Lots of you have noticed that we are gathering feedback on pastor Dayle K. Barrett’s ministry among us. And we’ve done so thoroughly. There were inserts in the Easter order of service. Emails have gone out. A ballot box is in the narthex to receive these feedback forms (it has also received Loonies and Toonies 😊).
I’m going to give you one guess who is behind all this energy for feedback. Who among us is most excellent at rallying energy, enlisting volunteers, and showing us we can do things we didn’t know we could do?
One Dayle K. Barrett. It is he who is driving this effort to gather feedback.
Why?
Indulge me as I offer a little history.
The Church of England has long had a two-part ordination. Someone seeking ordination is first ordained as a deacon, and then after a year or more of supervised ministry, they are ordained as an elder or priest. Denominations that come from Anglicanism, like my Methodists, usually maintain this two-part ordination pattern. The United Church of Canada still has a two-part ordination, even if we don’t do the best job of explaining this. Imagine the step from an assistant to a tenured professor, or from a junior lawyer to a partner. Dayle has passed the first hurdle for the United Church to recognize his ordination, and is now gearing up for the second.
I gather that TEMC has not always sought public feedback on ministers’ work in between the first step of ordination and the second in this extensive a manner. Perhaps we clergy have offered our input, and sought out select others’ feedback, and then passed that on to the denominational gatekeepers. But you’ve noticed that Dayle is determined. He sought three of our strongest lay leaders to oversee his feedback (Mary Lou Taylor, Komi Olafimihan, and Robert Positano), and has supported them avidly. And it’s healthy to have the congregation know their input is helpful on our ministers’ work, at whatever stage of ministry. In effect feedback is always being offered (call it “gossip” if you like!)—it’s just not usually collected or reflected on this carefully.
An unintended effect of this effort to gather feedback is that it seems Dayle is under some sort of extra scrutiny. And an unintended effect of that misperception is that folks have raced to indicate their enthusiasm for his ministry! Please know that he is under no more scrutiny than any other minister moving from beginning employment to tenure. And even if he were, evaluations of his work radiate with accolades. He is an extraordinary minister. To wit, a story from within the staff.
Early in his time with us, Dayle asked how many volunteers he might rustle up for his first community dinner. We staffers told him we imagined no more than three or four volunteers for any analogous event we were trying to launch. He basically smirked, and said (nicely) “Ok, watch me.” And proceeded to wrangle 80 volunteers for that first dinner, and hundreds more since. Dayle has a motor like no other minister I’ve met.
So evaluate away. And feel free to drop more toonies in that ballot box as well.
Fill out the online form here.