Growing Pains: Evaluation and Feedback as Important Tools for Pastors.
In 2015, my journey as an ordained pastor began, leading me through diverse realms of church service. Starting as a pastor's child, I transitioned through various roles, evolving from an elder to eventually assuming the role of one of the pastors in a church located in Brazil. This immersive journey deepened my understanding of the inner workings of the church and the myriad challenges it entails. A significant challenge centered on the notion that, within theological spheres, there is an idea that pastors should be excluded from evaluation or feedback for their work.
However, my perspective, shaped by over 25 years of experience in the for-profit business sector, takes a completely different trajectory. Evaluation and feedback have emerged as critical and indispensable tools for assessing outcomes and ensuring alignment with organizational vision. Within the corporate landscape, performance reviews and feedback have played a vital role in fostering growth and sustaining overall effectiveness.
The lack of healthy evaluation and feedback mechanisms in churches becomes evident in instances of poor, incompetent, and self-centered leadership. Pastors who use spiritual arguments to shield mediocrity and ineffectiveness are exposed in this absence of constructive evaluation and feedback. Instead of cultivating an open dialogue for improvement, there seems to be resistance—sometimes evolving into an outright rejection of evaluation and feedback. It reached a point where spiritual arguments, often taken out of context, were employed to avoid receiving healthy feedback and addressing the mistakes or areas that required improvement among the pastors.
My belief and passion for effective communication, growth, and alignment are required for pastors. I acknowledge that sometimes there are members who are not willing to engage in constructive arguments and cross the line of respect and reasonableness, but even with this risk, the benefits of feedback and evaluation are essential to see God working in the life of the pastor by revealing humbleness and a desire to grow, as we learn in I Timothy 3.1-7.
How does the absence of evaluation and feedback in churches impact the whole body, especially when pastors use spiritual arguments to avoid constructive criticism and hinder improvement?
Eduardo Mendes
Founder and President
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