Cooperative Baptist Fellowship Asset-Based Missional Youth Development Project
Pilot Project Final Evaluation
Interview with:
Interviewer:
Date:
Mary Carol Anderson
Sandy Longfellow
November 18, 2009
1., 2. Overall how would you rate your satisfaction with the pilot project? Would you
say you are: Very satisfied / Somewhat satisfied /Somewhat dissatisfied/ Very
dissatisfied? What leads you to feel that way?
Somewhat satisfied; being a first year minister she has had challenges that the other
ministers who have been serving congregations longer did not face; had to build up
parent base and gain support from the congregation from the ground up
3.
What has been most inspiring about this journey for you and your congregation?
They were already doing intergenerational projects and this pilot encouraged them to
focus even more on intergenerational opportunities.
4.
What, if anything, has been your greatest disappointment about this journey for
you and your congregation?
Faced challenges related to being a first year pastor; senior pastor supported the project,
but did not embrace it as his own, so there wasn’t the possibility of having it preached on
on Sunday morning or brought to the front with the congregation. Struggled a good bit
with building congregational support
5.,6. This pilot has run on a calendar year, from January to December. How did this
timing work or not work for you? Given your choice, what timing would you find
optimal for a program like this?
would work better on the program year; used asset building material in the summer
program, but in youth ministry things tend to go haywire in the summer
7.
As a result of being part of this pilot what changes, if any, have you seen: in
yourself/ your youth & young adults/ your congregation?
Intergenerational work flourished, with intergenerational Wednesday night projects and
a mission project with youth and adults together
8.
Please tell me a bit about your congregation and how asset building equipped you
to do more…or work in a more intentional way.
[interviewer skipped question]
9.
Did this pilot affect your ability to talk with your youth about difficult
issues?(Yes/No/Not Sure) If yes, please tell me a bit about how it affected your ability to
talk with youth about these issues?
not at all
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10.
How, if at all, has participating in circle calls affected the communication between
you and your colleagues? For example, have you supported and/or networked with each
other about your personal life and/or ministry?
Circle calls were great–opportunity to gain insight from colleagues. Others have been in
a position to do sermons and retreats as part of the project, and this was not an option
for her, but she learned and gained ideas from the other ministers.
11.
Do you have a story or two that illustrate an asset building moment in your
congregation?
During a series of 3 Wednesday nights led an intergenerational quilt project in which
everyone took quilt squares and everybody wrote on them names of meaningful people in
their lives (children drew pictures of the people). They sewed them together into a quilt
and it now hangs in the center of the fellowship area.
12., 13.
How would you rate the support you received from Search Institute during
this pilot? (Excellent/Good/Fair/Poor) What is it that leads you to feel this way?
Excellent; whenever questions arose they responded quickly and helpfully; didn’t use
formal technical assistance
14.
Based on your experiences with the CBF Missional Youth Ministry project, what
would be your advice to your colleagues who are interested in introducing asset-building
to their congregations?
It is important to have the senior pastor take it on with them, and it is important to have a
network of people in the congregation to support the project–in the process herself of
developing a youth council, which will be very beneficial in doing an asset based
program. Important that there be a group of people spreading the word, not just the
youth minister alone.
15.
What kinds of resources and support materials are most needed to make the
program more effective and actionable?
Resources purchased with the stipend very helpful; would like to see some sort of
curriculum that could be used on a weekly basis–it could go through all the
Developmental Assets week by week, and have scripture matched up with assets. There
wasn’t enough time for her to develop her own lessons during the pilot.
16.
Where, in your work, do you see the most future potential for the CBF Missional
Youth Ministry project?
Good potential in churches where the youth minister has support from the senior pastor
and congregation; would like to see the focus expand from just focusing on youth
ministry to focusing on asset-building in the whole congregation
17.
What are your hopes for the day that you gather together for the final retreat?
To find that her situation isn’t too different from the other ministers’ experiences; to
exchange stories about how they did the project, knowing that it works differently in
different systems and probably played out differently in each of the 9 systems
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18., 19.
What else would you like us to know about your experiences with the
CBF Missional Youth Ministry project? Is there anything I didn’t ask you that you
wished that I had asked? If so what do you wish that I had asked?
That the project helped her focus and benefited her as she developed the youth ministry
in her congregation
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