Did You Just Call My Baby Ugly?
Joe Cala

One of the hardest things for any person to do is to open oneself to the opinions, criticism and feedback of others regarding their life, their products, their projects, ideas and their creations. As a pastor, minister, ministry CEO and church leader, many of the realities within the church are there because of you, your influence, your creativity, your sweat, your hard work, your time and sacrifice. You birthed these ideas, events and services into life.

Have you ever heard of the saying, “That is My Brainchild.” Brainchild is defined as a product of one’s creative work or thoughts. It’s also been said that once we discover God’s purpose for our lives, we can become “Pregnant With Purpose.” After we become pregnant with that purpose, it is our responsibility to deliver that purpose into this world. These purposes and ideas are very much like our babies. One of the hardest things to do is to allow people, who had nothing to do with all of the hard work, commitment and sacrifice that you poured into making this baby become a living reality, the green light to give you criticism and feedback on how it looks, how it should look, how it acts, how it should act, and tell you whether it’s a good baby or a bad baby. Let’s just face it! Nobody likes to hear someone call their baby ugly! Nobody wants to hear their baby called fat! As a matter of fact, if you really want to get into a fight with somebody, then call their baby ugly.

This is also true with the church. I know many pastors, ministers and church leaders who will not allow people within their church the opportunity to give honest feedback about the church, simply because they don’t want to hear if their church is ugly. So instead of allowing others to give FeedBack they just ignore it. Many pastors look only through the lens of how they see things and how they think the congregation SHOULD see things.

There’s nothing more frustrating then putting together an event for the church or community that when it’s over someone feels the need to come over and tell you how It was only “OK” and could have been much better if you would have done this and that. After you spent all the time preparing, setting up, gathering resources, making connections, positioning people and serving all day, you’re standing back with a smile on your face realizing how much of an awesome impact you made when someone walks over and says, “WOW! That was a dud!” Talk about a punch in the gut!

So instead of asking follow up questions we take offense and walk away without receiving any feedback on how to improve what needs improvement. If we would take the time to ask a few questions like these below we could get valuable information to make changes for the better.

“Why do you think it was a dud?”
“What do you think we could’ve done to make it better?”
“What things about the event did you like?”

The truth of the matter is that we do need honest feedback from those who visit our church and events from the people who attend them. What they see, how they see and their overall perception is extremely valuable and important in helping us better serve them. I heard one minister say that some churches are like going to our grandparents houses for dinner. When we get there, they hug us, kiss us, and tell us how much they love us and missed us. When it’s time to eat, they say, “Now sit down, shut up and eat what I’m serving!” These days are truly fading away. Let’s not forget that the people who attend our church are who we are serving. We have to come to serve them. We should listen to their perspectives and how they see things. Our greatest results will flourish in providing a model that allows the people to have a voice and a place that they will receive the guidance, correction, exhortation and instruction from God’s Word as it is ministered.

So with this in mind I’d like to present to you what we at ChurchSync call “The ScoreCard.” The scorecard is to be used to receive Honest FeedBack from the people who attend your church. These people are scoring you and your service to them. This FeedBack is for you to use to IMPROVE your service towards the people you serve. This will show you the perception of your congregation, your visitors and allow you to see how they are viewing the model of your church service. If accepted properly you can use the ScoreCard to your benefit to improve your service or you can ignore it and miss out on how to better serve God’s people and build His Kingdom.

You can use the scorecard in your first time guest packets as well as randomly choose whatever number of people you’d like from your regular attending members on a weekly, monthly or quarterly basis. Another way to maximize feed back is to have them placed near a ScoreCard Box for people to take and fill out on their own. This is to be filled out anonymously and placed into the ScoreCard Box after service. The anonymous status allows people to answer honestly in knowing they will not be identified and if they say something that may hurt someone’s feelings, or call someone’s baby UGLY, they will not be confronted or chastised for saying things as they feel and see them.

To ensure the importance of the ScoreCard to the people who have it and who you’re counting on to honestly fill it out, include it in your welcome to first time guests or in your announcements. You can say something like this: “If you have a guest packet, you will find something in there that is called “The ScoreCard.” Also to those whom randomly received “The ScoreCard” this is very important to us and we are asking you to please HONESTLY score us today. Your honest feedback is accepted and welcomed. If you didn’t receive a “ScoreCard” and would like to Score us today please visit the ScoreCard Box to get yours. It is our goal to serve you with excellence and to improve in areas that need improvement. Once you have completed the ScoreCard’s please place them into the ScoreCard Box. Thank you for taking these few moments to help us better serve you!”

We have created The ScoreCard for “The Church Service,” “Events” and “Leadership.” This will provide transparency and give you the overall perception of the people who attend and visit your church. If received properly, this can be a very strong resource for you to improve areas to better serve the people of your church and community.

Each ScoreCard provides 10 Questions allowing you to get a full range of input from the Scorer. The purpose for this is to get a better gauge of what is being seen, perceived and interpreted by those who experience your leadership while attending and visiting your services and events. Each ScoreCard also provides an area for the one who is Scoring to indicate their age. This will help you see how different age groups view each area.

If you would like a complimentary “Event ScoreCard” and have any questions please contact me today at joe@churchsync.com or visit our website at www.churchsync.com for resources and further information. We Truly Are Better Together!