Seeking Clarity
Having cause to rethink a number of programs and offerings that I undertake as part of my work I went in search of some help in thinking about how to go about my rethinking. I found that help in Holy Clarity: The Practice of Planning and Evaluation by Sarah B. Drummond.
This book offers clear simple processes that would help both with evaluating and developing a new program or in reviewing and restructuring existing programs. Drummond offers a cogent case as why faith communities need to undertake planning and evaluation and how clarity is a useful skill in helping people discern where God might be leading communities and people of faith. For Drummond seeking clarity through evaluation is making sense of the world. It is about being honest enough to look at the church and its place within the wider community and being hopeful enough to trust that in the truth telling that underpins evaluation we encounter the voice of god Evaluation is about clarifying, collecting and conversing. Evaluation doesn't replace the gut-feeling or heart -following leadership but rather gives tools to enhance instincts in learning about ministry settings.
Ministry programs are defined as concrete actions held together by a broad vision grounded in and guided by faith. So programs need to have goals and aims that can be evaluated and these goals and aims help both to develop and evaluate programs as they go along. Throughout this book Drummond then offers a range of ways to held leaders in a community seek clarity through planning and evaluation processes. They are all well described and easy to follow. The evaluation methods described could be used with a church council, a committee or small group. They can also be used by individuals seeking to think about their own work practices and programs. I found this book extremely helpful in clarifying my own thinking about my current work and in beginning to ponder and shape some future directions.
At the end of each chapter there is a small story or case study and a set of questions that invite the reader to take what they have read in the chapter and apply it the particular scenario set out.
David Greenhaw notes in his introduction that every minister has a a first day and last day in a placement and that in between a lot happens and we do not always think carefully or intentionally about all that will happen in the in between. Holy Clarity offers some reasons and way to reflect more carefully and intentionally about both personal ministry practice and the the programs and happens of the placement. I recommend it highly. Holy Clarity is published by the Alban Institute.
