By The Rev. Dr. Carl Grosse

Recently, I heard from a couple of former congregations I pastored. Remembering my time with them and thinking of my time with you brought about one of those “aha” moments. In our system, there’s really no formal way to evaluate a pastor’s tenure. Presbytery Committees on Ministry have some tools, partly developed on their own and partly adapted from denominational and other sources. Exit interviews vary greatly; if they’re used at all, they tend to focus on “are you ok?” questions for both the departing pastor and the congregational leadership. Those concerns are important; we should care for each other’s well-being, especially during a disruptive episode.

I wonder what other concerns such an evaluation tool might address, and what metrics might be used to assess performance relative to those concerns. For example, let’s say a committee wanted to check how well a pastor managed the organization. Would they look at finances and interview staff? What about changes to organizational structure? Does overall program effectiveness relate to management skill? Would attendance and participation (we call it “body count” in the business) be the key metric for that assessment? Moving on from management, other concerns might include pastoral care, worship leadership, community engagement, and so on. Each area would have its own metrics and means of obtaining the information for those metrics.

Sounds complicated, but perhaps it’s a simpler process if there’s consensus about what to measure and how to measure it. What’s the benefit? Pastor tenures tend to be viewed way too subjectively. We also tend to focus on “churchy” things and forget there are very tangible aspects to this enterprise. Having tools that help us objectively view measurable aspects of a time in the life of a congregation gives us usable insight into what we’re doing and how we’re doing at it. Notice I haven’t mentioned God or Jesus or faith. Yep. Sometime when you read the Bible, check on how much attention is paid to measurable behaviors as an indicator of love for God and neighbor. Like, who in your church family could use a word of encouragement, and how many times have you given that word of encouragement this week?