by Eddie Pipkin

Image by Peter H from Pixabay

I turned 61 a couple of weeks ago.  I know, I know, dear readers, you thought from the tone of my exuberant observations and the recounting of my hyperkinetic adventures that surely I was a much younger man.  Some days, I feel like my much younger self.  Some days, I definitely don’t (if you know, you know).  But forgive the digression (the provenance of not young men, digressions).  Birthdays, whenever they come, are a reasonable occasion for reflection, and we all could benefit from a little more reflection and a little less snap judgment making.  Ministries, too!

Ministry wise, we are generally so busy rushing headlong into the next thing – those Sundays just keep coming! – that we don’t do a great job pausing to reflect on what has come before.  Slowing down to look back does not always feel like a good use of time.  But it is.  It very much is.  And if we want to be our best selves moving into the future, our regular routine will include a period of pause and reflection.  It won’t just be a thing we do when we’re exhausted and the wheels come off (which would tend to color the whole process), and it won’t just be a thing we do to mercilessly critique every mistake we and everyone else has made (which is what organizations tend to do in the ‘spirit’ of self-analysis).  It will be a well-balanced meditation on things to be thankful for and things that can be approached differently next time, with a healthy consideration of the possibilities that lie ahead.

My wife and her corporate team are finishing up a big project this week – successfully so, though, of course, not without some bumps along the way.  They will gather for a festive dinner to celebrate what they have accomplished, and then they’ll do an organized ‘reflection.’  She notes that she used to refer to this introspective process by a term popular in corporate culture, a ‘post mortem.’  That term, however, in its original usage, refers to an investigation of something that is dead.  It’s a negative connotation she wishes to avoid.  If we take an attitude of cold, critical dissection (a la an autopsy) into our reflection on any completed project or phase in our work or life, we are starting from a place of negativity, and that is rarely any help in moving forward in a positive direction.  Sure, there are lessons we have learned by the inevitable mistakes we have made, but the learning itself can be an enormous positive, and those lessons combined with the good we have already accomplished give us a strong foundation going forward, if we’ll recognize these truths and build upon them.

A regular session of reflection by ourselves, our teams, and our key leadership is a counterpart to the valuable spiritual discipline of the Daily Examen (here’s a site with some terrific variations on the Daily Examen).  It’s an ancient practice as useful in modern times as in the earliest days of the church for tuning us into God’s presence in our day and keeping us accountable to the strictures of discipleship and our goals for a life of love and service.

Shouldn’t we regularly reflect as leaders and teams with similar seriousness on our work together and on the ways in which we are supporting and empowering one another (or not)?

First, we have to commit to this priority and make time for it to happen.  It can’t be an afterthought or bullet number seventeen in a fully loaded meeting.  It must be given sacred space that honors the value of the process and gives it time to breathe.

Secondly, it comes down to the quality of the questions that we ask.  If we lead off (as we so often do in our obsession with perfection) with, “What can we do better next time?” we’re doomed to a spiral of negativity, defensiveness, and endless litigating.  We should start with the positive:

  • “What good outcomes came out of this project?  What stories can we tell about people who were positively affected?”
  • “What did we learn by being a part of this project? What new skills did we acquire that will be useful for the future?  What did we learn about ourselves or others?”
  • “What did we accomplish that seemed improbable or too difficult when we started?  How did we get to involve others because we needed help along the way and had the good, humble sense to get them involved?”
  • “How were we inspired to think about what comes next?  What delightful surprises did we encounter unexpectedly along the way that brought us joy?”

If we start with the positive, there will be plenty of time left to do the nuts and bolts debriefing of what specific things we can do differently next time, but we’ll be primed to enter that conversation with a more positive outlook.

The questions we ask ourselves as we reflect must be incisive and precise, not wishy-washy.  They should measure real things, important things, not just in terms of the hard numbers provided by effective metrics (although we should always have clearly defined metrics that we are measuring with precision), but in terms of impact and change.

We should ask questions that cut to the heart of whether we are strengthening relationships, living out our articulated vision, and moving in a direction of growth.

In writing this blog and surfing the web looking for examples (good and not so good) of the kind of introspective process we’ve been talking about), I came across this page from the website for Cru (formerly Campus Crusade for Christ), which encouraged school-focused ministry leaders to participate in a thorough evaluation of how their ministry was progressing.  It provides a dynamic example of the principles we’ve been discussing.

Without getting into a fill-in-the-blank spreadsheet interrogation, they ask about measurable metrics, but note they are not merely questions about counting butts in seats.  They are measuring metrics connected to leadership and active participation and engagement.

Even those metrics-based questions are secondary to some great questions that deal with vibes and impact:

  • “Is there a healthy sense of momentum?”
  • “Does your team enjoy being together?”
  • “Did you function as a team or as individuals this year?”

There are plenty of questions, as well, that circle back to the articulated vision for the ministry and whether there is progress towards achieving that vision:

  • “Are we closer now to realizing our objectives than we were a year ago?”
  • “If you continue in the same direction, where will you be in a year?”
  • “Are you trying to accomplish the right things in the right time?”

Great questions!  A team that allowed people to answer openly and honestly would learn a lot, including how well their answers aligned with one another.  It is quite an eye opener if the people who are making ministry happen answer these kinds of questions in significantly different ways.

How about you?  Do you ask good questions of yourself, questions that accentuate the positive while honestly assessing the challenges (and avoiding the pitfalls of excessive navel gazing and negativity)?

Do you have a regular process for reflection, day-to-day, week-to-week, and project-to-project?  Do you have a regular process of reflection for your staff and leadership teams?  Is it part of the culture of your ministry?  Does this process begin with positive questions that position you and your team to build on your strengths and the lessons you have learned from the glitches along the way?  Habits of reflection are one of the defining attributes of any successful organizational culture.