I was in a meeting last week of several important players in the world of Christian leadership development in the US. We spent a good bit of our time discussing how best to evaluate what we do.
One afternoon the discussions focused on what is “measurable”. We all agreed that it is relatively easy to measure whether or not a leader comprehends the material being taught. We agreed that in most cases it is possible to measure whether what was taught changed his/her life. In fact most of us agreed that it is even possible to measure whether or not it impacted how she/he does ministry. But, that is where the consensus ended because the next level of measurement is whether or not you can evaluate if this makes any difference within the local community. The idea some of us had, is that this is really the ultimate goal—changed communities that is—and most folks seemed to think that wasn’t really possible to measure.
While I can appreciate that sentiment, and arguably agree that many times it may not be possible to measure impact on the community, I was totally intrigued to receive the following report this week from one woman involved in DAI programs in North East India. Let’s call her Leah. Leah is the wife of a pastor, working among the very poor in their city. Unfortunately Leah’s husband had to leave the community to go to another large city to get work, leaving the congregation in Leah’s care.
With great excitement, Leah came to one of the DAI staff recently to report how moved she was by a recent DAI program about God’s heart for the poor and so encouraged by the sharing in the group about practical ways to live that out. As a result, she challenged her congregation to not celebrate Christmas the local traditional way, with a “love feast” on Christmas day for the church members, but to reach out to the children in a nearby leprosy colony that have been neglected by the government and social services.
Leah and her small congregation have decided rather than celebrating for themselves this Christmas, to sacrificially do something for those who rarely even have good food to eat. They are all contributing from the little they have and stepping out in faith to cook a full rice meal with meat (that’s a luxury!) for the 66 families in the leper colony, and eat it together with them. She said, “I want to personally touch and hug each of them so they know they are not outcastes, and give them tasty food.” Her young people are also preparing a program for the children, and hope to have games and give prizes and a small gift to each child.
Remember the question being debated earlier? Can you measure outcomes in a community due to a local Christian leader growing through a DAI program? While there will be times when this is not possible, I think it will be easy to do exactly that in a leper colony in North East India this Christmas!
Jane Overstreet is the President and CEO of Development Associates International.
