A comparative analysis of critical competencies of the assessment of ministry effectiveness

Abstract

The purpose of this study is concerned with the perceived effectiveness of ministerial competencies from the perspective of graduates of SBTS and their respective ministry setting. In addition, the faculty of SBTS were asked to examine the eight primary competencies found within the faculty survey instrument tool and to give their perceptions of how effectively the students are equipped through their course of study with these same competencies. The faculty are also asked to give their perception of how well the seminary assessed student progress, conducted regular reviews of curriculum, and showed concern for the effectiveness of graduates in a ministry setting.

The sample population for this study included 300 randomly selected graduates from SBTS who graduated between 1996-2000, as well as their respective ministry settings. The entire full-time faculty (sixty-five) from SBTS were also included in this study. Data was gathered for this study through forty-three graduate surveys, twenty-nine ministry setting surveys, and twenty-eight faculty surveys that were returned and completed to the researcher.

This study found that the faculty could only strongly agree on the equipping of three of the eight critical competencies that were the behavioral characteristic areas of the MEI. The graduates were only able to strongly affirm two of the eight critical competencies while they were students at SBTS. The doctoral graduates, especially the Doctor of Ministry graduates, tended to more strongly affirm the equipping of these competencies. Two of these eight competencies related to leadership qualities were deemed as the only characteristics that had a strong significance on the self-assessed Ministerial Effectiveness Inventory of graduates.

The overall faculty could not affirm that graduates are effective in their ministry setting because of their seminary training, nor that students are regularly assessed through their degree program, or that there is a regular review of curriculum that ensures graduate effectiveness. The faculty were able to strongly agree that they are concerned about graduates being effective in a ministry setting, and that reviewing curriculum is a priority of the institution. The Doctor of Ministry graduates tended to scale their response with a high satisfaction in each of these eight areas, whereas the Doctor of Philosophy graduates, Master of Divinity graduates and the Master of Christian Education graduates could not strongly affirm any of these profile areas.

The ministry settings rated their SBTS graduate significantly higher than the self-assessed rating of the graduates on the MEI. The respondents who rated their graduate the lowest on the MEI were the senior pastors from the ministry setting of the graduate. The respondents with the highest rating of the graduate came from the secretaries of the ministry setting. This study showed the importance of having an assessment process in place, so that student outcomes of competencies and other valuable skills can be tracked throughout a student's course of study. Without these measures in place, the institution will have a difficult time discerning whether or not graduates have received the proper equipping of these competencies through their theological education.