This summer at Altitude (middle school ministry), we’re taking a break from our regular Wednesday night corporate worship service. Instead, we’ll be doing weekly small groups at off-site host homes. Because of this, Wednesday night was our last corporate service for the next 3 months. On my way to the church, I was hit with a question: “Will our students miss this service?” Or, “Is it missable?” I think that 3-word question is one that can be used to evaluate most organizational programs.
If the answer to the initial question is “No, the program is not missable“, the follow-up question should be “Is the program necessary to fulfilling a part of the mission of the organization?” If it is necessary, it should be evaluated for ways to make it missable or other ways to fulfill that part of the mission should be considered as a replacement program. If the program is not necessary, cutting it should obviously be seriously considered.
This way of assessing programs considers both the mission of the organization and the how well it is valued by participants. It is important to assess programs from both perspective: top-down (organizational perspective) and bottom-up (participant perspective).
