Evaluating and Looking Ahead

It is odd but I am getting tired of people spending so much time on evaluations. I used to rant that we never spent enough time doing an effective evaluation but now I have completely flip-flopped. I guess I'm tired of people evaluating with the premise that something is wrong. The theme seems to be "What's wrong and how can we fix it?"

In the name of balance I think we need to spend much more time talking about what's right and what opportunities do we have in the future. Forward thinking is important because life is always changing and such thinking keeps us from becoming static.

Several years ago Huntington College put a lot of effort into designing their web site. They did a great job and they won awards and received some great recognition for it. It hasn't changed since! IMO it is now hopelessly out of date. It doesn't take long for that to happen with web sites. I normally am very charitable when it comes to out-of-date web sites because most people don't have the resources to keep them current. But HC does have the resources, and the need, so I find it rather sad.

The point is, when it comes to web sites, if you wait for a negative evaluation before you fix it you're too late. If they had been forward thinking they would have started to change it almost immediately after they won the award.

I think the same is true for the church at times. We need to learn to move on. That's why I like the "journey" metaphor when it somes to the church.