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The growing unity among Greater Austin’s churches will be demonstrated in a milestone event on August 25-26. For the first time, multiple denominations will collaborate in a Citywide Church Planter Assessment to find leaders for new churches that sponsoring pastors say are needed in the city.
an in-depth look inside a Church Planter Assessment.
Three Sides of the Coin Inside a Church Planter Assessmnet written by Alanna Davis Payton
Churches and church planters are invited to submit candidates for the August 25-26 Citywide Assessment by e-mailing glenn@newchurchinitiatives.org. The following is an inside look at a recent church planter assessment from three different perspectives --the director, the candidate and the assessor.
Glenn Smith,
The Director’s Perspective I have had the privilege of leading assessments for over 700 prospective church planters, most of whom followed through and planted new churches. These assessments have taken place in various regions of the U.S. and a few outside the U.S. Recently I led the church planter assessment for Hill Country Bible Church in Northwest Austin. My role was to provide oversight and direction to the process, and to make sure every candidate received an accurate and objective assessment of their readiness to start a new church. I had a wonderful team of assessors to work with. Through a deliberate and collaborative process we provided a very high quality assessment to six very gifted ministry candidates and their spouses. When I started conducting assessments over 10 years ago it was a very new concept for me. I had owned and managed businesses, as well as served as an Executive Pastor in two large churches. I had plenty of experience in recruiting, hiring, and managing staff. However, church planters were different than most of the people I had worked with previously. When looking for a church planter we look for 3 different skill sets. First, we look for Personal and Spiritual Qualities. The planter has to have good self-awareness as well as the skills and maturity to maintain a healthy personal, family, and spiritual life. The second set of skills we look for are Starting Skills. The planter has to have the aptitude for starting new things from scratch with few resources. Thus they have to be entrepreneurial, resourceful, and relational. They must also have a strong track record in personal evangelism. The third set of skills we look for are Sustaining Skills. The planter needs to be an effective discipler, developer of other leaders, and a visionary who can take a group of people someplace that most have never been. I always look forward with great anticipation to assessments at Hill Country because their candidates have typically already passed through a good interview and screening process. The candidates know they have a very unique opportunity if selected and they come with a high level of interest and commitment. This most recent group was no exception. The multi-day assessment process is very demanding, particularly for the assessment staff. Our team of assessors worked very hard for these couples. They gave many hours and explored each individual’s life experience in a sincere and loving way. By the end of the process a special bond had developed between us all. For me, the end of the assessment experience is bittersweet. I’m happy it is coming to a conclusion because I am tired. However, I feel such a personal and emotional connection to the candidates and the assessors that there is a bit of grieving when we finish and depart. Part of that sadness results from the fact that we all know that we will probably never experience anything like this again with one another. In a few short days we share our lives together in a way that none of us will ever forget. It’s a wonderful, though exhausting experience. At the end of the assessment process the assessor team collaborates on writing a personal report for every individual candidate. This report affirms strengths that we observed and discovered, it offers constructive feedback for ongoing personal development, and it provides a practical plan of action for the candidate and their spouse to pursue, should they choose to do so. When we conduct our final interviews and when we deliver the reports we almost always see God’s hand in the process. Each couple shares how they have experienced God and we get to see their self-awareness, their confidence, and their calling grow! Through the years I have had many couples describe the assessment experience as a marker in their lives. Some speak in terms of a “defining moment.” I am always humbled by how God uses this process to shape and mold these incredibly gifted people. Again, this Hill Country assessment was no exception. Since the assessment, I have received several cards and emails from these couples expressing gratitude and sharing testimony of God’s work in them. Every time I lead an assessment I conclude it with incredible gratitude for the gifted people God has called into his work, and for Him allowing me the privilege to invest in their lives in such a deep and meaningful way. I also come away with deep gratitude for a team of assessors who give of themselves so sacrificially and who love these planters with such deep compassion. Even after hundreds of assessments I feel awe and wonder. I am so thankful that God has allowed me to work with and serve so many wonderful Kingdom servants. These assessors and these planters are my heroes. They inspire me, challenge me, and humble me. I can only imagine what heaven will be like when we are all together in one place with our Lord!
Jason McNutt,
The Candidate’s Perspective My wife Mandi and I recently took part in the church planting assessment for Hill Country Bible Church in Austin, Texas. This process began many months ago for us. For the last ten years I have been a B-52 Operational Test Pilot in the Air Force. Jesus called me to His Kingdom several years after being in the military and has shown me my salvation in his atoning death. After that time God has created many circumstances leading up to our call to plant a church in Austin. I have been pastoring a church in a small rural town just north of Shreveport, Louisiana. This experience has taught me much about leadership and servanthood in the church versus that found in the military. But something was still stirring. As my exit from the military was approaching, I struggled with the direction of ministry and placement. I am originally from the Austin area and felt a strong pull to return to the area to see people come to love Jesus and for the Gospel to be spoken (the Gospel was never shared with me during my life in Austin). I simply Googled the internet for “church planting in Austin” to see what God was doing in the area (I know that God does not speak through Google but I didn’t know how else to find information). I quickly came across Hill Country Bible Church and the journey began. I really didn’t think I had any chance of being accepted to this program. I was young in ministry, just leaving the Air Force and instead of growing a church I have buried more people in Oil City in the ground instead of the waters of baptism. I followed through with the application process and fumbled my way through a resume (I haven’t written a resume in over 10 years). My resume resembled something more like a 1st grader with crayon on construction paper than a “professional ministry” resume (the DVD was even better, a hand-held camcorder and my Mac). After sending everything to the church, I anxiously awaited a response. I was really putting all my eggs in one basket. I did not feel the desire to look anywhere else. I read the website at least twenty times to see and understand the process. I did not want to call and look pushy (or stupid) so I waited and I waited and I waited some more. Finally there came the email and phone call for the first interview. I was asked to put aside at least an hour for the call. Now my mind is racing, what are they going to ask, what am I going to say when I don’t know the answer? (I learned in the Air Force that it is better to say I don’t know than trying to wing it.) Chad, the gentleman who gave the interview, was so kind and patient. He had the ability to get you excited about the things of God and ministry and really open up and talk from your heart. No matter how bad I may have been, he made me feel as though I nailed the interview. After that, I waited some more. It seemed forever before any information came to the next step of the process. Once again an email came asking me and my wife, Mandi, to come to Austin for the final assessment. We accepted with great joy and fear. Then the fun began. The next e-mail was a marriage profile to fill out. Then a package of paperwork came to be completed in a very short time, personality tests, applications, referrals and so much more. How deep can someone dig? And that was only the beginning. I have been in the Southern Baptist Convention where the church has full autonomy; the interview for my church’s pastorate was pretty much a pulse and a nice-looking family. With paperwork completed, we started thinking and wondering. It was still a few weeks away. What if we messed something up in the paperwork? Are they going to ask us to just stay home? At the same time it is quickly approaching my leave from the military and the leave of a paycheck. But God, in all His faithfulness, provided a “safety net” for our own assurance that He would provide. Then another reality hit us, we have a 12-year old and an 18-month old, what are we going to do? Once again, God provide a period that Mandi’s mother was off from work and was able to stay at our house and watch the boys for the four days. So we were off to Austin excited, scared and humbly trusting God. Everything was taken care of by Hill Country. The hotel was booked and a package was waiting for us at the front desk. We arrived at 4:30 p.m. and the first event was dinner at 6:30 p.m., so we had a little time to stretch and relax from the drive. Little did we know that it would be the last time we relaxed. Dinner was casual and friendly but all six candidates and their wives knew we were being watched. After the evening we were told to show up at the church at 8:30 a.m. to get started. 8:30 a.m. is not early for us but each morning it felt earlier. We arrived a little early and found that 8:30 meant that things start at 8:30, not just show up at 8:30. Glenn Smith started the morning with introductions and a brief overview of what the next few days would include. And now the fun begins. We were each handed a package that contained a map of Austin and paperwork that was to be filled out. The assignment: Go into your assigned neighborhood and come back in five hours with an assessment of the area. This would include local churches, people groups, shopping, business, schools, spiritual openness, and we had to engage with at least ten different people. Now being from Austin, I knew the area but things have changed in several years. I asked the others what area they got, mainly south suburbs and south sleeper communities. Mandi and I, well, we were about to enter the danger zone. Mandi’s first question was “is this where they want us to plant a church?” This zip code has some of the highest crime rates and lowest education and income. English is not a primary language in this area. Just to get a feel for our area, I was thought to be an undercover cop and even had one man literally breathing down my neck ready to punch me. The only thing that probably stopped him was that he also thought I was a cop. Five hours later we had all the information we could get and still had no idea what to do about this area. So I am sensing strike one for Jason (but I actually didn’t mind because it just showed me how much Austin needs the Gospel to spread and impact all areas). We gathered back together and gave our reports. I think we all felt the overwhelming impact this assignment brought. It really opens one’s eyes to the condition of an area when put under the pressure to engage. This was actually one of the most enjoyable portions of the assessment. From this point on, it was extremely fast paced. Meals were delivered to the church and we continued to press on through multiple leadership profiles, personality profiles and several interviews. Each candidate gave a ten minute talk on philosophy of ministry and a short devotional. Each guy was fantastic. I really felt humbled to have been invited into the midst of all these great men of God. It reminded me of the parable of the talents in Matthew 25. Even though most of the guys around me had ministries that were growing and it seemed they had been given more talents (i.e., the five talents), I was still being faithful with the two talents I had been given. I may not have as much numerical return as the others, but since I have been faithful with the two talents, I am still being allowed to be over much just like the guy with five talents. What a humbling experience to see God’s faithfulness based on His glory and not your performance. The best thing you get out of this assessment is the fact that you have about ten (not sure of the exact number) godly people looking deep into you out of love for Jesus, His Bride, and you as a planter and pastor. You learn your leadership traits, your strengths and your weaknesses as seen by others. And though they only have a few days to take this snapshot, it helps to hear their words and see how they match up with what you know about yourself. It also helps identify any blind spots. Weaknesses won’t get you but the blind spots will. For me, it confirmed the weaknesses I already knew but tended to shrug off. It also confirmed my call to church planting and specifically church planting in Austin. My concern is always to make sure that it is God calling and not Jason, the military officer and pilot, charging the hill because once I charge I am willing to die on that hill as a soldier for Jesus and His Kingdom. After the assessment it was back to the waiting game. Out of six candidates it became obvious that Hill Country was looking for just three. 50/50 is not bad but we are not in Vegas and it really depends on how God leads the assessors and the church leadership. The e-mail finally came that John Herrington, Church Planting Director for Hill Country, wanted to talk and go over the final report. I am now a civilian and have no job. I am waiting on this report to see if we are staying in Shreveport for awhile or heading south. Oh how I want to head south, but I must be content with where God leads my family. John and I have set up the phone call for 10 a.m. the next morning. Restless sleep. It took forever for 10 a.m. to come, but then the phone rang. I was not sure I wanted to answer the phone. There was John’s voice on the other end. He gave some initial courtesies. And then before jumping into the report he gave me the news that we were one of the candidates that Hill Country was inviting to Austin this year. He probably said something else after that but I didn’t hear him. As I caught back up to the conversation we spent the next hour going over the assessment. Now it sounds like this would be the end of the story but it only begins. I am still without a job. I have a pregnant wife who will deliver in three months, we have a 12-year old who will be leaving friends, and we’re juggling an extremely active 2-year old. Mandi’s biggest concern is 12-year old Cole and a double move, first to Austin and then to the area where we’ll be planting. The church planting residency program starts in September and we have a house to sell. Oh, did I mention I don’t have a job right now? I had been offered a job working as a civilian doing the same job (minus the flying) in the same squadron but I know the right thing to do is tell my commander that I cannot take the job because we are going to Austin. I could just take the job and then leave in three months but that would be deceitful. So Monday morning I walk into his office and deliver the news. He is a Christian man and he completely understood and was happy for us. He also knew the problem I was facing in not having a job for three months. After saying our goodbyes, I headed home. Maybe I can sell cars for a few months. Maybe a temp service can find me something. Tuesday morning, my old commander calls me to say that the Air Force would like to hire me for the three months. God is good all the time. God continues to answer prayers and keeps our hearts from being troubled. Our biggest prayer is for God to save the lives of every man, woman and child in the Austin area. May God’s face shine upon us. We cannot go into this field without Him going before us.
Alanna Davis Payton,
The Assessor’s Perspective: I love church planting. Before following God’s call to relocate to Austin and start AbbaConnect magazine, I served for many years as a Baptist Church Planting Missionary in Gospel-resistant areas in the Northeast. When Hill Country Bible Church invited me to serve as an assessor, I welcomed the opportunity to be part of a proven process that I knew firsthand was a critical component in successful church planting. Assessor teams are composed of men and women experienced in church planting and well-trained in assessment. The testing instruments and strict guidelines eliminate personal subjectivity while allowing assessors to exercise insight based on prayer and their individual areas of expertise. In my case, I started as a volunteer helping to start mission churches in New York City during my television career. I grew to love church planting and eventually accepted a commission as a full-time missionary after graduating from seminary. I served as a “parachute drop” planter (relocating to a city I didn’t know) for a “cold start” church (no contacts and no team of volunteers). As I led people to Christ, I developed a team that would become the core group of a new church. Like most planters, I initiated networks of relationship and partnership, started outreach ministries and “tilled the soil” for community acceptance of a new church plant. Since my role was catalytic, I turned the new church over to a pastor and moved on to my next assignment. I soon worked with multiple plants simultaneously, then served in oversight positions for regional church planting and evangelistic city-reaching. Through the years, I personally assessed, trained, coached or supervised over 200 church planters in different population groups, languages and types of locations. The models were all different, but the planters needed the same basic skills to produce healthy, multiplying churches. I know from my own experience that God is the One who plants churches and that the planter’s faith walk has to be strong. During difficult times in the field, the certainty of God’s call can be the only thing that keeps the planter going. I also know how critically important it is to assess each candidate’s readiness factors accurately. Lives are affected. Marriages are affected. When I received the invitation to serve as an assessor, I immediately began to pray as I had trained assessors to do. I knew my fellow team members were praying also. The unity, wisdom and insight we needed can only be gained through ardent prayer. We would rely on experience and training, but more importantly, we relied on God. The first step was reading stacks of completed questionnaires from each candidate and spouse and marking items for further inquiry. It always amazes me how the lengthy inventories and other objective tests confirm the interview results and assessors’ observations. We were not looking for cookie cutter church planters but for faith, experience, skills and characteristics any planter would need to be successful. Church planting requires the right person, in the right place, with the right plan, at the right time. Our task was to identify the right people. The candidates didn’t seem nervous or ill at ease when the assessors first entered the room, but I knew better. I had been in their shoes myself and many candidates later told me they felt uncomfortable being observed and “judged.” My standard answer is to lower my voice and say, “This is nothing compared to Pageant Week!” It always gets a laugh, but it also speaks to the discomfort of being evaluated by others. It goes with the territory of all public professions, including church planting. Planters have to get over being uncomfortable, learn from criticism, and place their confidence in God. The assessors listened to the candidates describe what they learned during their on-site surveys of potential church plant sites. The assignment had been a surprise to all of them and a comfort zone stretch for some. That was part of the plan. Church planting itself is stepping out into the unknown. Normal workday activities for a church planter are taking risks and relying on God alone. Each day holds surprises and “divine appointments” that could only be engineered by God. That’s what I loved most about church planting -- holding tight to God and hanging on for the ride. There’s no greater thrill than being in the midst of people coming to faith in Jesus and a new church being birthed. My former colleagues in oversight positions all say they miss their days on the field. It’s the adventure of a lifetime. In addition to surprise assignments, the candidates tackled case studies, gave multiple presentations and underwent extensive interviews. One undergirding principle of assessment is that past behavior is the best indicator of future behavior. Lengthy behavioral interviews explore the candidate’s experience. There’s never enough time to hear all the details so I rely on my years as a network television host and interviewer, prompting “sound bite” answers and moving quickly but thoroughly through the prepared questions. It’s often difficult for candidates to recall behavioral examples. This is where the wives really shine. They always remember what happened. With their prompting, the candidates invariably say, “Oh yeah, that’s right,” and proceed to describe what they did. It tickles me every time, and it shows me the candidate’s spouse is attentive and supportive of her husband in their ministry. Even though I’m used to structuring interviews, I’m very grateful to have industry standard questions that have been proven and refined through thousands of interviews across the country. Assessors have to ask the right people the right questions to get the right answers. Asking the right people the wrong questions produces answers that are not useful in placing planters on the field. The interviews gave us the answers we needed. Much like a diagnostic test in sports medicine, the overall assessment determines strengths and identifies weaknesses or inexperience. A medical diagnostician may recommend certain exercises to strengthen an athlete’s weakness. It’s the same for church planters. Very few have everything they need. Assessors recommend specific training and coaching to strengthen areas essential to success in church planting. Some candidates use the results to redirect their efforts to another ministry more suited to their characteristics and preferences. During each assessment, I’ve met incredible people who clearly have God’s call on their lives. I’ve heard about their struggles and victories and listened to them praise God for His faithfulness during both. Their passion and conviction is humbling. It’s a profound privilege to be part of what God is doing in their lives and yes, I always feel a tug to join them in the vision God has given them. For more information or to participate in the August 25-26 Citywide Church Planter Assessment, e-mail Director Glenn Smith at glenn@newchurchinitiatives.org.
Banner Photo by Scott Edwards. |
Austin Bridge Builders Alliance (ABBA) |
