Evaluation is ubiquitous, value laden, often implicit, and closely tied to improvement and effectiveness. A two-tier qualitative method was used to uncover the practice and understanding of evaluation among youth pastors. Overreliance on indicators, such as stories and simple observation, tended to reinforce assumptions in practice. Evaluation was pervasive, powerfully guided perception, and steered outcomes more powerfully than philosophy of ministry. Evaluation framed the way youth pastors saw the world.
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