Monday: Evaluate Kindly
While there are many benefits to evaluation, there are some pitfalls that we must be aware of and avoid. If we are overly active in evaluation, and mostly focus on the negatives, there is the potential to create a critical environment that will discourage and decrease your pool of volunteers. To avoid evaluation being perceived as criticism, it must be accompanied by genuine affirmation. Indeed, most often we forget to affirm our workers, particularly those who have served in their chosen ministry for a considerable time. They are always there and always do the job, and we come to expect that they always will be there and do the job. Evaluation will give you the opportunity to affirm them.
What affirmation do you see in the following verses? In what ways could such affirmation be given today to individual workers or teams? Acts 16:1-2; Rom. 16:1; 1 Cor. 11:2; Phil. 4:14.
Image © Krieg Barrie from GoodSalt.com
On many occasions the apostle Paul had to set the church or individuals straight in matters of attitude, behavior, or doctrine. This shows that some evaluation had taken place. Whenever he could, Paul also affirmed people for their support of Him personally or for their faithfulness to God or for the faithful performance of a specific ministry.
To be fair in evaluation, we must evaluate not only the outcomes but also the processes. Outcome evaluation asks if a program achieved its planned results. Process evaluation reviews internal project management.
Carefully read Hebrews 10:24-25. What does it mean to “consider one another” in this context? What evaluative principles are suggested?
These verses are more than a suggestion. They strongly admonish us to take the spiritual growth and development of each other seriously. If we are to consider what God requires in our Christian lives, and also fulfill a need to consider at what point we each are in our experience, then it also follows that appropriate evaluation will be undertaken as we “consider one another.”
Think about how encouraging it is when someone affirms you, either simply for who you are as a person and/or your ministry. It’s amazing how just a few simple words can do so much! What’s your general attitude toward others? Do you tend toward criticism or toward affirmation? If the former, how can you change this destructive character trait?
This weeks lessons is really interesting as it teaches how to better evaluate the work that I do especially when it comes to spiritual things. It also teaches me how to support and show teamwork with my fellow brothers and sisters in Christ.
Evaluate kindly. God is reporting, we evaluate, make the necessary adjustments in the body of Christ, the assembly affirms the effectiveness of the ministry, the horn of the lord is exalted:
Affirmation can be embarrassing to me personally; I cringe when I hear at church praise time “I thank Kim for _______________ this week”, instead of just keeping it anonymous, like ” Praise God for working through one of our members this week and being an answer to prayer for ________.” The person who was blessed should praise the Lord.
Is anyone besides me troubled when they hear so much flattery and praise on each other? It seems so self-absorbing. What really concerns me is lack of praise to God that is not shared publicly. We have praise and testimony time every week; the bulk of what is shared is like an event calendar; “Pray for my travels, my illness, my money situation, etc…” those are important, but the big picture is, “Praise God! He has sustained me this week! I’m still alive to praise Him! He has showered me with His grace! He loves me so much! He has opened my heart to forgive someone! I can trust Him because _________!”
Amen! My feelings exactly. When we get to Heaven the only one that will be praised will be God and we will be throwing our crowns at His feet because only the lamb is worthy.
This lesson teaches me how to look at the beam in my own eyes before trying to remove the speck from the eye of a brother or sister. The best evaluation is self evaluation — “Let everyman examine himself”.