REGENT UNIVERSITY, SCHOOL OF PSYCHOLOGY AND COUNSELING

V O LU M E I I , I S S U E 8

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THE AUTHOR
Evaluating Ministry Effectiveness

Between 60 and 120 million Americans attend church regularly. They engage
in various church-based ministries that serve as a mainstay of contemporary
society, helping individuals and families maintain a spiritual vision in the
midst of life’s challenges and addressing vital needs of communities. Those
ministries include child and adult education, music, outreach, worship, and
many others, depending upon the size of the church.
Most church-based ministries are headed by those with formal Bible and the- Dr. Amy Dominguez
ology training or by lay-people with leadership gifts. However, few churches
formally assess these efforts for effectiveness. Assessing ministry effective-
ness is a largely overlooked area that can have great significance in the life of a church. Those in
counseling, psychology or other social sciences can support ministry work and the work of the church
by assisting in targeted evaluation efforts.
Ministry Assessment: Practices of US Churches
The church is in a time of transition. The popularization of postmodern thought, the rise of the
“emerging church”, and the publication of best-selling books that call the church’s relevance into
question have caused many ministry leaders to thoughtfully review and evaluate programs offered
within the church. The challenge to be true to one’s mission and vision while exhibiting relevance to
attendees and members can frequently leave ministry leaders in a quandary over how to best structure
actual ministry practices. Leaders have been encouraged to use evaluation efforts as means towards
greater unity (Hudson, 1992).
Simultaneously, outcome evaluation has become an essential element of virtually all human service
and educational endeavors—first because they were mandated by accrediting agencies and now be-
cause their consumers have grown to expect them. Churches and ministries may not feel the same
sources of pressure regarding such assessment; however, there seems to be benefit to such activity for
the purposes of guiding ministry direction in light of the current pressures that exist within the
church. If the church is to evaluate its programs and ministries, then Christian leaders should be en-
couraged in supporting the development of responsible tools and methods for effective evaluation.
Many ministry leaders feel unprepared to develop effective measurement tools and evaluate the re-
sults they render. Some have assisted ministers in that undertaking by providing resources to address
certain aspects of ministry assessment, such as, by providing an overview of church-based evaluation
(Woods, 1995) as well as outlining methods for minister evaluation (Hudson, 2004; McMahill,
2003). Further support to the church can be provided though specific resources to enhance outcome
evaluation of ministries and programs.
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While opinions and preferences among ministry leaders vary regarding usefulness of the various
assessment methods, there seems to be a degree of need and interest in gaining specific information
regarding how to assess well, that is, particular to the congregation, and in a manner that yields use-
ful results, based on recent survey data. There are at least some negative assumptions (based in ex-
perience, no doubt) among ministry leaders about what comprises external consulting, and about
what more formal assessment entails. Ministry leaders need to know that quality assessment can in
fact be uniquely tailored to specific ministry efforts, and can not only respect but directly support
specific ministry goals. One possible way to assure a congregation-specific approach to ministry is
to provide ministry leaders with training and tools for assessment so that they can conduct evalua-
tions without requiring external consultants. Survey respondents were quite open to this approach,
but some still expressed concerns.
Concerns about Evaluation
Some church leaders remain cautious about the idea of assessing ministry, partly because of misun-
derstandings concerning what assessment is or can be, but also because there is a concern with how
spiritual realities may not lend themselves to measurement. This is not entirely unreasonable, as
there is debate about the utility of such outcome measurement in certain settings, particularly in
faith-based organizations (Walker and Grossman, 1999). Certain positive effects resulting from a
particular ministry in the lives of participants may in fact be immeasurable. However, this alone
does not negate the potential benefit of evaluation.
Benefits of Evaluation
Considering the limited resources available within churches to address the vast amount of needs
present, ministry assessment can provide evidence for ministry effectiveness, which can in turn
guide future ministry efforts as well as assist in determining how to best use resources within the
church (Horn, Woods, and Edwards, 2007). Ministry leaders can use such information to make in-
formed choices regarding ministry development. This may mean choosing to target areas of par-
ticular need within their congregations in ways that seem most useful and that seem to fit best with
the available resources offered to them in light of the overarching goals and vision of that particular
faith community. Because this type of assessment is performed in-house, the ministry leaders have
complete freedom with the evaluation direction as well as subsequent decision-making.
A Case Example
Ministry leaders in a large, suburban church were concerned about the relatively low percent of in-
volvement in church-promoted small groups. Despite targeted marketing and intentional frequent
encouragement to join, membership failed to increase in these group settings proportionate to the
growth within the church overall. A church member (who was also a psychologist) teamed up with
ministry leaders to research this trend, hoping to help understand perceptions about and limitations
to such small group involvement. Through the use of focus groups, interviews, and questionnaires,
data was gathered and summarized to the church leadership, providing them with a wealth of infor-
mation specific to the questions they had. A surprising result was that the majority of young cou-
ples (which comprised the largest demographic within this church) actually wanted to join small
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groups but felt limited due to childcare needs. Information gathered through the assessment was
used to inform resource allocation. Since these childcare needs were identified, attention was fo-
cused on providing such to facilitate involvement in groups. This was easily accomplished, espe-
cially for those groups offered at the church. The small group ministry, one that had great value in
the eyes of the church, was then further supported through targeting actual versus assumed needs of
congregants.

Using Evaluation to Preserve the Identity of the Church

Of interest are the methods that are somewhat standard-fare assessment practices in churches, those
being informal and more formal interviews and administering questionnaires. It seems that for many
there is a certain set of accepted practices, such as informal conversations with others regarding
ministry effectiveness, or church initiated questionnaires, and other practices are less tolerable, such
as hiring consultants and conducting focus groups. It is likely there are varied reasons for this; how-
ever, it may be that these types of formalized or business-like practices may infringe upon the cul-
ture of many churches and may cause discomfort as churches work to be understood by others as
something quite different from standard businesses in both goals and operation. Churches do not
want their identities to be summarized as business, lacking concern for individual and being focused
on predominantly on growth and capital gain. Another obstacle to targeted assessment is that many
within church leadership do not want ministry to be consumer-driven. The standard sought is not to
please attendees, but, to fulfill the church’s mission. Evaluation can support that very goal, that is,
mission-directed ministry, if results are used towards that end rather than recreating ministry to only
target the needs of the community at the expense of the overarching goals and vision for the church.
Using Business Principles to do God’s Business
As churches have grown, needs have shifted. This is true for the data collection processes in
churches as well. In communities wherein information sharing is commonplace among members, as
in smaller churches or more rural areas, the need to conduct targeted surveys about church member
needs may seem foreign. In larger church bodies or in those with more of a diffuse member set, as-
sessment practices may seem more relevant, and perhaps these are the communities in which a
breadth of assessment methodology is more welcomed. Measuring outcomes through ministry pro-
gram evaluation is a relatively new concept within the church setting, though some basic forms of
evaluation are longstanding traditions in church communities, such as monitoring and reporting
such information as the number of ministry attendees, the frequency of services, programs, or ac-
tivities provided, the number of volunteers or hours needed, and the amount of contributions re-
ceived. While these traditional measurements provide important data, they do not help the ministry
leaders understand how well they are helping those whom they seek to serve; that is, such statistics
provide administrative information about the programs, but not about the program’s results. While
churches rightly resist being labeled and viewed as merely a business, certain business principles
may increase effective practices in ministry work. “Every nonprofit organization should measure its
progress in fulfilling its mission, its success in mobilizing its resources, and its staff's effectiveness
on the job” (Sawhill & Williamson, 2001). As we develop ministry assessment efforts, it is impor-
tant to continue to leave room for immeasurables, accept and use good practices regarding
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Counseling
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evaluation, and maintain a consumer focus, to some degree, while at the
same time upholding the mission of the ministry in which we serve.
__________________________________________________________
About the Author: Dr. Amy Dominguez is an Assistant Professor and
the Program Director for the Master’s Program in Human Services Coun-
seling. Her interest areas include church-psychology collaboration, pro-
gram development, and faith-based substance abuse treatment. You can
reach Dr. Dominguez at awdominguez@regent.edu.
__________________________________________________________
References
Horn, C., Woods, K. M,, and Edwards, C. W. (2007). Making good works great works:
How outcome-based evaluation helps faith-based organizations change lives. Presenta-
tion at The Heritage Foundation. Retrieved March 30, 2008 from
http://www.heritage.org/Press/Events/ev031507a.cfm.
Hudson, J. M. (1992). Evaluating ministry: Principles and process for clergy and con-
gregations. Herndon, VA: Alban Institute.
Hudson, J. M. (2004). When better isn’t enough: Evaluation tools for the 21st-Century
Church. Herndon, VA: Alban Institute.
McMahill, D. R. (2003). Completing the circle: Reviewing ministries in the congrega-
tion. Herndon, VA: Alban Institute.
Sawhill, J. and Williamson, D. (2001). Measuring what matters in nonprofits. The
McKinsey Quarterly, 2.
Walker, G., and Grossman, J. B. (1999). Philanthropy and outcomes: Dilemmas in the
quest for accountability. Philadelphia: Public/Private Ventures
Woods, C. J. (1995). User friendly evaluation: Improving the work of pastors, pro-
grams and laity. Herndon, VA: Alban Institute.
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counselor education and supervision in the world. But, what makes the
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