Ministry assessments can be useful tools for helping us determine if we are lining up with God’s purposes for His Church. For them to have optimal benefit, we must make sure we are using the right standard.
Use the Right Standard from Start to Finish of the Assessments Process:
Use the right standard for measurement.
Jesus identified the Greatest Commandments as:
“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” This is the first and greatest commandment.
And the second is like it: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” (Matt. 22:37-39)
It only seems logical that what He identified as the Greatest Commandments become our top priority and purpose in the Church. As He said, everything else comes under these two commands. — “All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” (Matt. 22:40)
The right standard for measurement when doing assessments in the church, then, should be how what we are doing aligns with His purpose for us to love Him and to love others. It isn’t just about reaching a certain number or doing a lot of good. We may look at that data but the ultimate standard of measurement is how we align with our Church Purpose.
Also read:
- Use the right standard for evaluation.
It can look like we are doing all the right things when evaluating the results of our assessments. But, if we get to the core of the matter, determining if we are aligning with God’s purpose for us to love, we may come to a very different conclusion.
We can be doing good yet still not be aligned with our purpose to love God with all of who we are.
I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. … Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken the love you had at first. (Rev. 2:1-5)
Also read: Christian Life: Duty vs. Delight
We can be helping people but still not aligned with our purpose to love people.
If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing (1 Cor. 13:3)
Also read: Love One Another
- Use the right standard for using the results.
Undoubtedly the results of an assessment will reveal both strengths and weaknesses. Love for God and others needs to also govern the way we use those results. We will look at this point in the next post.
This content about using our church purpose as our standard in doing assessments is included in the Steering the Church Toward God’s Purposes Leadership Guide.
For More on These Topics, Go To:
All Posts about Assessments:
- The Right Standard for Assessments
- Using Assessment Results in Ways that Line Up
- Guard Body Life When Doing Assessments
- Great Commission: Encompassing or Complicated?
- Assessment Questions from the Great Commission
- Christ-like Standard in Assessments
- Assessing Christ-like Character
- Assessing Christ-like Conduct & Conversation
- Assessments Leading to Eternal Results?
- Involvement of the Holy Spirit in the Assessment Process
- Pulling on Spiritual Gifting in the Assessment Process
- Alignment with the Gospel in the Assessment Process
- Prayer in the Assessment Process
- Do Assessments Really Fit into God’s Character and Ways?
- Concerned with His Name in the Assessment Process?
- Use of Spiritual Weapons in the Assessment Process
- Need for Grace in the Assessment Process
- Guide the Assessment Process
- A Leader’s Roles in Assessments
- Don’t Like the Results of an Assessment?