EVALUATING Your Children's Ministry
In last month's Kids In Focus e-Newsletter, we talked about The Big "E". There are a lot of "E's" involved in effective children's ministry. The five we are going to focus on in this year's newsletters are:
- EVALUATING the current state of the Children's Ministry
- ESTABLISHING core aspects of successful Children's Ministry
- EQUIPPING the team for reaching today's kids
- ENCOURAGING ministry leaders in their personal and ministry lives
- ENLARGING the scope of Children's Ministry in the church and the community
Today, let's look at EVALUATION. Why do we start there? Because unless you know the condition of your children's ministry, you can't do anything to fix it, manage it or grow it effectively. Evaluation is critical to moving forward with your program, your team and your ministry as a whole.
Have you ever put a puzzle together? Children's Ministry is a lot like that. There are so many pieces, and when you first dump it out of the box, it doesn't look at all like you want. It's a mess. Some of our children's ministries are like the puzzle just dumped out all over the table - a mess. But what do you do first when you want to put a puzzle together?
First, you look at the picture to get an idea of what the end result looks like. In children's ministry, we get to create the picture (how cool is that!). So what do you want the end result to look like? The first step in evaluation is getting that mental picture (can you say "vision"?!) in your mind. We'll talk more about defining your vision in future newsletters.
Next you want to sort out the pieces. When I do a puzzle, the first thing I do with the pieces is spread them out on the table and sort them. Put the corner pieces together. Put the straight edges together. Put the pieces with similar color together. You get the idea. We do that with our ministry by defining different areas we need to look at. You don't want too many areas, but the 10 that I recommend specifically looking at (in no particular order after #4) are:
- Leadership - yourself and your team. As my old boss, John Maxwell, always says, "Everything rises and falls on leadership."
- Vision, mission & goals - you can't get anywhere unless you know where you are going. Are these clear for you and your team?
- Team recruitment & assimilation - you can't do everything...you need an effective team. Are you bringing in people effectively?
- Team training & nurture - once you have the team, you have to develop and take care of them. Are you doing that effectively?
- Weekly program - this is the heart of what you offer kids and families. Is it effective?
- Administration - this one applies most directly to the primary leader. Are you managing your time and responsibilities well? How can you do it better?
- Curriculum & resources - are the materials provided for your volunteers effective? Are they teacher friendly? Are they in line with your churches doctrinal position? Your vision and mission?
- Outreach & special events - what are you doing to reach beyond your walls?
- Facilities - sometimes there's not a lot you can do with the amount of space you have, but there's always a lot you can do with the space you have. Have you done everything you can to make it child-friendly and inviting?
- Family impact - the more I do children's ministry, the more I believe it is really all about the family as a whole. Is your ministry effective in involving and equipping parents? That's where real children's ministry takes place - in the home, by the parents.
Finally, once you've sorted everything out and know what you have, take a good hard look at each and every area. There are many ways to do this, including
- Personal observation - pay attention and take a good hard look personally at each area of your ministry.
- Careful listening - your staff and/or your team has great insight into what's going on. So do your parents. Listen to them!
- Focus groups - getting parents together to talk about how things are going is sometimes very enlightening.
- Surveys - again, listening and finding new ways of collecting information can help immensely as you try and understand what's happening in your ministry.
- Church leadership - believe it or not, your senior pastor and other staff members might just provide some very valuable insight. They are in ministry, too, and look at things through a ministry lens. You might see what they have to say about your ministry.
- Outside resources - sometimes it takes an outsider to see what you can't, simply because you are too close to the situation.
We'll talk more specifically in future newsletters about all of these areas. The most important part of evaluation - like anything else you want to get accomplished - is getting started...so what are you waiting for?
For God's Kids,
Greg Baird