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Assessment Center Evaluates Potential Church Planters
By Craig Pinley
PORTLAND, OR (March 9, 2004) - Being a Covenant church planter is not
easy, but the Evangelical Covenant Church (ECC) gives potential pastors
an evaluation that can help them on their way.
A total of 50 people (including 17 church planter candidates) gathered
at First Covenant Church from February 18-21 for an ECC church planters
assessment that was administered by the denomination's Department of
Church Growth and Evangelism. The assessors included Church Growth and
Evangelism church planting administrators Dave Olson and Don Davenport,
conference superintendents and associate superintendents and Department
of the Ordered Ministry administrator Carol Lawson.
Church planting candidates were invited to the assessment through a
recommendation by a conference or region. Some are currently serving as
Covenant pastors, youth pastors or work in other venues. Others came
from outside the Covenant, having been recommended by a Covenant
pastor or administrator. People from California and Florida and
everywhere in between were among the participants. Participants ranged
in ages from 20somethings to those in the 50s.
"We appreciate the new partnership that has been formed between our
department and the Department of Church Growth and Evangelism on this
topic," said Lawson, who has been involved in five such assessments. "I
think the focus on the group discernment process - which is similar to
our department's view of multi-voiced call - is valuable. The intensity
for both the participants and the assessors can be difficult to
describe. But it's designed for a purpose and you can get a lot done in
a short period of time."
The ECC has been conducting church planting assessments since 1992, said
Olson. Since that time, Covenant church plants have added greatly to the
denomination. Currently, more than 30 percent of those worshiping in
Covenant congregations come from churches that began within the last
dozen years. A total of 32 churches were planted by the denomination in
2003 and in a 10-year period, the ethnic churches in the Covenant more
than doubled in number because of the many different multiethnic
congregations
being planted. Church planting is important to the Covenant and it is
reflected in the thorough way in which participants are assessed.
The winter 2004 assessment was no less thorough. Included in the recent
version were group case study discussions of church planting scenarios,
opportunities for assessors and participants to hear about how some had
been called to ministry, and interviews with assessors. There were also
seminars pertaining to data researched by a pair of evaluators from
Minnesota. Participants had been sent personality tests and
career-related tests to fill out weeks before the assessment. The
evaluators deciphered how one's personality styles and ministry gifts
could affect the planting of a church. Spouses were also evaluated
extensively to discern whether their gifts and personalities would
complement the church planters as they shared in ministry.
Overall, participants desiring to plant a Covenant church were given
three scenarios: (1) they were accepted wholeheartedly as church
planters; (2) they were "conditionally recommended" - potentially a
successful candidate for church planting - after following certain
conditions before beginning a church plant; or (3) they were told that
they should not become a church planter at this time. In all cases,
evaluators pointed out the ministry gifts they saw in the church planter
candidates and the reasons why they were being given the evaluation they
were given.
Church planting assessment is an inexact science, but efforts are made to
ensure a fair and comprehensive evaluation. While candidates enjoyed an
afternoon and evening together at a local restaurant, evaluators spent
more than eight hours discussing the participants before interviewing
them the following morning. Olson called it "offering outside
perspective as you pray about whether you are called to be a church
planter." A previous participant now planting a church in Canada, Mark
Crate, called it a blessing.
"It was the defining moment for me as I considered a call to church
planting," said Crate, who now serves as pastor of Lighthouse Church in
Sarnia, Ontario.
"You go through this ministry assessment and it is constantly a reminder
that you were called."
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