The Job Review

Over the past 10 years, I’ve become fairly acquainted with annual job reviews. For much of the last decade, I’ve been someone’s boss here at Ada Bible Church. No one looks forward to their review; I have yet to meet anyone excited about this process. Some are downright afraid. Others approach them with a touch of cynical humor. But, no one has ever expressed that they’ve looked forward to their annual review. Even the ones who know that they’ve been doing exceptional work, tend to want to avoid them. Job reviews come with fear and anxiety. People fear correction, evaluation, criticism, and even compliments. But, I think most people fear that they will be asked to change something after a job review.

I’m not a boss any more at ABC. I’ve left my management position and have taken more of a pastoral role. And, ironically, I just endured my first job review in almost four years. To add irony to irony, my new boss, Dan, is someone I hired a handful years ago and was my employee until just a few months ago. I did his last job review. Now he did mine. I think both of us carried some significant anxiety into our meeting. He had the terrible task of reviewing his old boss. I was walking through the anxious steps of transitioning into a new boss, a new role, and new responsibilities with new people at a new campus.

I won’t bore you with the details of our discussion, but you need to know that I left our meeting feeling very affirmed in my role and in my relationship with Dan; and I felt challenged to engage in my job in a passionate manner. Because Dan knew me, he was able to genuinely affirm my strengths and to bring out the areas in which he felt I had been successful. Because Dan cared about me, he was also able to draw out areas were we both knew I may struggle. It was an authentic and honest conversation that was based on relationship. I knew that Dan was for me, that he cared for me, that he appreciated my effort and that he wanted to help me work through the challenges I was going to face in my new role. If our relationship lacked respect and trust, my review would have been hollow, inauthentic, and kind of awkward.

Being reviewed is tough, but it can be necessary and helpful. Most of us are not able to accurately self-evaluate. We tend to wear selfish-tinted glasses that make us feel better than we are; or we wear blinders that prohibit us from seeing ourselves and our work completely. We need help to see ourselves for who we truly are—the good and the bad. But it’s hard to hear someone talk about us whether in an affirming tone or a corrective manner. We feel vulnerable because the person reviewing us has the authority to alter our work. What if they don’t see us accurately? What if they do, and I need to change?

Over the next eight weeks, we get to sit at the conference table as Jesus does a job review with seven ancient churches. These seven churches all had the same job: to carry out the mission and message of Jesus to the world. Though they all have the same task, they are all very different. They all had unique sets of circumstances, people, cultural contexts, and challenges that threatened their effectiveness. But, they all had a “boss” who cared enough for them to tell them the truth—the good and the bad.

Throughout this series, notice how Christ relates to his church. Look for how he affirms them. Listen for words of warning. Pay close attention to how he corrects them. Experience the love he has for his church. But, don’t forget, we are now his church. His words to the seven churches will apply to Ada Bible Church. And because churches are made up of people, they will apply to us. It’s time for a job review from a boss who loves you enough to tell you the truth about yourself.

He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. Revelation 2.7