A contact person is identified in the masthead of every Lifeway ongoing resource (the masthead is the place where all the legal notifications are listed). An email and a mailing address are listed, inviting people to share their comments about the resource. One may wonder what happens to the emails and letters received.
Always Evaluating. We evaluate everything in our resources. At the end of each quarter, we take time to review the process used for creating the resources, the files submitted by the writers, and the general design of each resource. We may have adjusted one element based on input from the previous quarter and then find other elements were impacted as well.
Church Focused. We want to meet the needs of your church. The comments you send help us better serve the church in general and your church specifically. We are involved in our churches, so we have some idea of what works and what does not work. The people in our classes or groups know we have a hand in creating the resources they are holding, and they keep us accountable in a different way. But we cannot be in every church to see what is going on. The comments we receive give us clues about how the resources are used in other areas and help us see what is missing or needs to be adjusted.
Valued. We value every comment. Every single comment that comes to us gets read. If a person thought the comment needed to be said, then we ought to give them the time to read that comment. We get comments and questions every week, and we do our best to respond. Every bit of feedback makes us better at what we do. Each comment enables us to revisit our whys behind the elements in the resources and forces us to think through each element included or not included.
Specific. We appreciate specific feedback. If a comment includes a specific example, that comment carries more weight than a comment that is general in nature. We do the same thing in our lives. If a friend tells us they don’t like our clothing choice, we will ask them for more specifics about what they don’t like. Otherwise, we are left to guess at what it is they don’t like.
Contrasts. We contrast input that is opposing. Earlier this week, we received comments that were sent 20 minutes apart on the same issue but with the exact opposite view. We could ignore both, viewing them as canceling the other out, or we can listen to both. We can learn from both since we are never as perfect as one may think we are, and never as evil as another person believes us to be.
Prayer. We also pray for God’s wisdom and discernment. We need God’s help when we read comments sent. We need to ask for God to help us understand what is being said and the spirit in which it was said. We need Him to help us approach every comment with humility and grace. We are not capable of doing what we do in our own strength, and that includes reviewing comments received and discerning the next steps.
Your comments help us create stronger resources, so please keep them coming. Look at the page with all the legal information in the resources you use, and make note of the email or mailing address given. Send your comments and suggestions to the person identified. We look forward to hearing from you!