I am quickly learning that there is an essential piece of ministry, not strictly youth ministry, that really is a hard essential to want to face. It is one that can really make or break a ministry, and/or a youth minister.
Evaluation.
Not to be confused with criticism. There is a difference to these two things.
Criticism is the process in which you tell someone what they did wrong, hoping that they will intake the critique and make it better next time. Evaluation is the process in which you look at all aspects of the program and discuss how to make the program better.
In youth ministry, it seems as though we do not take the time to evaluate well enough to make changes that need to happen. Sometimes it is scary as a youth worker because evaluation can lead to a few scary things:
- What if you are the problem?
- What is wrong about the teaching?
- What are we NOT doing?
- Why do I need to change my style?
- Maybe it is time for me to move on?
Now obviously, some of those scary thoughts can be a little bit extreme. Hopefully no youth worker will begin to evaluate programs and realize he/she needs to leave the ministry. That would be awful!! Unless it is true.
However on the flip side of the scary thoughts, evaluation can bring about great things also:
- We need to be better here…..so lets fix it
- Your influence in students lives
- How you deliver God’s word
- How many students you come to meet
- Better programs
Through the process of evaluation, we need to remember that it is not a ” we are going to bash on this person or this thing ” session. Evaluation is meant for ministries to sit down and look at what they have been doing and discuss how they can make things better. Evaluation can become a bashing session, but it is our job as the youth worker to take control of the discussion and make it a positive discussion rather than a negative discussion.
Evaluation can lead to the best ministry you can provide. Lack of evaluation can lead to the falling apart of the ministry.
Youth Ministry is never going to be perfect, nor will any other ministry for that matter. The strive for excellence in your ministry however is an essential to the impact you can have. Evaluation is a key essential to the growth of your ministry, the growth of your team and the growth of yourself personally.
We do not have a system in place for evaluation, but are working on figuring out the best way to evaluate our ministry programs every week.
How do you evaluate your ministry?
