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Completing the Circle: Reviewing Ministries in the Congregation

David R. McMahill

On his second day as association minister for the United Church of Christ, David McMahill received three phone calls from lay leaders who were looking for resources on “how to evaluate our minister.” He knew of several churches in which a poorly constructed process for evaluating the ministers had spun out of control, however, and had gradually come to believe it is probably better for a church not to attempt an evaluation process at all than to do one carelessly or to naively use a design intended for a secular organization.

Based on the needs he saw, McMahill began to work with numerous congregations looking for ways to review both leaders and ministries and developed the feedback/reflection process he lays out in this book. Based on sound principles of effective communication, this simple system of asking for descriptive feedback about various aspects of a congregation’s life together takes into account the specific setting and the unique relationship between minister and congregation.

The results: a respectful, constructive, helpful review of leaders and ministries in a congregation, and the creation of a culture of healthy communication in the congregation. Foreword by Clyde J. Steckel. 

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Praise for the Book

“This is the best method for evaluating parish ministry that I've ever come across. Grounded in the notion of shared ministry, Dave McMahill's method offers a way for a minister—and the congregation's leaders—to be accountable to each other and, eventually, to God. His writing is lucid, directions clear, and the results are stunning. The best part of all is that after you go through David's process, you find out you've actually learned new stuff. I've felt inspired to improve my own work and the congregation has been moved to more faithful witness.” —Rev. Heidi Vardeman, Senior Minister, Macalester Plymouth United Church (Presbyterian Church USA and United Church of Christ), St. Paul

“At last! A positive alternative to negative performance evaluations! In Completing the Circle, David McMahill gives church leaders and pastors a ‘graceful’ way to review a church’s mission and ministries by replacing evaluations with on-going healthy communication through small groups.” —Sandra Exelby, Interim Pastor, St. Mark's United Methodist Church, Stockton, California

“This theologically and psychologically sound process offers congregants opportunities to be involved in shaping the ministries of the congregation. And it gives clergy a method for using simple but innovative communication techniques to provide objective feedback. Our 400-member suburban congregation uses Completing the Circle, and we endorse it without hesitation. It works!” —Steve Thom, Pastor, Mizpah United Church of Christ, Hopkins, Minnesota

“We had been mired for years! How could we devise an evaluation process, especially for our pastors, that would be not only fair, but meaningful and energizing as well? By changing our focus from ‘How are the pastors doing?’ to ‘How well are we as a congregation serving God?’ Completing the Circle helped us break the ill-fitting constraints of business models for evaluating staff.” —Michael Vanderford, Personnel Committee Chair, Lyndale United Church of Christ, Minneapolis

About the Author

McMahill,DavidDavid McMahill has been a United Church of Christ minister since 1970 and as association minister of the Minnesota Conference, United Church of Christ, since 1995. His favorite month of the year is September, because that’s when the tomatoes in his Minnesota garden finally ripen.

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ISBN# 1-56699-278-8
Alban No. AL268
paper, 92 pages
2003

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