospel with others?

9. Expectations of Members?

a. What expectations should we, as a ministry team, have of members?
b. What commitments should we, as staff, be empowered to hold people to as members?

10. New Member Integration?

a. Is there a process involved in new member acceptance?
b. How can we familiarize new members with the mission/vision of the church? What process could we use?
c. Are ministries in place that new members are easily plugged in to?

11. Longtime members’ acceptance of changes?

a. How can we help longtime members embrace needed changes? Should we expect them to embrace them?
b. Would Bible studies help us with this? If so, what sort of studies?
c. Should members be exposed to the same sort of educational materials the ministry team is working through?
d. Why does this church exist? Who does is exist for?

Tagged Church growth, Congregational Evaluation, Congregational evaluation reflection questions

Jan 27 2009

Ministry Today in Tomorrow’s World

My dad sent me this via email this morning, and I thought it was worth sharing.

Watch this:

Now, let’s say you’re working to initiate revival in a struggling congregation situated in one of the most densely populated, technologically advanced, and influential cities in the world.

How does this information apply to your ministry?

Tagged Globalization & The Information Age

Jan 19 2009

5 Comments

Devotional Thoughts, Random

The ‘F’ and that sinking feeling

I love reading my mom’s writing, and just got done taking in a story from her childhood.

Check it out:

The “F”

by Geraldine Woodell

She prayed the lumbering school bus would never get to her stop – that it would break down, blow a tire, or mysteriously be unable to find her house. Her insides were curled up into themselves, it seemed, and she struggled to hold the tears behind her eyes that were fighting to escape. Whatever had she been thinking?!

Why, for crying out loud, had she gotten herself into this mess? But worse than that, her mother … confessing to her mother was what she dreaded most of all. Why couldn’t she just lie? Hope surged up for a second, but only for a second. It would be her luck that her teacher would see her mother somewhere and ask about “it” and then she’d be in double trouble.

She usually felt uncomfortable around her mother. Mama was exacting, and always short-tempered (or so it seemed to her) for reasons she could never figure out. Physical affection wasn’t part of her family’s culture, but that absence really didn’t really register with her, probably because many of her friends’ and relatives’ families were much the same way. Spontaneous hugs, kisses, even friendly arms around the shoulders were all foreign behaviors. Anger, however, flowed freely – ire was acceptable while tenderness was not. Not that she pondered these things; she was more concerned with staying out of the way of the anger.

The yellow bovine of a bus traitorously did remember her stop. She slowly slid across the greenish, cracked vinyl seat and stepped down into her lane. Nervously she looked up at the house. It was a rent house, of sorts; her daddy had bartered with the owner to allow her family to live there if they agreed to look after his cows. An old barn of a building, drafty, equipped with a massive wood-burning range her mama fiercely hated, run down and largely abandoned until her family moved in. But she, the child, loved it. A breezeway divided the house in half, providing a wonderful place to play on blustery days. Two huge cedar trees graced the front yard, offering cool, quiet play houses underneath their limbs that drooped to the ground. The windows had no screens much to her mother’s dismay, but the child delighted to sit on a generous ledge with a cool drink and read for hours.

She thought of none of these pleasurable things as she entered the house. Wanting mightily to just get it over with and take whatever was coming, she rushed into the kitchen. Now the tears burst out of their gates, rolling down her cheeks. Alarmed, her mother said sharply, “What’s wrong?!!”

“I cheated at school and got an ‘F’ on my paper!!!” she cried out with a curious blend of relief, fear, and shame. “I don’t know why I did it – but I’m sorry!” Her nose was running now and she swiped at it ineffectively. “Betty wanted to know an answer, and – I don’t know why – but I gave it to her, and the teacher caught me, and she called me up to her desk, and she asked me what I did, and I told her, and she said,’Go get your paper,’ and I did, and she marked a big red ‘F’ on it and now she doesn’t like me anymore – and I’m so sorry!!” she poured out. And proceeded to cry harder.

Silence. Fearing the worst, and feeling so low she really didn’t care now what her mother did, the girl quieted and waited on her fate, looking at the floor.

“You know, an ‘F’ can stand for more than Failure.” She couldn’t believe the calmness in her mama’s voice. She chanced a peek to see if the face matched the voice. It did. Her mother wiped her hands on a dishrag and looked at her daughter, eyes not black as they usually were, but a soft brown.

“An ‘F’ can also stand for ‘Forgiveness’ – did you know that?” The girl’s head bobbed up and down automatically – she wasn’t sure where this was going.

“I think maybe we’ll just change the meaning of this big red ‘F’ on this paper to stand for ‘Forgiveness.’ I believe you realize what a bad mistake you made today, and you’re really sorry for it. So we won’t talk about it anymore.” Then briskly, “Now go change out of your school clothes – I’ve got to finish supper.”

Stunned, the girl turned as if in a dream and moved toward her bedroom. Suddenly her spirit was as light as a feather, and her feet could not merely walk anymore – she broke into a joyous run. She wondered if she dared to whoop inside the house, and chanced a puny one.

Mom has a way with words, doesn’t she?

Stories about people experiencing relief from that sinking feeling resonate with me.

What about you?

Tagged Childhood memories, Geraldine Woodell, That sinking feeling