Assessment
A fourth step in the Pathway to Planting is Assessment. This is done formally or informally in both local churches and districts. While we believe all church planters should be assessed, our assessment is never designed to disqualify people. In our movement, there is a place for everyone God calls. The purpose of the assessment is to help the church planter develop self-awareness, discover their leadership capacity and discern the kind of church they are most suited to lead or participate in.
Sometimes superintendents and pastors use a behavioral interview assessment, building on the principle that the best indicator of future behaviors are past behaviors. The Pre-Assessment and Assessment processes we use are valuable tools in helping you understand your next steps as an aspiring church planter. Here are 5 tools we have designed for Partner Churches and Partner Districts to use in Conducting a Pre-Assessment.
Assessment Interview Questions
Church Planting Leader Profile Rating Sheet
There is a vast difference between the leadership capacity requirements of a large launch church and a micro-church. Both kinds of churches are vital to our movement! We need each other because it takes all kinds of churches to reach all kinds of people. We do face an occasional assessment challenge when a potential leader feels they have great leadership capacity but have no track record of evangelism to support their feelings.
The preferred assessment option for planters on the USA/Canada Region is to participate in a sponsored Assessment Center. These are overseen by Dr. Sam Flores, superintendent of the South Carolina District. Other assessment information is available for individuals who want more information about the assessment process.