vision

Is Your Church Alive?

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There’s a church I drive by occasionally. Each time I do, it makes me sad. I drove by it just the other day and noticed how dilapidated it was. You see, I attended that church a few times many years ago. I remember how excited the people were. The building was new, and still in the process of being completed. The congregation was already meeting there in the fellowship hall even though the sanctuary was not yet completed. They were looking ahead with excitement and anticipation. There was laughter and the noise of young children. While I was only a visitor, I could tell there was a sense of expectation as they had raised enough money to get to where they were now. They had outgrown a smaller, older building and were in good spirits.

Now, as I drive by and remember that excitement, instead of giving me a sense of hope, I feel sad. The building looks run down. The gravel parking lot now has twelve-foot-tall trees growing in it. I didn’t see a cross on the building anywhere. And I wondered what happened. What happened to the excitement of that forward-looking congregation? Did they finish the building? Did people move away? Why did they not continue to grow?

I think back to the church where I first started as a young pastor. I was on staff as the youth pastor. That church no longer exists either, and it makes me sad. I know some of what happened there, but that doesn’t make it any better. I know the great history they had of sending and supporting missionaries. They were part of planting other churches, but they lost their way. Over time, more and more people left. Eventually the denomination shut down the church. While that church experienced a lot of loss, one good thing is that the building is still being used for ministry purposes, but that church of people no longer exists. What a sad ending for a church that had prospered over the years.

Just this week, as part of a class I am taking, we were given a handout by George Bullard entitled: Will Your Congregation Still Exist Ten Years From Now? His research has led him to this list of 25 Factors That May Impact Your Survivability, Vitality, and Vibrancy. Bullard invites churches and church leaders to evaluate their church by a set of 25 categories such as: vision, true relationships, high expectations of members, and a well-maintained facility . His research has concluded that there are at least 25 different things that can impact a church’s life expectancy.

Most of us never consider that our church may die. We just go on with our activities as if it will go on forever. But we need to do some serious evaluation from time to time. We need to look at the church with critical eyes – not to criticize but to evaluate boldly. And then we need to decide to correct what needs correcting. When this is done regularly and early in your church’s life, the changes made to correct occasionally may be small, but if your leadership has not evaluated your church and made adjustments over the years, there will come a time when you will need to make drastic changes. Some pruning will be required as you prayerfully cut out what is diseased and a distraction from what God has called your church to be.

If the evaluation and correction process is not something you are familiar with or equipped to handle, then call in someone who can. There may be resources available through your denomination, or call in a church coach or consultant. We are trained to walk a church through this process in a meaningful way. Whichever path you choose,  do not just give up and hope the church will correct itself without the necessary work needed.

Churches and organizations need regular evaluation and appropriate action to correct where things are not going as they should. Don’t be scared to tackle this important yet painful process. Be more afraid that not doing anything will lead to the death of your church!

So call in someone to help. Contact someone like me to help you.

Keep looking up,

Andy Wiebe

3 Steps to Ensure You Are Not a People-Pleasing Leader

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My natural tendency is to be a people pleaser. I don’t feel good when someone disagrees with me. Recently I was talking with a friend who challenged a statement made by my church. It was regarding a practice of the church that we believed was scripturally accurate, but he was not willing to agree to this statement. I realized that I was trying really hard to come up with at solution so that he would be satisfied. I was trying to please him, rather than stand true to a statement we had made and believed to be biblically accurate. There was no reason for me to try to please him except that I like this guy and didn’t want to feel like there was disagreement between us.

Any leader needs to realize the value of being considerate and finding ways to get people to follow, but we cannot lead from a position of pleasing people first.

Know What You Believe.

I realized that I was a little unsure in this conversation. I was being asked to support a statement that I hadn’t given a lot of thought to. I believed it to be true, but when questioned, my first thought was to figure out how to make him happy rather than about showing him why I believed this statement.

I realized that I needed to be clear on what I believed. My job as a leader was not first to make him feel good about this statement but to show why we believed it was biblical and one worth following. Yes, I wanted him to agree – and I wanted him to feel good about it and accept it as worthwhile. But I should have begun with a desire to protect the truth of the statement rather than trying to please him.

If you know what you believe, then you know what to stand up for.

Know Why You Believe it is True.

Not only did I need to believe the statement was one that we should live by, I needed to know why. The more we understand the why of something, the easier it is to stand up for it. When there are certain expectations in our church or organization that we don’t agree with, it is hard to stand up for them. If we believe them, it may help to also know why we believe them to be worth operating by.

Sometimes the “why” can help us explain it to those who are questioning us. If I am convinced of the value of something, I will be more likely to stand up for it instead of trying to downplay it with the hope the person I am speaking with will agree with me.

Know What You Will Do if Someone Disagrees with You.

Not everyone you encounter will agree with you on certain issues. Even the people in your organization, and your friends, will not always see eye-to-eye with you on everything. What then?

Sometimes it is easier to try to please the person, and we end up being wishy-washy, always changing our minds according to whom we are talking with.

Sometimes it is easier to fight for what we believe and stand for, with the risk of losing relationships.

We need to find a way to balance, standing up for what we believe and our desire to be in a good relationship with people. Ideally, we convince our friend to agree with us, or realize they were right. And we have maintained our relationship.

Unfortunately, we will have disagreements where we cannot convince someone to change their mind and agree with us. We need to figure out how to continue to have good relationships with people who see things differently than we do. This will not always be easy. Some relationships will not continue. Even if relationships fall apart, maintain a proper love and respect for the other person. Sometimes we will not be able to maintain our integrity and our relationships at the same time. Then part in as amiable manner as possible.

We will always come across people we disagree with. Let’s ensure we stand up for what we believe even as we value the relationships we have.

Keep looking up,

Andy Wiebe

6 Ways to Engage Your Team in Vision Setting

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I love to work on vision. I’m a dreamer. It’s not hard for me to come up with new ideas, and I do it often. Not everyone has that mindset. I also think quickly and I realize not everyone does. In my present role, I work with a different church each year, and lead them through a process of vision setting. This means I’m engaging with a wider range of individuals, some who are excited about and comfortable with working on vision setting, and some who are not.

Here’s the big question: how can you make sure that everyone is able to fully engage in the process of setting vision for your church or organization?

  • Follow a written plan.

When you lead a team through the process of setting vision for your organization, make sure you first identify a written plan. Whether you use something developed by another, or like me, pick and choose exercises from a variety of sources, make sure that everyone has access to the plan before starting the process. Then each person – not just the leaders – can see where the process is heading.

I provide everyone with a booklet they can follow. One of my team has a difficulty hearing, so the booklet helps him know where we are even when he misses some of what is said in the discussion.

In addition to the overall plan document, for each meeting, I also provide a clear agenda, complete with breaks, and times listed for each exercise so everyone can see if we are falling behind. I try to be a little flexible with the time, and even skip some pages in the workbook if we are running behind schedule. The participants can check those out later if they want.

  • Use Variety

I like to do more than just a question-and-answer format. Some of the exercises I like to use for vision setting sessions are multiple choice or circle the best answer. Some are fill in the blank. I provide examples from other organizations that can spark ideas. I do a little leading but prefer to get the team to do most of the talking, especially since I am the consultant and will not be with the church as they move to implement the plan. My job is to make sure they can arrive at a common vision that is truly theirs. This means that I invite a lot of discussion. I do some work on a white board when trying to bring their ideas together so everyone can see any common threads. I even included a few colour charts to help visualize some exercises. I also like to add a few cartoons! Make sure to include times where people can get up and move around a bit. Sitting for too long will slow people’s thought processes down.

  • Go Slow

When leading a vision process, go slower than you think you should. There are always a few who think slowly and need time to think about things. Some ideas may be brand new and might need some mulling over. Some participants will read and process the directions for the next exercise slower so you can’t rush the process. Too much information too fast will not work. Instead, give time to process to keep everyone’s thinking clear.

  • Circle Back

I have found that it is helpful to present exercises that to get the team to see the present reality and the future possibilities from a number of different angles.

As I recently led our team through a visioning process, it was interesting to see some of the same ideas coming up throughout the session, and ideas coming up later that built on what was previously discussed.  As these topics came up multiple times, it resulted in more clarity.

  • Highlight Recurring Themes

When you are working through a vision process, note these recurring ideas so that everyone is aware of them. It’s obvious that these are the themes that will be a major contributor to the final vision statement and vision picture. Listen to how their answers to different questions tie together and form a common theme. As the leader of the session, you are in position to observe these connections and identify them for the group.

  • Listen to God

In the recent process I led, there were a few times where we just stopped and prayed, both talking to God and listening to Him as well. There were a few times where different members of the team felt God was saying something we needed to pay attention to. When there were others that concurred, we took those thoughts seriously and integrated them into the values and vision that were taking shape.

It was very encouraging to me to see our team fully engaged through a 6-hour vision marathon! Everyone contributed to the conversation and was involved in the process right from the beginning to the end.

What are some ways you have found helpful to keep people engaged in process of developing a vision or strategy?

Keep looking up,

Andy Wiebe

Book Reviews: Andy’s 2023 Reading Experience

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UNIQUELY YOU – by Ron Kitchens

Uniquely You: Transform Your Organization by Becoming the Leader Only You Can Be is an encouraging book for any leader. Ron Kitchen builds off his own experience and the many lessons he has learned along the way. Ron shares many stories as he highlights the value of building a great team. He gives a number of great ideas on how to build that team. I like how he puts family first, and makes that an important part of his business, so that everyone on the team has that same priority. His ideas have a great track record as his teams don’t have alot of turnover because they love working together.

This books has short chapters which will be appreciated by those who don’t like reading but still want to learn.

Here Comes 2023, Are You Ready?

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Here comes 2023. Is this the year for you?

Maybe this is the year where you take proactive steps to reach personal goals (or other goals). You want to do better and do more. I have personally benefited from using a Full Focus Planner from Michael Hyatt and his team. It guides the user through how to set goals for the year that you can break down to steps for each month and each week. Their site has helpful tools to guide your goal setting and strategic planning.

Let me suggest a few goals to pursue in your personal life and then some for your church as well.

Personal

We can set goals in our life in the domains of intellectual, emotional, relational, spiritual, vocational, and on and on. Whatever area of your life you want to grow in deserves a meaningful goal along with a strategy of how to reach that goal.

Could this be the year that you achieve goals you have been thinking about for a while?

One of my goals each year is to read the whole Bible. If you want to get to know God better, you might set a goal of reading the Bible in a year. There are several different reading plans available that help you know exactly how much to read each day in order to read all of the Bible in the 365 days of next year. Find a plan that works or check here.

Are you in need of some growth in the relational aspect of your life? Many people are lonely with few friends. Why not find a way to grow some new friendships. Join a club or a small group at your church. Set a goal of connecting with a few new people to see if some of them become good friends.

Are you looking to grow yourself as a leader? You could make a gool of reading a certain number of books on leadership, or look for a coach to help you process your next steps. A coach may help you sort out areas you want to work on and how to set a plan to do so.

Church

As a pastor, I am always looking for ways to improve what our church is doing and how I as the leader can help us move toward certain goals.

Maybe this is the year you ask someone to help your or your church pursue your God-given dreams. As a pastor or church leader, you have a heart for your church. You wish you could guide the church forward in a significant and organized way. A church assessment might be one way to do this, where a coach assesses your church and gives you a final report with clear ideas of possible next steps.

Maybe this is the year that you and your creative worship planning team become more intentional about planning transformational services. You want your Sunday services to have a greater impact but aren’t quite sure where to start. I would love to walk your worship planning through a process which will guide you in creating transformational and meaningful services your people will love.

I encourage you to find ways to continue to grow as a person and as a follower of Jesus Christ. If you would like to pursue personal growth with a coach, reach out to me. Develop a plan today that will help you to grow this year.

Keep looking up

Andy Wiebe

Book Reviews: Andy’s 2022 Reading Experience

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I will be sharing a brief review of every book I read this year. Hope you enjoy and hope it encourages you to keep reading.

HINGE MOMENTS – by D. Michael Lindsay

Hinge Moments: Making the Most of Life’s Transitions is a powerful guide to anyone facing a transition, and in today’s world that is just about all of us. Transitions will happen, whether we choose them or not. Lindsay builds off interviews of hundreds of leaders looking at their transitions and lessons they learned in the process. He builds his book around a diagram of seven stages of transition. Discernment, Anticipation, Intersection, Landing, Integration, Inspiration, and Realization. He uses the example of a door to show how a “hinge moments” are the opportunities to open (or close) doors to various pathways of our lives. A helpful book for anyone facing or anticipating a transition in their life.

Budgeting: A Guess, A Dream, Or A Plan?

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An organization working through the budgeting process needs to forget guessing, begin dreaming, and develop a plan.

Forget Guessing

If you are guessing what your budget should look like that means you have not done your homework.

The budgeting process can seem a little like a guessing game. Yes, you are looking ahead with no assurance that the money you expect and hope to come in actually will. You do not know what your costs for the year will be.

There are some fixed numbers like salaries, but other numbers, such as utility costs that fluctuate based on weather, aren’t as certain. You can get a good idea of what your office supplies will cost based on the previous year, but those costs go up from time to time.

Doing your homework means looking at the realities of the past and the possibilities of the future. The realities are how much you spent on different things over the last few years. You should be able to forecast based on the trends of the past. Developing a budget is not random guessing but a process of looking at various factors to determine the best budget. As for income, look to the past and how current realities might determine if that same amount of income can be expected next year. In a church, if many people are experiencing job loss or are moving away, you may have to anticipate less income as fewer people are able to give. A budget is a thoughtful forecast based on prayerful dreaming and visioning, and connected to a plan of how to move toward the vision. While budgeting always involves a level of uncertainty, you must create a budget based on real information.

Begin Dreaming

Most churches, like other organizations, hope to grow. That means connecting with more people and running more programs. This means greater costs, but hopefully greater giving as well.

It is important for organizations and churches to dream about the future. I believe that we need to build our organizations and our budgets around “God-given” dreams. Ask God what his desires are for you and the people you work with and the people you serve. Are there needs and opportunities God is calling you to step into?

Dreams often cost more than the expected income. This is where the hard work comes in. Find a way to determine if costs need to be cut or your income can be increased. Whether you are a leader in a church or another organization, determine if God wants you to create a budget that will cost more than your forecasted income. We can’t be irresponsible, yet faith plays a part. If you believe God wants you to do certain things and they cost a certain amount, sometimes a budget can look impossible outside of the fact that God can bring in the necessary funds.

A budget is part of your dreaming as you look at how you can meet the costs of the dreams you believe are from God. A budget is an important part of developing your vision as you will need to pay for the costs of moving toward that vision.

Develop A Plan

As you dream of what could happen next year, have a plan so you know where you will be spending money, and an estimate of how much. Your plan is based on your vision and God-given dreams. Your vision and goals should help you project what will be spent over the next year. In our church we also invite leaders of certain programs to submit budget requests based on their vision and goals for their own ministry.

A budget is not just a guess, is needed to achieved your dreams, and can be achieved as you develop a plan around that budget.

  • Set Clear Goals and Strategic Steps

Defer to your organization’s mission and goals to inform how money will be spent. Your goals and strategic steps will give you an idea of what your financial costs for the year will be. Build on the data from past years to develop a plan for how your finances will support your organization’s God-given dreams.

  • Communicate Your Vision

Communicate your vision and God-given dreams clearly to all stakeholders in your church or organization. Share your dreams with passion and excitement. Help them see how their financial contributions will make a difference in people’s lives. Let them know what they are contributing to.

  • Report Regularly

Use a regular reporting structure to let key people know how things are going financially and how that is helping you move toward your goals. Implementing a reporting plan, including what the reports will look like, who will prepare them, and how often they will be shared keeps people informed and prevents surprises when adjustments may have to be made. Updates keep people connected and donors excited about continuing to support the church. When people see the impact of their giving – perhaps through a connection to real people who are being helped – they will be more likely to continue to give.

The results of not reporting on finances regularly can be detrimental to organizations. One church used a congregational meeting to inform the church that finances were very low, and to meet costs, they would be letting a few staff go. The problem was, they had not informed the congregation of the financial situation before they decided on this solution. If they had done so, people may have been willing to increase their giving. If people think there is plenty of money, they may be spending their money elsewhere. Don’t wait until there is a problem before you inform those invested in your church or organization.

If you are determined to honor God in your church and organization, then make sure you talk with God about your dreams and His dreams and then develop clear plans on how to move ahead. Continue to ask God for the wisdom He offers as you handle the finances of your organization with integrity.

Keep looking up,

Andy Wiebe

The Future Life of a Leader

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As a leader, you live in the future. While you have to be grounded to the present, and build on the past, much of your time is spent looking at the future and how to best prepare for it.

Vision

A leader, and his team, need a clear vision of where they want to go. A vision is your expectation of what the future could look like. You need to be able to see the reality of the future clearly enough to know what you must do to get there. This takes some creative and well-informed imagination. You need to know the realities of the present well enough to know what can be reality in the future. If you understand the present clearly enough, you know what must happen to make your dreams come true.

The average person doesn’t have the capacity to dream. Some are so loaded down with life that dreaming seems impossible. I recently talked with a lady who had been a single mom, just barely surviving day to day. She said she had not had any energy to think beyond the present day for a long time.

To think beyond that was impossible. Others do not have the time or ability to dream a better future.

The average person doesn’t have the capacity to dream. Some are so loaded down with life that dreaming seems impossible. I recently talked with a lady who had been a single mom, just barely surviving day to day. She said she had not had any energy to think beyond the present day for a long time. To think beyond that was impossible. Others do not have the time or ability to dream a better future.

Leaders need to be able to see a better future and take the responsibility of helping others see that better future.

Growth

As a leader you should anticipate growth, and desire that more people come to church. This requires future thinking to anticipate what this growth will look like and how you will get there. Will you outgrow your space in the next couple of years? Will you need to expand space or start multiple services? Will you have to hire more staff or equip more volunteers? Consider what a larger congregation will look like and the realities that will be associated with that welcomed growth. As you see that future, you need to be able to begin to prepare for it.

Meetings

When you plan a meeting, you are living in the future. You need to have a clear understanding of what is most important for that meeting.

If you are planning a staff meeting next week, you need to be clear about the priorities of that day. Not the priorities of today, or tomorrow, but at that time. You need to know how to deal with the issues of the moment of that day, even though you are not there yet. In that way you can set an appropriate agenda that will guide that meeting and help everyone present know how to keep moving toward the vision. Yes, a staff meeting does need to look back a bit, and recognize the realities of the day, but the leader needs to inspire hope for the future in those he is leading.

Staffing

When considering your staffing needs, it is important that you hire employees who will help your organization do more than you are presently doing. You need to anticipate what each person or role will contribute towards your vision. You can’t just hire for the moment, because you are already handling the issue of the moment. You want someone who will help you move ahead. This requires a plan for what your organization will need in the future and how a new hire will not only help you get there, but also help once you’ve reached those goals in a way the present team can’t yet do. Hire for growth. If you only hire to accomplish what is already being done, you are adding staff for maintenance, not growth.

Programming and Events

As a leader, you recognize that there are times when a certain program or event can help your church move toward your vision. There may be studies that you want your church to go through because they will better equip your members to do what you believe God has called your church to. You are living in the future as you see what you hope will be the results of this study.

I am presently preaching a series on hearing God. I want the congregation to get a better understanding of the truth that God still speaks to us and we can hear him guiding us in our daily lives. I anticipate a future where the members are more aligned with Jesus and truly hear him speak into their daily lives.

I am a Transition Pastor so there are certain meetings I have with the congregation that I hope will resolve any issues of the past and encourage the church to look forward with anticipation to what God will do. I am living in the future when I see a church that has dealt with issues, where repentance and forgiveness has taken place, and where there is greater unity around their common vision for the future. 

Challenges

You don’t have to be a leader very long before you encounter challenges. Some of these can be completely unexpected, like the covid challenge. But others can be anticipated and prepared for. For example, if half your congregation loses their jobs because a local mill shuts down, a pastor who is leading well will see how this will impact the financial aspects of the church in the near future. Leaders can see challenges coming if they look ahead.

If you are going to lead your church or organization through those challenges, you need to be able to see what your church will look like when you get to the other side. You need to know how to lead them through these challenges. No one ever knows what the other side of a challenge will really look like, but a leader can prayerfully dream the better future and then lead toward it.

Leaders are not prophets, yet they need to read the “signs of the times.” Some farmers say that if you have a period of heavy fog, there will be rain in 90 days. “Red sky at night, sailor’s delight” says that a red sky at night will bring a pleasant morning. Leaders need to learn how to read their situations to understand their future, and leaders need to constantly consider the future as they lead in the present.

Keep looking up,

Andy Wiebe

Pursuing Excellence: Plan Your Year

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Pursuing excellence involves a number of different aspects. One of those is to plan ahead. The difference between mediocrity and excellence may come down to how well you plan.

Planning ahead gives you time to work on your project or event. When you start planning earlier, you have more time to think it through, prepare and determine the best way to complete the project. Giving yourself this extra time to think about your project means that you have longer to think about it and come up with ideas than if you are scrambling to get everything together last minute.

Pastors and church leadership teams, plan your upcoming year. While many people plan their years from January to December (I tend to plan my personal goals to begin in January), when it comes to working with churches, I suggest thinking of the year as starting in September and finishing in August. This is because church activities usually follow the school year, starting and ending about the same time the local schools do. In order to be ready for September, I suggest you actually do your planning in May.

Benefits of Planning Ahead

Planning ahead helps you improve whatever you are planning, because the earlier attention to the project results in more time given to consider it. This extra time can be used in numerous ways:

  1. You can gather the best team.
  2. You can train and equip your volunteers ahead of time.
  3. You can let life enhance your creativity – your reading and TV watching and living of life will give you ideas you did not have when you first began planning.
  4. You can find great ideas, not just good ones. Instead of settling for the first idea your team comes up with, consider how to improve on that idea. Your programs will go from good to great because of the time to percolate in the minds of the creative teams.
  5. You can build better resources and materials required for the project.
  6. You can spend more time in prayer, asking God to guide every aspect of your planning as well as the final implementation.

Plan Your Year – Start with the Big Events

Begin planning for your main programs of the year. Work with program leaders to determine the start and end times for their programs. If your programs start in September, leaders should be determined by the end of May, so they can start planning their programs and find their volunteers from June through August.

Are there a few big events or weekends your church celebrates? This could be a church camp or a family weekend, as well as Easter, Christmas, and a Fall Kickoff. Set the dates and work on developing themes. Decide who should lead each event and who should be on each team. Make sure that everyone involved knows the pertinent information, such as dates and themes, as early as possible. Plan when to do baptism and membership classes, as well as when to have the baptism and when to receive new members. Plan when and what you will do for evangelism and outreach activities throughout the year.

Once the basics of the big events are planned, start filling in the other Sundays and other activities. Pastors can work on sermon plans for the year ahead. (I’ll share more about how I plan my preaching year next week). Knowing in advance what you will focus on, give additional time to improve the sermons with good illustrations and pertinent information. By creating a year-long plan in advance, you not only give yourself more time for sermon preparation, but you also provide your worship and service planning teams that same additional time to create the best services they can.

The themes for each Sunday will come from the pastor after he plans out his sermons for the year. With a plan for both large events and sermon themes, add other activities to your plan. For example, identify when you should hold leadership meetings or training and discipleship events throughout the year.

After your yearly calendar has been filled, build in further detailed planning every quarter or so. Planning ahead involves a few stages: 1) Planning the year, 2) Planning 3-4 months ahead, and 3) Planning the week ahead. For example, begin developing detailed plans for Christmas by the end of September. Plan for Easter in January. Plan for September program starts in May.

As you plan ahead, the goal is not just to put on a great event or program, but that whatever we plan in the church will transform lives and bring us closer to Jesus. Pursuing excellence is not about performing flawlessly, but doing our best to help everyone involved become more like Jesus.

Have fun in you planning, pray for God to guide every aspect, and then rejoice as you see people impacted by God through events and activities you planned.

Keep looking up,

Andy Wiebe

Pursue Excellence with Constant Evaluation

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“CANEI is an acronym that stands for constant and never ending improvement. If you really want your services to soar, you have to commit to CANEI. You can never be satisfied with what you did last week, even if it was a great week. Always keep moving forward; always be working to reveal God’s excellence in a new, more powerful way.” 

– Nelson Searcy and Jason Hatley, Engage: A Guide to Creating Life-Transforming Worship Services.

To become better we need to evaluate. Everything we do can be improved through taking the time to reflect and evaluate when completed. An effective way to guide post-event evaluation it to use established systems and processes, whether these are adapted from other leaders or organizations, or created internally.

Recently I was reading Leading in a Culture of Change. Michael Fullan, in talking about evaluation, refers to Army After Action Reviews. These AARs have three key questions: What was supposed to happen? What happened? And what accounts for the difference?

I like that. While many evaluation systems include many questions about every aspect of the event, they really all come back to these three questions. All the questions on a long evaluation form probably come down to these three questions.

What was supposed to happen?

This question is effective because it assumes there was a clear plan from the beginning. Every person involved in making it happen knew what was expected. They likely talked through each aspect ahead of time, and maybe even rehearsed parts of it. Your evaluation needs to begin with a reminder of what you hoped to accomplish. In this way, everyone is reminded of what their goals were.

What happened?

This is where you work through the event in hindsight and remind yourself  what actually happened. Did those leading know what they were doing? Did the people involved enjoy the experience? Did it end up being close to the original goal and plan? Were you able to work the vision well, meaning did your effort move everyone toward the envisioned goal? This is the opportunity to consider each aspect and identify what went well and what did not.

What accounts for the difference?

Once you’ve identified the expectations and actual outcomes, it is time to look at how closely your event matched what you had dreamed and planned for. Focus in on what happened differently than expected. Point out any surprises or missteps, and then try to figure out why things did not go as planned. What are some reasons for what went wrong? And just as important: what are some reasons for what went right or better than you had planned?

With this in mind, brainstorm what needs to change to be better next time. There might be all kinds of actions to take to improve:

  • Better training
  • Clearer directions
  • More rehearsing
  • Better equipment
  • And on and on

An After Action Review (AAR) may take a few minutes or may last an hour. It depends on how complicated the event was or how many items were identified when answering the third question. I like these three questions because they really focus in on CANEI. You can zero in on what needs to improve for next time.

Evaluation always needs to lead to action. Everything that needs improvement must be worked on until a satisfactory change has been defined and developed.

Incorporate regular evaluation into your routines. Ask God to help you see where you may have fallen short of His hopes for the event, and the Holy Spirit to make it clear on how to continue to improve. As a follower of Jesus Christ, do your best for the Kingdom of God, no matter what you are doing.

Keep looking up,

Andy Wiebe