Transparent Information

I love how many times we talk about the need for transparency in information.

We want to know as much as we can, but bureaucracies inevitably put things in such a way that you might as well be reading another language that you can't understand. I ran into this when working for a big non-profit. My department's budget was $500,000 according the person I reported to. But not really because there were different departments that shared resources and so that money was not really what it was. I was handed about 16 pages that seemed to outline where different money was going and at the end my true budget, if I could read the numbers correctly, was somewhere around 5% of that original number. Yet when anyone would want the report on our department, we were "transparent" in showing them that original huge number. Sure, it's transparent. It's also useless.

Take a look at your church and the way they convey information. Are you doing it in such a way that is useful or useless? If someone knew nothing about your parish could they navigate the website? Could they understand the bulletin?

All over the internet and in the tools that we use there are tons of ways that we can get information. I can read Doppler radar in motion on my phone. I can get turn by turn directions. I've got very long books at my fingertips. Car radios show the name of the song that is playing.

In your life, in your ministry, how easy is the information to read? How important is the information to the first time user? I think it is important for the first time user because the person that is there all the time doesn't need the basic information. They are going to find out the details themselves.

Sometimes we suffer because we add something that is going to be useful at one point, but then in the long term is not useful or productive. It is good for a day, but then it is worthless and distracting.

If you want the information coming out of your Church, ministry, or life to be truly transparent then it needs to be readable by anyone. It needs to be simple. It needs to be to the point.

Is the goal of your ministry simple to read and repeatable by anyone?

Do people know what you are doing on a week-to-week basis? How much do they need to know about each event?

Does the average person in your church know the real financial needs of the parish and of the community? Do they understand where each dollar is going and why it is important for them to tithe?

Tough questions. The answers may not be easy, but we owe it to our parishes, our families, ourselves, and to God.