Jamie Adams
Ministry Staff Member (Quiz 3: Chapters 4,12,14)
Summary:
This required reading of Ministry Staff Member really focused on personal skills. In
chapter 4, the book discussed the importance of evaluation. This chapter discussed several
different forms of evaluation which includes: upward downward, and level. The book really
stresses that evaluation is very important to have in ministry, and especially self-evaluation to
keep one’s self-accountable to your job. In chapter 12, the book focused on how to deal with
change in church. The book gave a scenario where change in church did not blow over so well.
The author stressed the best thing to do when confronting change is to make no major changes
within the first 3-6 months. The book then laid out eight steps to consider in making effect
changes in one’s ministry. The steps are as follows: recognize the need for change, form a team
to guide the change, review your core values and vision statement, tell the old stories creating a
sense of need rather than urgency, create a new story with meaning and purpose, test the winds of
change, communicate a clear plan for change, keep your promises to make the change stick.
Then in chapter 14 the book addresses how to respond after a failure. The author describes
failure in this way “Failure may be a good thing, part of God’s plan to help each of us develop
and mature, to grow closer to him and others
(Fagerstrom 123). The rest of the chapter describes what to do when failure hits, and even gives
biblical examples of how people responded to failure.
Four takeaways:
1.I need to evaluate myself more, and also ask other to evaluate me
2.Change is not always what it is cracked up to be
3
.
4
.
Failure is not always negative
I need to learn to grow through failure
Personal Reflection:
Once again this book has highlighted several things that I need to work on in my own life
and in my own ministry. In accordance with the first chapter, I definitely need to have more
evaluating within my ministry. I spend a lot of time thinking about how I am doing or how the
certain lesson I just taught went. I think it would be very beneficial to ask for feedback to know
what I have been doing well, and also what I need to work on more.
The second chapter is also very applicable in my current ministry situation. With the way
the church is now I feel there is a huge need for change, but it is very hard to approach change
within a very traditional church. The idea has been passed around to start a small group or life
group within the church, and which for us this is a very huge change. This chapter gave some
very practical advice on how to approach change. I also think the chapter did a great job on
explaining how change isn’t always as bad as people make it out to be. Change can sometimes be
smooth and easy. I found that section to be pretty encouraging because change always seems like
an unattainable task.
The third required chapter discussed failure. I know in my own personal life I tend to shut
down after a failure. This chapter discusses the importance of responding and learning from a
failure. I definitely need to work on this to improve my ministry. When certain talks or events do
not go the way I want them to I need to be able to learn and move on.
Integrity Statement:
I read all of the required reading for this assignment!
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