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Our Planting System
Assessment Center Introduction
1. Background: As a Covenant, we are committed to a church planting strategy centered in people. We believe the Covenant will be effective in church planting to the degree that we identify effective church planters. Central to our efforts, then, is to identify those whom God is preparing for a church planting ministry. The Assessment Center is the keystone to that identification process.
2. What is it? Much study has gone into identifying traits commonly found in those finding church planting to be both a satisfying and fruitful avenue of ministry. An Assessment Center is an intensive, multi-day event structured around church planting competencies to help determine the advisability of a person entering a church planting ministry. It is, in many ways, intentional career counseling with church planting as the presenting issue.
3. How is it structured?
- Multiple, trained assessors are present to observe.
- The candidates work through a variety of simulations, exercises, and measurements (ORA Personality Profiler, DISC, LEAD) while assessors observe.
- The elements are developed based on the character qualities and job tasks that a church planter needs to demonstrate.
- To guarantee a uniform understanding among assessors, competency grids with predetermined standards
- for each area are used.
- Candidates are also interviewed by teams of assessors. Each couple also has a private session with a
- professional counselor.
- Based on the intensive, multi-day process, the assessors discuss, evaluate and collate their findings.
- A final assessment is then given to the church planting candidate.
4. Who is invited? Recommendations for attendance may come from Conference Superintendents, Directors of Church Planting, Department of Church Growth and Evangelism, and self-nomination. In general, each assessment center is limited to 12-15 couples.
5. Who serves as assessors? To guarantee breadth of perspective, any team of assessors will be comprised of a combination of Conference Superintendents, Directors of Church Planting, staff from the Department of Church Growth and Evangelism, pastors from existing churches, church planters, and lay people.
6. What is the end result? Each candidate couple will have an exit interview and will be given one of three assessments related to church planting:
- Recommended for church planting.
- Conditionally recommended for church planting (usually 6 - 24 months after addressing specified personal or professional issues).
- Not recommended for church planting.
In that exit interview, strengths, growth areas and contexts for ministry will be discussed.
There is no set number of candidates that will be qualified through the Assessment Center. Theoretically everyone could be recommended or not recommended. There is neither competition between candidates nor any relative ranking.
7. How does the Assessment Center fit into the overall scheme of Covenant church planting? In addition to helping individuals discover and confirm areas of giftedness and fruitful service, one clear goal of the Assessment Center process is to create a pool of potential church planters. A "recommended" assessment is necessary for a person to be considered for a church planting position within the Covenant.
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