How Do Canadian Protestant Churches Evaluate Ministry “Success”?
Heather Card is the President of Five Smooth Stones Consulting. She is currently completing a professional doctorate in Practical Theology at McMaster Divinity College in Hamilton, Ontario

A few weeks ago, I went to a musical tribute for country gospel music with my young adult son. He is really into country music and I’m just old enough to remember most of the hymns the troop performed. We both enjoyed the evening. The theatre group did a fantastic job of the set—the inside of the old schoolhouse theatre was transformed into an old-fashioned country church with a pulpit, piano, and organ. They even had one of those wooden register boards at the front that showed the hymns to be sung as well as the attendance and offering numbers from the last week.
Offering and attendance. Counting numbers.
For many years these measures were the primary indicators of church health. And while there has been movement away from using attendance and giving as the sole measures of success, results from research with 512 pastors and church board members from Canadian Protestant churches reveal that there is still more work to be done in this area.
In this research survey, ministry evaluation referred to the process for understanding how well the church as a whole was fulfilling its mission. Examined from the perspective of the governing board of the church, which also included the lead pastor, the project focused on understanding characteristics of both the evaluation process employed and evaluation criteria used.
This research provided several key insights:
Board leadership teams are often unsure how to conduct a ministry evaluation or do not prioritize ministry evaluation on their agenda
More than half either do not have specific ministry evaluation criteria or indicate that they need to make more progress in this area
Many board leadership teams are not incorporating theological principles and spiritual practices into their evaluation process
Small churches struggle more than their larger counterparts in many areas

It is interesting to note that many of the evaluation criteria identified in this study are quantitative in nature. Attendance and offering numbers are easily counted and analyzed as are the number of decisions for Christ and the percentage of volunteers engaged in ministry. However, determining whether there has been progress in terms of outcomes—those areas where qualitative methods must be used—is much more challenging and mentioned much less frequently.
The most common criteria identified were:
attendance or numerical growth (31%)
discipleship and maturing faith (25%)
leading people to Christ (23%)
offerings and financial health (22%)
criteria connected to mission, vision, purpose (21%)
volunteer engagement in ministry (20%)
Perhaps these survey results on ministry evaluation are not so surprising. Many church governance resources do a stellar job of educating board members about the fiduciary nature of church board work; however, the topic of ministry evaluation is underdeveloped both methodologically and theologically. Few resources written for church board leaders provide a clear outline for the process of ministry evaluation, tools for establishing criteria with an outcome focus, or a robust integration of Scripture and theology. In my view, one of the biggest challenges will be to provide accessible resources suitable in the small church context.
Clearly, there is more work to be done.
At the recent Pastor Conference held at Ambrose University, we had a lightning round where participants shared a number of resources that they are using for discipleship:
Books
Borg, Marcus J. - The Heart of Christianity
Breen, Mike - Building a Discipling Culture
Canlis, Matt - Backyard Pilgrim
Cross, John R. - The Stranger on the Road to Emmaus
Cross, John R. - By this Name
Lilly, James - Great Commission Disciple Making: Growing Disciples Rooted in God’s Word
Neese, Zach - How to Worship a King. Lake Mary, Florida: Charisma House
Ogden, Greg - Transforming Discipleship: Making Disciples a Few at a Time
Pohl, Christine D. - Living into Community
Platt, David - Follow Me
Reimer, Dr. Rob - Soul Care: 7 Transformational Principles for a Healthy Soul
Ruis, David - The Worship God is Seeking
Watson, David and Paul - Contagious Disciple Making
URL's
Strategic renewal based on Acts 6:4 - 6:4 Fellowship - Daniel Henderson
Home Created "Sermon Based" questions and videos- from the conviction that we need to be "doers of the word" and not just "hearers of the word", I publish printed questions for reflection alone or with others, as well as a "3 minute Discussion Starter" video and a "10 minute Coach" video to encourage/support.
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