Healthy Youth Ministry Concepts - Evaluation

Evaluating Your Own Youth Ministry
Many youth pastors miss out on the immensely important value of honestly evaluating previous seasons of ministry, retreats, events, and even weekly teaching and games. What they miss out on in the simple exercise of evaluating may mean the difference between incremental growth and gradual decline.

In my interning days, my mentor instilled in me the high value of looking back on events I helped organize and teaching that I did with critical eyes. He encouraged me to find out what went well in order to keep that aspect consistent and/or duplicate what went well. He also encouraged me to bring to light what went not so well, i.e. what needed improvement. It was tough for me at first to look back and self-criticize; after all, who wants to be told that they stink. However, the principles I learned in this simple exercise, meant life or death in my emotional ties to events and teachings that tanked. After all, a youth pastor is on week after week. We can't hit home runs every single time. Every retreat is not going to be rated a 10. The difference in looking back with a critical eye is being able to be honest with yourself, learn from the good and the bad, and gain confidence in knowing what made that last event a hit or a bomb.

The reality is, how many youth pastors try to overlook the fact that guys and girls sneak out during a retreat and simply shrug their shoulders as if nothing can be done to try to prevent it. How many youth pastors look back on last week's teaching that lacked a coherent thought, and then blamed it on the students' lack of self control when they start whispering and fooling around. How many youth pastors plan the same events year after year, and when asked why they do it, they don't have a clear reason why, other than the classic, "we've always done it this way", because in reality, it is safe to stick with something that has been done, it's easier to stick with familiar mediocrity, than to pioneer something new, something not done before.

It is a poor response to ministry and a poor investment in students when youth pastors cannot take time to breathe, be still, and reflect on the previous ministry year or even last weekend's retreat. I can relate. I understand that taking time to be still is not a value that is held high by youth pastors, because senior pastors, parents, other volunteers, and schools tend to place a high emphasis on programs, and numbers. I struggled hard to find a 4 hour block of time to go to a monastery or a park with only a notebook and a pen and be still enough to reflect and evaluate my ministry.

However, when I made it a regular practice to carry out this discipline once a quarter, and coupled that with personal reflection and evaluation of my character, it refreshed me, gave me new eyes through which to see my students, a renewed passion for our vision, and a way out from the pressure to "succeed" in every event and slam dunk every teaching. It also gave me tangible targets to shoot for. For instance, I did a teaching series that ended up going way over the students' heads. I picked up on this 2 weeks into the series when I went back to one of my evaluations where I realized I had to keep a pulse on where my students are at (which I worked through during an evaluation day a month before). So for the next 2 weeks, instead of giving them more content, I simplified what I had been talking about and freshened it up so they could jump back on the wagon.

Personal evaluation on your ministry, whether you are a volunteer youth worker, a youth pastor, or anyone in ministry, is an essential for health and sustainability.

A starting grid for establishing personal evaluation:

1. Plan It
Bring a notebook, a pen, and some lunch, and plan out a half-day or preferably a full day getaway to intensely work through your ministry stuff. Work it, turn over the stones, and you can't be afraid to point the finger at yourself.
It may be the most beneficial exercise you do this year. This is not a day off. This is work! Just because you are not hanging out with a kid or planning the next trip does not make it less important!

2. Consistent mini-evaluations
Find a trusted volunteer youth staff member who isn't afraid to call a spade a spade, but is gracious enough to to not make the criticism personal. As the leader, a youth pastor may be ultra-sensitive to any criticism, which is borne out of insecurity or an overdeveloped pressure to perform (laid on him by multiple levels of people and structures). This safe person needs to be critical and gracious, and understand the power of positive criticism. These mini-evaluations should happen once or twice a month, usually zoning in on the micro-levels of youth ministry (teaching, games, youth staff meetings, etc). Bottom line. Find someone you trust that is realistic and gracious.

3. Make it a discipline
This is important to understand as a long term discipline. It really reflects the discernment youth pastors need to exercise on what is healthy, what is appropriate, what is essential, as opposed to what is 'fun', what is inappropriate, and what is tradition without substance.

Evaluation of your youth ministry could be the difference between your incremental growth or you incremental decline. Plan it, do it, and enjoy it. It refreshes your spirit, your passion, and gives you confidence to head into another ministry season.