Spiritual Scorecard

Overlooking Lake Atitlan

In 2011 Woord en Daad Holland, who is the main donor of AMG Guatemala, introduced us to a tool called a scorecard. This tool measured the quality of education and the participation of parents in the project. Initially, we were not all that excited about the tool, because we thought it was just another thing that needed to be done. However, once we started implementing the tool we soon realized that it was very useful. The way the tool works is that you meet with teachers, parents, students, and leaders of the church and go through the different themes that are presented. After a time of discussion the people involved have to give a score from 1-4: 1 being weak and 4 being strong. My job is to facilitate the discussion by asking questions and making sure that the score that is given is in accordance with what is stipulated. Afterwards each project has to come up with an action plan in the things they will do to ensure that the score will be higher the next time around.

This year, 2013 we are once again doing the scorecards in all of the AMG schools and education centers. In 2015 we will do it again. Although the scorecards were good, we felt that it was missing a component which is the spiritual. For us, the spiritual is the most important. It is the reason why we exist as an organization. We firmly believe that there is no true transformation or development apart from Christ.  We can educate, feed, clothe, and provide medical/dental care to kids, but if we have not shared with them the Gospel of Christ we fall short. Therefore, in 2012 with the help of others in AMG, I developed a spiritual scorecard. Although the spiritual is hard to measure and more subjective, we felt that there were enough things that we could measure. In the spiritual scorecard we are measuring how often the Bible is taught and whether it is taught in a chronological way. We look at the Bible knowledge of the students and staff, and whether the staff shares their faith and testimony with the students on a regular basis. We look at church attendance and testimony, the visiting of families and praying for students. We also look at the involvement of the church in the project and the lives of students and their families. 

Although I was not 100% satisfied with the scorecard and was not sure as to the best way to implement it, we decided to start using it and make changes as necessary. We have had to make a number of changes, but all in all it has been useful and well received. It has created discussion which in my opinion has been good. The purpose of the scorecard is not simply about giving a score and measuring where each project is at spiritually, but also about getting people to think and create discussion. 

In the near future I hope to develop a few more scorecards to measure other areas of AMG Guatemala like their camp program and their child protection department. I also hope to rework the spiritual scorecard and make the necessary changes and expand it to include more things. It is my hope that through the scorecards we can better our programs and most importantly help the students,  staff and church in their spiritual development.