In "How to Evaluate your Youth Ministry, Part 1: Why it's important and why we avoid it," we talked about why we need to carefully evaluate our youth ministry programs, and our reluctance to do so. In this second part of our three article series, let's look at some practical ways we can give thought to moving our ministries ahead.

STAGE ONE: Reaffirm the Vision

It is impossible to evaluate our ministry marksmanship if we don't have a clear sense of our target. So we begin by determining goals. Whether we develop a vision statement or hammer out a philosophy of ministry, it is absolutely critical that the evaluation process begins with this stage. It's impossible to tell if we are on the mark if no one is willing to define it. Maybe that's why we're a little timid about doing this. Prov. 14:15 reminds us that the simple will believe anything, but the prudent look where they are going.

STAGE TWO: Look Over the Program

Moving through the evaluation process, we must continually ask ourselves three basic questions:

• What are we doing right (our strengths)?
• What are we doing wrong (our weaknesses)?
• What can we do better (goals)?

In measuring our ministries against these questions, there are three criteria to use as yardsticks: finances, attendance, and goal achievement.

Finances. Although it's probably the least reliable barometer of ministry effectiveness, a simple cost analysis can help youth workers evaluate their ministries. This allows the youth worker to compare the cost of a specific program to its value for the youth group.

How do we put a price on ministry? We don't, but good stewardship requires that we ask how much ministry we are getting, and at what price.

For example, if we want to find out how much is being spent per student per year in the youth program, we would simply divide the number of active students into the amount of the total youth ministry budget. Let's say the total youth ministry budget is $4,500 and there are 85 youths active in the program. It is costing the church approximately $52 per year, or one dollar per week per student in the youth program. Not a bad investment!

Some activities will be consistently self-sustaining in terms of finances, while others will consistently lose money. But let's remember that our goal is to make a prophet, not a profit. I'll fund a Bible study over a beer blast any time, although the latter might predictably draw a bigger crowd.

Attendance. In youth ministry, kids vote with their feet. If they don't like a program, they won't come. Attendance is a good criterion for evaluating a youth program, but only slightly more reliable than finances. Evaluating on the basis of attendance generally measures wants, not needs.

As churches become more interested in building programs than disciples, they forget the fundamental principle that "as commitment increases, attendance decreases." The more we ask of students spiritually, the fewer there will be who are willing to make that kind of commitment. That means if a program is evaluated strictly on the basis of numbers, it will be one that is high on crowds and low on discipleship.

On the other side of the coin, it's impossible to do youth ministry without youth. We're only kidding ourselves if we offer "quality programs" that students don't attend. Youth programs without youth are a waste of time!

Goal achievement. While there are a number of different models for evaluation, there is essentially one basic strategy to evaluate our programs based on goal achievement: we first define our goals, then we identify measurable objectives that will help us meet our goals. Remember, though, it doesn't help to set goals for ourselves that are unreachable:

• Good example: "We plan to start two small discipleship groups for high school students by October 1st."
• Bad example: "We plan to have Audio Adrenaline play in our Sunday morning worship on Mother's Day with the pastor singing lead and his wife playing drums."

The objectives must also be ownable: they must be embraced by leadership and students to be accomplished without destroying the youth group. Example: "We plan to do one mission outreach project every other month, and take one major mission trip this July."

Objectives measure the facets of the youth program by looking at the prescribed goals and objectives.

We all agree it is useless to put a screen door on a submarine. So why do we tolerate ineffective programs in our churches and youth groups? Part of our sacred responsibility in youth ministry is careful evaluation and reevaluation to ensure we are building programs that accomplish the purposes for which they were designed.

• How to Evaluate your Youth Ministry, Part 1: Why it's important and why we avoid it
• How to Evaluate your Youth Ministry, Part 3: Getting input from your teens

Duffy Robbins chairs the department of youth ministry at Eastern College in St. Davids, Penn. This article first appeared in the January/February, 2000 issue of Good News Magazine. You can access their website at www.goodnewsmag.org.