en-us https://www.intensedebate.com/users/836012 Comments by bumpyjourney http://www.leadingsmart.com/2010/04/transforming-church-rural-america.html#IDComment70872477 Tim, would love to get a look at this book. As a church planter in a smaller town north of Dallas, I am always interested in better learning to reach out lying communities that have the mix of old and new in their towns. Tue, 27 Apr 2010 16:06:02 +0000 http://www.leadingsmart.com/2010/04/transforming-church-rural-america.html#IDComment70872477 http://www.leadingsmart.com/2010/04/performance-review.html#IDComment70870019 Did not read everyone&#039;s posts - so this may be duplicate thought. My experience has been that most reviews are a chore and poorly implemented by the reviewer. The thing about reviews in church is that the process should be easier with our &quot;discipleship&quot; mentality. But in short, most reviews simply become a hoop through which we jump for diligence sake and out of which very little transparency happens. I am not opposed to performance reviews - but they must contain concrete and strategic information that is delivered within the framework of helping the employee become better at what they already enjoy as a career. The best performance reviews are given by people who have invested themselves in learning to better develop/disciple people. This is not easy nor is it often the priority of organizations they grow in numbers. The church has greatly benefited from authors and experts in the business field - which is where the review process comes from. But that does not mean that all systems transfer into the church world. A great article to begin thinking about this issue was recently posted in CT - &quot;Good to Great to Godly&quot; <a href="http://www.christianitytoday.com/le/communitylife/visiondirection/goodgreatgodly.html" target="_blank">http://www.christianitytoday.com/le/communitylife...</a> One illustration of a poor review I have heard about happened when one pastor received a &quot;does not meet expectations&quot; after several years of glowing reviews. He was left with questions about how he could have slipped so badly in his performance when nothing had been communicated before the review. (Realize there are always two sides to every story) But I do find this to be the norm in my conversations with other churches. Reviews become the place to articulate a change of heart or direction for a certain ministry area that was realized somewhere higher up on the management scale. My suggestion, learn to disciple people - everyone on staff should bleed this value. Then performance never has to be an issue. The issue then becomes developing your gifts and thriving as a team. And don&#039;t mislabel &quot;chemistry&quot; or &quot;lack of drive&quot; for &quot;performance&quot;. Call it what it is and allow the employee to wrestle with the heart out of which the observable issues arise. Tue, 27 Apr 2010 15:46:04 +0000 http://www.leadingsmart.com/2010/04/performance-review.html#IDComment70870019