Celebrate and Evaluate

It's 10pm on Saturday night and I wrote on my calendar on Monday - "Write and post blog." Well, I only have a couple of more hours until the week is over and I either have to write a blog or write it on next week's calendar (which I do way too frequently). To top it off the good girl voice over my left shoulder says, "And you know you said you were going to write regularly." So here goes...

On Tuesday night of this past week, I hosted an evaluation meeting/dinner and it reinforced for me the need to gather and evaluate. (Always a great excuse for women to get together - but who really needs an excuse?!) The women on the planning committee shared their thoughts about what we did right and what we could do better. It was a chance for us to celebrate and jot down our thoughts about everything -from food to follow-up (From...make more chicken salad to... send notes to our guests.) There were many things that I missed and others noticed. Listening to others gave me insight and hopefully will help us make changes that will make the event even better the next time.

As a pastor/church planter's wife, I think we're sometimes afraid to ask for feedback. (Some are way too willing to be critical and who needs more reason to doubt yourself?!) That's why it's nice to evaluate specific events and share ways to do "church" better. I heard of one church who even paid a "mystery shopper" to evaluate them. Taking the time and effort to think about what does and doesn't work makes others feel that their opinion counts and can make the next event better (if we can remember where we put the notes from the meeting).