Wednesday, February 02, 2005

VIEW FROM THE PEW: Opportunities to Improve

If a church wants to attract more non-believers and also wants to properly disciple its current members, church leaders need to know what the people attending their church think of their programs and methods. Since most feedback comes in the form of praise from others who are also involved in leadership, the true opinions of the majority may not actually be known. In order to measure the true effect of a program or method and then make the necessary adjustments, the people attending church need to be encouraged by the leadership to voice their opinion, no mater how critical or supportive it may be, and every opinion needs to be valued.

Complaints need to be viewed as opportunities to improve. It may seem radical, but by encouraging more people to express their opinions and complaints, more attendees will want to become members and more members will want to stay and contribute because they will know that the leaders care about them as individuals. Complainers can become some of the best contributors when their complaints and suggestions are handled effectively.

1 comment:

Bonnie said...

Complaints need to be viewed as opportunities to improveAbsolutely!

I've been part of an ongoing review process at our church. What's been disheartening and frustrating is that the "negatives" we've expressed have been taken very personally, and the reaction has been defensiveness and deflection/evasion. I wish the problems would be accepted so solutions could be found and embraced by all.