Characteristics of effective church planters
Now that we have our list of best books for church planters I’d like to remind us all that we’re talking about planting churches not passing essays. Reading the right books is a nice bonus. But it won’t get you across the line if you’re not a church planter to start with.
I remember assessing a couple who were candidates for church planting. When it came to relating to the unchurched they could only remember one occasion in the last 3-4 years of having done a reasonable good job of it.
Their plan was to plant a church in another state as pioneer evangelists.
In the official language of “Reportese” I told them and their denomination that they were crazy.
Well, the denomination decided to do the loving thing and send them anyway. After 12 months the church had doubled in size. They now had 4 people including themselves.
Reading books, going to conferences, getting a theological degree, understanding postmodernism, coming up with the perfect model of church, or reading my blog will not make you a church planter.
That’s the bad news.
The good news is there are ways to have your call to church planting tested. The best process available is based on the work of Dr Charles Ridley. He was commissioned by a consortium of denominations to determine the characteristics of effective church planters based on behavioural interviews with church planters.
- Has a “visionizing” capacity
- Intrinsically motivated
- Ability to create ownership of ministry
- Ability to relate to the unchurched
- Spousal cooperation
- Effective relationship building
- Committed to church growth
- Responsiveness to the community
- Utilization of the giftedness of others
- Flexibility and adaptability
- Building a cohesive church body
- Resilience
- Exercising faith
We’ve been using Ridley’s approach for interviewing potential church planters for over a decade. We haven’t found a better approach.
A word of caution. You can find websites that offer assess your potential online. At best they are initial screening tools. If you’re serious you need to find someone trained to do the interview properly.
Alternatively, if you have a loving denomination or parent church that will send you anyway—why not take a punt and roll the dice?
