I was a new youth ministry pastor when an adult friend confessed, “Our youth pastor taught us that drinking, drugs, and sex were bad,” she said. “I know he told some funny stories; but beyond that, I don’t remember much.”

Her statement scared me. I couldn’t help but wonder if I were any more effective with my teens. I set out to find an answer and decided to use a most unusual method: giving a test.

Tests are everywhere — everywhere except church. Have you ever seen a “Ministry Assessment” section at your local bookstore? Me, neither.

So relying on my own test memories and the instruction I received earning a Secondary Education degree, I prepared my first exam covering our study of Ephesians. We reviewed, had study sessions, and took the 200-point test.

The results were encouraging, disturbing, and quite helpful over the months that followed. Yet, in spite of their many benefits, testing in ministry is still a foreign concept; and skeptics usually listen in disbelief as I answer their question “Why test?”

1: Test to increase your focus.
The students laughed when I announced the upcoming test. However, they soon began asking, “Will this be on the test?” I realized the students would learn quicker and my test would be better if we were both using focused and concise lessons. As a result, I streamlined my lessons and removed the fluff, leaving only the key principles that strengthened the students’ spiritual growth.

These principles were condensed to “Enabling Learning Objectives”, around which the weekly lesson was based. The focused ELOs were easier to teach, learn, and recall at test time. I’ll admit, my ego wanted the students to ace the test; but in my heart, I wanted to make sure I was helping to equip them with the necessary biblical foundation to succeed in life. The focused lessons increased the odds of that happening.

2: Test to improve your effectiveness.
Weekly, pastors everywhere outline their messages and tell neat stories; but they never check to see what the congregation actually retained. Their method isn’t wrong; they just live by the philosophy “If the congregation fails to learn, then the congregation wasn’t paying attention.” However, while preparing for the upcoming test, I remembered a college professor teaching, “If the students fail to learn, the teacher has failed to teach.”

With focused lessons in hand, I turned my attention to increasing the effectiveness of my teaching. I stopped rolling like a freight train through lessons and slowed down. I explored ways to connect the students to the biblical truths in the ELOs. I used stories from the students’ lives as illustrations. If I lost students along the way, I approached the same truth the next week from a different angle. No matter how slow we moved or how long it took, my goal was to effectively prepare them for the test and for life.

3: Test to correct your errors.
Recently at the driving range, I understood the importance of watching the ball’s flight so I could identify errors and make adjustments on the next swing. A test provides the same opportunity to youth workers. For example, the test answers from Ephesians showed that I had not linked biblical principles and daily application very well. I immediately modified future lessons to include application. However, if I had continued “driving the ball with my eyes closed,” I would never have seen or addressed the problem.

I admit that giving a test will raise eyebrows at first. However, your students are worth that risk. Do the unthinkable: Open your eyes, and test your effectiveness.

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Glenn Van Cise is the senior high youth leader at Lyona Bible Church in Guys Mills, Pennsylvania.