November 12, 2001
Barna: Make sure you evaluate the right things
___By Trennis Henderson
___Kentucky Western Recorder
___LOUISVILLE, Ky. (ABP)--Most churches take time to evaluate their ministries, but they may be evaluating the wrong things, according to Christian researcher George Barna.
___Measuring attendance, budget, programs and facilities may be easier to do, but it may not be the most appropriate indicator of what is transpiring, he said during a recent presentation in Louisville, Ky.
___"We count all kinds of stuff. The issue is those are inappropriate measures," he explained. "They do not reflect transformation. They reflect quantity, but they don't reflect quality."
___By contrast, he added, "What Jesus looked at was people's hearts."
___Nationwide research indicates only 9 percent of church leaders say their churches employ measurements that are "effective in helping them figure out how they're doing in ministry," Barna said. Up to a third of Protestant churches have no specific ministry goals each year.
___Emphasizing that spiritual accountability is biblical, Barna said church leaders must be willing to be vulnerable in order to gain useful information about their churches' spiritual condition.
___"We've got to be a lot more tuned in to how well we're doing," he urged. "You can make it up as you go along as a Christian, but chances are you aren't going to get very deep in your relationship with Christ."
___Though accountability is a "taboo subject" in many churches, clearly defining ministry goals is essential to success, Barna said. "If you can't define it, you can't measure it. If you can't measure it, you can't improve it."
___Standards for effective evaluation begin with the Bible, he said. "That's our dominant benchmark because that's our absolute standard."
___Other standards he suggested include national norms--how other churches are doing--as well as local church records and current goals.
___Key questions to pose, Barna added, are: "Compared to where the church has been in the past, are we making progress?" and "Are we committed to doing what we said we would do?"
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