Column: Don't sweat a little review — it' good for you

By Benton Heisler, West Michigan Conference Director of Connectional Ministry

“Good Morning Class! Today we will be having a test.”

Heads drop and a collective moan moves throughout the room. Very few persons respond to a time of evaluation with cheer, excitement and exuberant enthusiasm. However, if we fail to evaluate our process or do not look critically at our character, competence and the net contribution being made, we may be destined to repeat negative patterns of behavior or ineffective models of ministry.

The church conference season is a time to reflect upon the progress a congregation has made toward its stated goals. Staff Parish Relations Committees reflect with the pastor on her or his key strengths along with noting the areas that would benefit from improvement.

The West Michigan Conference Council on Ministries (CCOM) has done some evaluation of itself the past two years. One result of that process has been putting a task force in motion to review the CCOM structure and develop a new model to propose to the Annual Conference.

Here is my point.

Self-evaluation is better than none at all, but you must admit, it is a bit biased. We must engage others to acquire a more accurate assessment. One evaluative tool specifically designed for clergy is the Lewis Pastoral Leadership Inventory (LPLI).

The questions asked of yourself, and 10 others who know your work, are designed to assess the areas I mentioned above: character, competency and contribution. I encourage you to read more about this instrument at their website: www.LPLI.org or contact the Lewis Center for Church Leadership at LPLI@wesleyseminary.edu or 1-877-LPLI-360.

There are other various resources that congregations can use to assess their effectiveness in ministry.

Vital Signs by Dan Dick and The Five Practices of Fruitful Congregations by Bishop Robert Schnase have both provided useful insights to congregations willing to look critically at themselves.
We have done some assessment at the conference level and are making some changes we feel will help us better serve local congregations. Next month there will be a detailed article here in the Michigan Area Reporter about a demographics information program that is available to West Michigan Conference congregations — at no cost to them.

The conference has contracted with www.MissionInsight.org to provide this service to our churches.

You will have access to an extensive array of material about the region your congregation serves. We feel this will help you better assess your congregation’s ministry to determine who you might more effectively invite.

A second area of change is in the installment of “smart rooms” in each of the districts. By this time next month the computers, monitors and software will have been installed in six locations. The “smart rooms” will allow persons to connect electronically and visually in a manner not fully available to us before. For some meetings or gatherings this will save significant amounts of time and travel resources.

A third change taking place as a result of our assessment is the altering of the meeting days of the session of the West Michigan Annual Conference at Calvin College.

We will begin on Wednesday June 1 and end on Saturday June 4 in 2011. Saturday will be a day particularly designed with the hope of having 10 persons from each congregation experience the worship, community and inspiration of Annual Conference. Our evaluative review has revealed that nearly one-half to two-thirds of persons were not remaining for the Sunday session of Conference. We will continue to monitor this change so we can improve the value of Annual Conference.

Doing evaluations and receiving feedback really isn’t that bad after all when it helps us better serve one another and God who calls us to such service.

“As soon as the test is finished it will be time for recess.”

Now go enjoy the rest of the day God has given you!

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