Assessing Church Planters
Answering the fifth and final church planting question (if you don't know what I'm talking about, see here): How important is the assessment process and should the sending church be involved?
The assessment process is extremely important, but there is a danger here. Some church planting organizations have so elevated the work of the church planter that it seems like some dark art that can only be performed by those with a certain mark on their soul. While the failure rate for church plants is very high, I think that many (probably even most) qualified pastors could be church planters.
There are special pressures involved in church planting, and so the assessment process is important. I would suggest that you evaluate him along six lines:
- Motivation -- Why does he want to plant a church? Does he resist authority and just want to be his own boss? Does he have delusions of grandeur?
- Independence -- Can he work well on his own? Is he disciplined, entrepreneurial, and self-motivated? After all, no one will be looking over his shoulder on a day to day basis.
- Home life -- Planting will be stressful on the family. Is his marriage solid? Does he understand what it means to love his wife and children? Is he open to being held accountable in these areas by the sending church?
- Teaching and evangelism -- Is he qualified as a teacher to be an elder in a church? If not, he's not a church planter. Can his teaching build, feed, and sustain a church? Is he passionate about reaching the lost? Is he comfortable around non-believers?
- Discouragement -- Does he exhibit abiding trust in the Lord's providence and guidance? Is he easily discouraged? How does he deal with apparent failures and set-backs?
- Godliness -- Is he qualified morally to be an elder? If not, he's not a church planter. Are there secret sins in his life? Is he faithful with money? Is he humble and open to criticism? You are not going to find the perfect guy with respect to these six categories, so you need someone who is constantly growing in Christ and changing in areas of weakness and sin.
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