Church Planter's Assessment Center

Kevin and I just got back from a four day church planter's assessment center. It is hosted by the Growing Healthy Churches Network which seeks to support church planters and leaders for the work God has for them (Acts 13:1-2). One of their key support strategies is the assessing system. They strive to help leaders discover if the lead position in a church plant is a good fit for their next step of ministry.

Wow! What a process! Prior to leaving we took two personality profiles, and the StrengthFinders assessment.

We joined with seven other couples from around the nation to walk through intensive evaluation. Kev had to give a 10 minute sermon for our launch Sunday, 10 minutes on our vision and values, after which he and I were questioned by GHC staffers.

Another project consisted of joining with the other couples to create and pitch to potential investors the concept of a 'mock' launch in West Phoenix. We had to research demography, staffing needs, create vision and values, then present to the investors everything we'd learned and created in 15 minutes. Here's the catch all 14 of us had to have a speaking part...you do the math!

There are three potential outcomes of the assessment, 1. recommended, 2. conditional recommend and 3. not recommended. Kevin and I were being assessed as campus pastors, and were affirmed and recommend to move full-steam ahead!

It was a very exciting, and exhausting experience. But we truly loved every minute of it and are very grateful for the experience. I believe this assessment is a tremendous tool.

Click on the title of this post, or contact me directly if you'd like more info.