I love the staff at Word of Peace. They are a caring, loving and hard working bunch of people. We are very nice to each other and we have a great congregation to lead and shepherd in their faith. But what happens when we have a staff that has been around for a while and have found a great way of doing things and is fairly content with how it is all going? This question came up when Derek and I were discussing an email I got from another staff member about evaluations that need to be done on a yearly basis. Now, I have no problems with evaluations. I welcome them. It think they are a great way to better ourselves and continue to grow in our ministry. But what I am really longing for right now is a good evaluation of the youth ministry from someone who knows youth ministry. Now, I know we all have different ways of doing things and there is no real way of doing youth ministry, but I would love to hear some feedback from someone who is immersed in it as much as I am. I know my supervising pastor does a great job, but he is also watching over 4 other areas in the church that take up as much if not more time than the youth ministry. So, I can't expect him to give a real focused evaluation because he is focused in so many different directions.
So this lends to the question of who should we get to evaluate us as youth ministers? Who should be the ones that give us the constructive criticism? In the past I have asked and surveyed the youth, that was helpful. Knowing things that they liked and didn't like. But as teenagers they don't always know what is best for them. You can't have all games and pizza and lockins without substance.
I also asked the parents what they thought. That was interesting...mostly because they didn't know what was going on. They gave good reports if their kid was happy and didn't return it if their kid didn't come. So, not what I had hoped. This is a hard question because I don't want the survey to be all about programs either. This is what I have learned about youth ministry from 3.0 by Marko, that we should not focus on programs but the relationships in and around the community.
Maybe I'm not asking the right questions. Maybe I need to be more specific and dig deeper, ask some tough questions.
And that is all well and good for information gathering purposes, but what about the ministry, how do I evaluate that? How do get other people to evaluate it? I do I get feedback from a congregation who is used to how I do things and (thankfully) can do no wrong in their eyes. Maybe I'm not doing crazy, edgy, and wild enough things. Maybe I'm playing it too safe. No, I shouldn't do stuff just to get a reaction out of people, that's just like the attention starved teenager that does dumb things to get people to notice.
This is an ongoing process in my head and youth ministry is just the beginning of it. I also lead worship and do lots of tech stuff for the church too. How does that get evaluated?
The bottom line is that I hope we all are willing to give and receive constructive and helpful criticism. That way we can know that we can and should do things better. But also don't forget the other side of the coin. Complement each other and tell them what they are doing well also. Be willing to take it and dish it out so that we can continue to work to further God's kingdom.
Dain
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