Feedback is a part of every job or career role. In ministry, feedback can be an incredible and helpful to improving areas like function, clarity, efficiency and direction.  Feedback within the church occurs whether the leadership endorses it and receives and uses it, or not. The former view can result in greater understanding and improvement, while the latter can create distrust and dissent. Consider, then, how your church might enhance its feedback channel and use of comments and suggestions from members and guests.

The front door.  Helpful feedback begins with a front door—a clear and available means for making comments and suggestions. It might be comment card in a pew pocket, a tear-off on your printed bulletin, a web page form or regular and publicized church business and ministry meetings. Failing to make a front door for feedback available ensures your feedback is received instead through “back doors”—rumors, gossip, traded emails, often negative comments “slipped in” to other conversations.

These negative means of feedback exist even if there is a clear means for giving comment.  But failing to create a clear means for feedback nearly always ensures a higher concentration of rumor, gossip and dissent—and a greater degree of negativism within a congregation. So the first step to receiving and managing feedback is to give a broad, open and accessible pipeline to make comment, and to ensure the feedback goes to leadership.

Not all feedback is created equal. There is a big difference between constructive criticism, personal preferences and private agendas—all of which you may receive as feedback to church leadership. When receiving feedback, take into account the person providing it and the way in which it was given (form, tone, and type).  Also consider whether the critic is providing just criticism, or positive suggestion or solutions as well.

Criticism and complaining are two entirely different forms of feedback. Complaint can be useful, but it must be taken in context. Complaint centered on thoughts of “I don’t like” must be evaluated based on whether or not a personal preference is in keeping with both God’s Word, the overall direction and effective ministry of the church, and the individual(s) involved. Complaint is almost always negative.  Criticism, on the other hand, contains both a point of disagreement and a possible means toward resolution.  “I’m concerned about this, and perhaps we should consider doing that instead” is more constructive and contemplative attitude. In receiving feedback, consider the source and the motivation for it.  Does the person giving feedback seek to truly improve the situation, ministry or event, or simply have their personal desires or preferences met?

Acknowledging and evaluating. Believe it or not, it is as important to acknowledge and evaluate feedback as it is to actually act on it. One thing most churches do poorly is acknowledge the input and contribution of their membership. Whether the feedback is useful or not, a simple acknowledgement that you have received the information and are evaluating it—via email, a phone call, a note, a quick in-person conversation—gives value to that person’s contribution. In many cases, criticism or complaint can be mitigated largely by the fact that a person knows he or she was listened to by leadership. Leaders that fail to acknowledge feedback risk alienating others. Acknowledgement does not necessarily mean agreement with the person’s issue or point. Rather, it means letting the individual know you heard them by repeating the feedback to them in your own words and confirming you have received and are evaluating their comments.

Evaluation feedback for the church leader can be broken down into three simple facets.  First, is the feedback or suggestion consistent with God’s Word?  If not, do not make changes based on it, but instead look for ways to educate on the issue to clarify your position.  Second, is the feedback of “critical mass”? That is, are you hearing the same thing from numerous people?  If so, there is likely a concern to be dealt with. A single point of feedback is often not enough to require a change, but a chorus of voices most often underlies an issue that affects a broader segment of the church.  How many people constitute “critical mass”?  It varies from church to church depending on the size, but in any size church if I heard similar comments of concern from 10 or more people, I would consider that feedback very seriously. 

Finally, if the feedback is consistent with God’s Word, consider if the Holy Spirit may be speaking through the individual.  Is there an opportunity that God is opening here, or a spiritual concern that is being expressed by the individual?  Do not discount that God speaks through individuals in His church, and that feedback is one means by which we receive informed, spiritually mature and relevant information from which we can adjust or initiate action.

Acting and crediting. After evaluating feedback, if you find an area where adjustments is helpful, plan and act on it. But go one step further. Credit those who have given you useful feedback. Valuing those whose comments that lead to improvement not only shows them their constructive information has weight, but shows others an open and adaptive leadership that is not averse to good input from any and all sources. How you handle the entire feedback process, from beginning to end, can have a tremendous positive impact not only on your actual leadership, but on the congregation’s general perception of it.

About the Author. Eugene L. Mason has more than two decades of experience in ministry communications and technologies. More...