Background

On his second day as association minister for the United Church of Christ, David McMahill received three phone calls from lay leaders who were looking for resources on "how to evaluate our minister."

Insights and Approach

He knew of several churches in which a poorly constructed process for evaluating the ministers had spun out of control, however, and had gradually come to believe it is probably better for a church not to attempt an evaluation process at all than to do one carelessly or to naively use a design intended for a secular organization.

Development of the System

Based on the needs he saw, McMahill began to work with numerous congregations looking for ways to review both leaders and ministries and developed the feedback/reflection process he lays out in this book.

Principles and Effectiveness

Based on sound principles of effective communication, this simple system of asking for descriptive feedback about various aspects of a congregation's life together takes into account the specific setting and the unique relationship between minister and congregation.