The greatest resource for self-evaluation is openness, the quality of being open with elders, staff, and spouse.
Gene Getz
Self-evaluation in ministry has a built-in dilemma: Effective ministry demands a certain absence of self-consciousness, yet evaluating ministry demands self-awareness.
It takes an unusual person to do this. Gene Getz is just such an unusual person; he’s both an activist and an analyst. After teaching Christian education and directing the evening school at Moody Bible Institute in Chicago, he moved to Dallas Theological Seminary in Texas.
“This was during the anti-institutional era of the late sixties, and I had students asking tough questions like ‘Who needs the church?'” says Getz. His defense of the church and what it should be eventually became a book — Sharpening the Focus of the Church. But then he was challenged to put his theories into practice.
In 1972, with approximately eight couples, he started Fellowship Bible Church. Within a year, the church was holding double services, and Getz had to choose between being full-time professor or full-time pastor. He opted for the pastorate.
Branch churches began to sprout, and four years later, in 1977, Getz himself left the home base to pastor the Park Cities branch.
Currently fourteen Fellowship Bible Churches are ministering in the Dallas area. Getz is pastor of Fellowship Bible Church North in Plano as well as director of the Center for Church Renewal.
How can a Christian leader tell if he or she is doing a good job? What are the signs that things are going well?
The first sign is spiritual growth. Are people responding spiritually? Are lives being changed?
Second, if there is potential, there should be numerical growth. There are areas with little potential for growth, but in most cases, no growth means something is wrong.
Third, is there unity around biblical principles? If you’re all going the same direction and the leadership team is committed to the same goals — not just because the pastor is, but because their hearts are committed — that unity offers tremendous spiritual power.
I believe good leadership means communicating values, helping people internalize them, and allowing the body to respond.
What about the pastor’s personal life? Is personal discontent, for example, an indication that something is wrong?
That can work two ways. The pastor’s attitude can be affected by the congregation’s health, or the attitude can affect the life of the church. Pastoral discontent, for example, can be contagious, injecting a negative mentality.
In one church where I was a member (not pastor), I remember thinking if I heard the word commitment one more time, I’d regurgitate. During each sermon, the congregation was “beaten,” made to feel horribly guilty. The pastor was creating a neurotic, angry church.
One Sunday afternoon, I told my wife, “I predict that someday we’ll hear that man confess from the pulpit that lack of commitment is a problem in his own life.” I suspected the theme was a projection of his own needs.
Sure enough, two years later he admitted he was preaching out of weakness in the area of commitment. He left the church because of statements about his relationship with another woman.
What resources for self-evaluation does the leader have?
The greatest resource is openness, the quality of being open with elders, staff, and spouse. They can tell you if you’re doing a good job — as long as you’ve created a climate where they can also say, “We’ve got a problem here” or “You’ve offended someone, and you need to be aware of it” or “You’re preaching too long, and the services are cramped.”
A second resource is the ability to keep your ear to the ground. How are people responding? Watch body language as you speak, and you can tell if people trust you, if they feel you’re exhorting them because you love them or if they feel you’re angry, being unfair, or manipulating them.
An absence of criticism should not be your goal in ministry, though I admit criticism is always painful for me. Lack of criticism means one of two things: You’re doing such a good job no one can complain, or you’ve got people intimidated, afraid to speak up. The latter leads to criticism behind your back — a far more dangerous situation than being criticized directly.
How do you sort out fair criticisms from unfair?
One couple left our church, and when I visited them, they claimed they left because we promoted the building program too much in the major services. I didn’t think it was true, but I try not to be the kind of leader who assumes critics are wrong. I needed some perspective.
First, I talked it over with our staff, attempting to weigh the issue objectively.
Second, I tried to quantify the issue and discovered we had made three public presentations in the last year — all in a context of worship and praise.
Third, I discussed my findings with the couple as nondefensively as I could. After listening carefully and trying to understand them, I was surprised and pleased when one of them confessed, “We may be the ‘weaker brethren’ in this situation because in this affluent society, we don’t have the money to contribute that other people do.”
So I learned to be aware that a hidden and possibly unrecognized agenda might be at work. In this case, the couple didn’t feel comfortable because they couldn’t do what other people were doing. I told them we wanted them back, but I would pray for God’s blessing on them whatever decision they made.
The couple has not returned. But they did say, “This is the first time in our church experience that a pastor has come out to listen to us and tell us he loved us.”
This situation was hard on me, because previously I had thought this couple was committed to the church 150 percent. It was a shock to see the intensity of their feelings over a seemingly minor issue.
So anyone can have a sore point, and if you inadvertently hit it, the person is going to react.
We need to remember that’s true of us as well.
Recently a fellow handed me a letter with several points of criticism. Most of them I could handle, but the final point hit me at the wrong time, and the way it was phrased touched one of my own sore points, an area where I’d been painfully attacked before.
I reacted sharply — “I’m with you through point five, but when you hit point six, you don’t know what you’re talking about!” Later, after talking it over with an associate, I realized the critic somewhat innocently hit my emotional flash point.
So in weighing criticism, it’s important to ask, Is this touching an area that’s emotional nitroglycerin for me? If so, I need to be extra careful and rely on the judgments of trusted friends.
Tell us about a criticism you realized was valid. How did you change?
I’ll give you three examples.
A few years ago, before church one Sunday, I was hurrying around and saw a young man and said, “Hi, how are you doing?” I kept walking.
An elder stopped me ten steps later and said, “Gene, you just did something I do — you didn’t hear that kid. You asked how he was doing, and he said, ‘Not so good.’ You didn’t stay around long enough to hear his reply.”
I went back to the young man and apologized. He told me his brother had just been in a motorcycle accident. I was able to minister to him, and now, interestingly, that young man is one of our staff pastors.
Another criticism, harder to accept, came from a woman who apparently wanted more authority in the church for herself and her husband. They both had solid Bible knowledge, but some felt she had a negative, critical spirit. Later I learned this was a pattern from previous churches.
She began criticizing the current leadership, saying we needed to be more selective in whom we chose, needed to develop theological and biblical awareness, and to incorporate more Bible studies into our program for elders.
Ironically, even though I had to confront her on her critical spirit, and she and her husband eventually left the church (which I felt badly about because I loved and respected them), we did recognize some of her observations as valid. There’s always a need for more Bible knowledge among leaders. We are now in the process of planning more in-depth Bible study and training for our leaders.
Finally, an organizational example. At elders’ meetings, I was passing out the agenda and items to consider at the beginning of the meeting. We interacted well, but one of the elders said, “I think we could better evaluate this material if we could read it and think about it ahead of time. Could you send us the materials and financial reports a few days earlier?”
It was an excellent idea, even though it put pressure on me to get the material together a week earlier. It has cut the time of our meetings in half. The rest of the time we now spend praying for people.
I’ve discovered I’m not always a detail person — a common problem for many people-oriented leaders. So I’ve learned to accept suggestions and criticisms that help me in these practical areas especially.
As a whole, how has your leadership style changed since your early days in the first Fellowship Bible Church?
I’ve gained more self-awareness, more self-honesty, if I may coin that word. If you had asked me ten years ago, “What makes this church work?” I would have said, “Humanly speaking, it’s our multiple leadership, primarily the elders.”
Today I’d answer that question by saying, “Our elders are key, but I’m the key to helping the elders function.” I don’t mean to sound egotistical, but I’m more aware of the role I have to play behind the scenes — communicating, motivating, phoning every elder who misses a meeting to fill him in on what happened.
My style is the same as before — laid back but working like crazy. The difference is now I’m willing to admit I’m leading. In the early days I overreacted to authoritarian leadership styles — which I still think are unfortunate — but I’ve always led. Now I feel I’m more honest with myself and others about the importance of being a strong leader, particularly in a growing church, and yet also developing a strong multiple leadership that does lead as a team.
To whom do you consider yourself accountable? The church elders? The congregation? God alone?
With our multiple-leadership structure, I work closely with our elders at three levels:
First, I’m accountable to them. They have final responsibility to make sure I’m fulfilling my role as senior pastor. This includes making sure my character reflects the qualifications outlined in 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1. They are my overseers.
Second, as elder/pastor myself, I work with them as “one among equals” in the decision-making process. I bring recommendations and proposals from the staff, but final decisions are made by the group as a whole. Our goal is to reach unity, but I submit to the group’s direction.
Third, as senior pastor, my task is to shepherd the elders — to minister in a special way to them and their families on an individual basis.
In addition, I’m responsible, under the direction of the elders, to manage the church staff, to give forthright reports on staff performance and functions — in essence, to act as an “executive officer” who reports to the board. They have the final authority to guide me, correct me, and if need be, remove me from my position should I fail to function as a competent spiritual leader.
What kinds of self-monitoring do you do? Have you seen any self-improvement in your ministry?
One of the tools I use is the Style of Influence test (SOI). This test has helped me tremendously in evaluating my strengths as well as weaknesses.
I think one of the areas I have improved the most is the organization of my messages. As a professor in a classroom — which I was for twenty years — you can depart from your notes, and students don’t mind.
Realistically, on how many areas can a pastor concentrate? Not many people can do everything well. How do you narrow your focus to those areas of greatest importance?
For me, the key is remembering my basic priority is to equip the saints to do the work of ministry.
Which includes teaching, preaching, counseling, administration, modeling an evangelistic lifestyle … almost everything pastors do can be called “equipping.”
Yes, but not in equal measure. I remember writing my first job description when I was teaching a course in administration at Dallas Seminary. I included everything, and when I was done, I had to go back and cross out about three pages, because there was no way I could do it all.
In a church, I have to keep asking, What will best help me to equip individuals to do the work of ministry? Of all the things the church needs right now, some are more crucial than others.
When you were sole pastor at the first Fellowship Bible Church, what did you decide you had to focus on, and what were you able to push aside as secondary tasks?
That was a unique situation, because I had two full-time jobs — professor and pastor. As a result, my commitment to the church was to see the ministry done through lay leaders shepherding small groups. That took the bulk of the counseling and ministry of encouragement.
I spent my time preparing my messages and meeting regularly with the elders to encourage the discipling process.
As you evaluate your ministry, is there a time to admit you’ve done as much as you can, and you should leave that church?
I talked with a young pastor in a rigid independent church not long ago. He’s committed to some of the same basics I am: freedom in form but adherence to biblical principles. One of his goals is to equip parents to turn their home into a learning center where children can be nurtured in the faith.
When he presented his plan to the board, one of them said, “I think it’s the height of hypocrisy to try turning our homes into learning centers when you and your wife left your kids with a baby sitter so the two of you could take a vacation alone. I’ll have you know my wife and I never left our children home on any of our vacations.” About half of the other board members agreed.
Facing that kind of rigid mentality, the pastor decided, and I agreed, that it was time for him to move on. He’d brought the church as far as he could, it wasn’t going to go much farther, and that kind of abuse is too painful to endure.
It’s sad, because the church is losing an excellent pastor. I’m now in the process of trying to help him relocate.
Another time to move is when, for one reason or another, you’ve lost the respect of the congregation and can’t seem to regain it. Then it’s better to start fresh somewhere else.
So the principle is learning to recognize when you’ve gone as far as you’re probably going to go — whether it’s because of inertia, board disapproval, lack of respect, or whatever. What clues tell you you’re reaching that point?
Consistent resistance. Especially if you’ve taken all the steps to resolve conflict — asking if you’ve offended anyone or if you’re moving too fast, negotiating, apologizing if necessary.
I was in one ministry (not a church) where I kept pushing for a particular program, and it kept getting shot down. I kept working at it but couldn’t get a hearing. It was as if the powers that be were saying, “Getz has gotten his way on just about everything he’s gone after, and he’s not going to get this one.”
I eventually left, and the next thing I knew, my successor got the program I had been pushing for.
If the pastors you know were to evaluate themselves, what strengths would they find?
I would say a commitment to the Word of God and a belief that the Word of God can change people’s lives. Most pastors I know and minister to through the Center for Church Renewal really desire to do God’s will and trust in his power for the results.
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