Results Matter 2

I'm still stuck on this issue of assessment/measurement in children's ministry. For years here at Group we've grappled with the issue of assessment. In fact, we've longed for anyone--church, company, individual--to crack this nut. How do you measure spiritual growth results--beyond verses memorized? (So if you know anyone that has figured this out, let me know!)

One passage of Scripture that I love and believe has the essence of what we should be measuring in spiritual growth is in 2 Peter 1:5-8. Verse 8 says "For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ." Hmmm....that sounds like a worthy goal for children's ministries!

So what are these qualities? Faith, goodness (moral excellence), knowledge, self-control, perseverance (patient endurance), godliness (being like Jesus), brotherly kindness, and love. 

I would love to see something that can measure those qualities as indicators of spiritual maturity--at each child's level. Of course, we all know we may only have children for one hour a week. So all the more reason that an intentional spiritual growth plan at church (with measurement/assessment) must partner with the parents who see these qualities lived out at home. We would partner in "fruit checking."

I think this is more than possible; I believe it's doable and necessary. Anyone figured it out so far? 

Comments

[Henry Zonio]

I am laughing at the question of anyone figuring it out! I think this question is way too huge to answer in a general way. Each faith community is looking for different things.

As for me, I am working on trying to hybrid the Engle's Scale with a Centered Set look at spirituality. Granted, both are VERY subjective but for our context we need broader tools of measurement. I will have to do some better training of small group leaders to be able to interact personally with the kids and families in order to guage spiritual formation. I think the hardest thing in evaluating spiritual formation is that God is the one who does the job of formation while we are tasked with the planting and watering. We always want to know how the formation is going... We want to control what we can't :)

[Brenna]

Spiritual growth can be measured by observing children and seeing how they act and respond in situations. Just like early childhood students at school: when we teach a concept, they may not get it or even act like they care during that study or emphasis, but days or weeks later they will say something that let teachers know they were listening and they do understand.

Kids at church are the same way at times. Teachers/parents may not know they understand until they start acting out what they've been taught and learned.

Repetition is the key, too. Teaching concepts over and over with different methods helps to reinforce the ideas in the children's minds.

[Janet]

I hope to do this as much justice as I want to do, but I feel like I have quite a bit to say on this matter. I also hope that what I say is what you are looking for. First off I am not anyone "important" as far as I am not an author or a big name in a mega church. I am actually a small town girl from a small town in Indiana, who grew up in a very small church and whose family life was very, very dysfunctional. But because of the caring wonderful people who took the time to study each week and teach her, she grew up (as well as several others from her youth group) to want to go to Bible College and continue to seek to stay in the word by carrying it on to other little kids (youth/adults) like she (they were) was taught as a child.

How can you measure the assessments or accomplishments of a children's or youth ministry? I believe it is by what happens with the children and the youth and the families in that ministry. Are the majority or large part of those children/youth/families still serving in the ministry years after they were a part of that church. I don't mean necessarily in the same church or same town AND I don't always mean in a paid staff position. But are they taking what they learned as valuable and repeating it and giving back to their church they are attending to this day. Kind of like a "pay it forward" technique.

You have to study to show your self approved, but you also have to study to share what you know to others. So learning it in the church is part of what you are picking up as children/youth. Are we teaching our kids to also serve in the community, in the church and in the world?

I really, really like Rick Chromey's book Energizing Children's Ministry in the Smaller Church - I like it so much that I refer to it all the time. He talks about how large churches really do not have the percentage of children/youth to adults in their church most people think because of their size. Sometimes smaller churches are actually doing a better job of it because they have more kids in their ministries are might be more effective at it because they are smaller and condenced vs. being bigger and wide spread.

There are people in my youth group that due to the fact we were small and close knit ... even in a church of only 50-100, of the 20 kids in the group, 15 of us are still in the ministry as paid or volunteer in some way shape or form. To me that is a way to assess if the ministry is making a difference.

In master's programs one does research projects where they follow groups for awhile. This might need to be the case study for Group. Follow a group of kids from Nursery through adulthood (a long time) to see how they go in life. Do they stay in the faith, do they make the faith their own and do they do something with it instead of keeping it themselves.

Again, just my humble 2 cents worth. But I thought it might count for something. Maybe those 4 years of bible college and 20+ years in Children's Ministry, plus growing up in the church are worth something :)

Thanks for listening!

[Larry Shallenberer]

I don't think its a completely crackable nut, because you've trying to quantify the quality of a relationship between two people. If we were trying to measure the quality of a marriage between two people we survey both spouses.

Regrettably, when we attempt to measure the quality of a relationship between God and a child, God isn't filling in our surveys with a #2 pencil.

We can measure the fruitfulness of a Christian. We just need to know in the back of our mind, that these aren't hard evidences. We can measure how many children invite friends, attend classes, participate in service projects. And we can hope that these things indicate spiritual growth (and not religiosity).