One of the recent projects I’ve been working on is development assessment metrics for our church’s growth groups and their leaders. Our hope is that through these groups, our body will growth in the areas of gospel, community, and mission. So I have been working to create a metric for evaluating our groups on various levels of development in these three areas.
Well, it just so happened that Tim Chester (as usual) is way ahead of the game, as he has recently provided some of his thinking about assessing gospel communities and determining the culture shifts that need to take place. Chester breaks down the assessment in five areas:
1. God: Are you God-centered?
2. Love: Are you others-centered?
3. The Bible: Are you Word-centered?
4. Grace: Are you Grace-cnetered?
5. Mission: Are you mission-centered?
Each category has a series of eight propositions/realities that are intended to serve as a grid or template for personal assessment. Chester has also made this available for download here. I found this really helpful, and when I get around to finishing the metrics of assessing our growth groups, I will try to make that available as well.