Video Transcript: Advanced Church Planter Assessment

Hi, my name is Ben Ingebretson. And it's my privilege to think with you in this  training lecture about advanced church planter assessment. And we're  specifically working on using the Ridley Behavioral Model For Personal  Assessment. Let's just take a step back for a moment. And talk about predicting  church plant success. We talked about in a previous lecture about the critical  nature of the church planter, that the number one factor in determining the  success or failure of a church plant is really the selection of a leader is that  leader, called by God, healthy emotionally and spiritually and physically, in a  good place? A well supported there's a variety of things that we covered in that  around success from the standpoint of that leader. But today, we're gonna think  specifically about gifts for church planting. And, and let's begin with an  assumption here that God alone gives the gifts for ministry. God alone, is the  one who, who gives out the gifts. We don't get to choose what our gifts are. God is the giver. sovereignly God distributes gifts for ministries in the church  Ephesians 4:11 talks about that. And, and we each had been given a gift I  shared in the previous teaching that church planters tend to be those with  apostolic and evangelistic gifts for ministry. Apostles comes from the word to be  sent with a message. Apostles are those who have a overwhelming and  overriding sense of being sent to move out into plant the new church. And  evangelists are those who are most effective in sharing the gospel with people  who are outside of Christ. So God alone gives those gifts for ministry. And, and  they show up in lots of different packages. We're all unique, and we're all  uniquely gifted. And so personality types are, are really irrelevant, though, to  church planting. It's, it's, it's been common to see different kinds of personal  styles in church planters. Because personality is one of the wonderful ways that  God marks us all a little different way. And so no two church planters look  exactly alike. Many personality types can be successful. But, but they all tend to  share the same gifts for ministry. They tend to be gifted in the areas of  evangelism, they tend to be ones who have that apostolic sense of being sent  out by God to move out and plant the new Jesus community. They will likely also have the capacity to teach, preach, Shepherd. But they especially have those  those evangelistic gifts. In many church planting models and designs can be  successful. Just like there are many different personality types, and many  different church planting styles and designs. These can all be successful.  There's a lot of different factors. But the best predictor of success as a church  planter is behavioral. past behavior predicts the future. A person's past  experience is a good indicator of how they're going to function in the future. And  that's particularly true of church planters. Let me introduce you for just a moment to Dr. Charles Ridley, Dr. Ridley, he studied the behaviors of 1000s of church  planters. And his research has shown that church planters that practice certain  behaviors are more likely to be successful. And And so Dr. Ridley's work has  been known as the Ridley behavioral assessment by many people in North 

America and is used in other parts of the world as a way of determining if you  partake of these typical and, and frequently occurring behaviors of successful  church planters. Now, excuse me now, before the end of today's session, you're  gonna have the opportunity for a free assessment. And you're gonna have the  opportunity to assess yourself and find out how you rate on the Ridley scale.  The encouraging thing about that is that behaviors can always change. Isn't that  good news that even though you and I may have just a few indicators that we  have the behavior, for example, of evangelism in our lives, we can take to heart  Paul's words when he says, do the work of evangelists, to Timothy. And we can  practice that more. And we can give evidence of a higher level of behavioral  ability. And so you too, can grow and improve your behavioral score as a  potential church planter. But it's critical that that church planters have a high  behavioral score, especially in the first five areas of the Ridley model, because  Dr. Ridley observed that the first five character qualities are particularly  important for church planters. So let's walk through those. The first is what we're gonna call and what he calls visioning capacity, visioning capacity. People with  visioning capacity are people that have a history of starting projects and  organizations from nothing. That is to say that they're like a spark plug they, they get people together, and they start something new, could be a club, could be a  Bible study, could be a group, could be a small business, could be any number  of kinds of gatherings or any number of kinds of organizations. But they started  from scratch from nothing. They overcome obstacles, and they generate  resources. They stay committed, they initiate action, they have a vision, they  draw other people in people with visioning capacity, the people who can see a  dream, and they can draw other people into that dream. That is the first quality  that Dr. Ridley observed in effective church planters, as there are people who  can have a vision for a new church, and draw other people into that dream, and  draw other people into that, into that, that vision for the future. It's a pattern in  their life. It's something they've done before they've launched other things from  from scratch, and drawn people in. The second quality Doctor Ridley observed  is what's called what we're going to call intrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivation  is about maintaining a busy schedule with energy. A church plantings busy work, and good church planters effective ones are ones that can maintain a very, very  busy schedule, and yet stay energized and not run out of gas. run out of energy  by noon time. They use time well, they accomplish much. They don't need  outside prodding, they don't need someone else, always telling them what to do. They always give their very, very best, they're always working hard to outdo  themselves, sometimes to always bring the very best they could bring to the  next opportunity. intrinsic motivators are people who don't wait around for  something to happen. They're the ones who make things happen. They're the  ones who begin the conversation. They're the ones that make the phone call  and start the day rolling by their agenda and what they're after. They're internally

driven and motivated in a healthy way to make things happen. Three, a creating  ownership of ministry. The third thing Dr. Ridley observed is that successful  church planters, inspire others, and mobilize them for ministry. If you were to ask them for the names of people that they've inspired, and mobilized in the ministry, they could give you a nice long list. They can give you the list of folks that were  sitting on the sidelines that were not involved and now are involved in ministry.  And the reason they're involved is because the church planter began to develop  them as a leader because the church planter began to invite them into  opportunities for ministry, because the church planter gave over some  responsibility to them. The church planter gives away duties that develop others  to their potential the church planter sees the potential in someone else and  grows them up to that potential. They help and mentor others to become leaders and to use their gifts. church planters vision in a way that's compelling. They are motivated in a way that always is energizing. And then they're always creating  other pathways for folks to become involved in ministry. They're drawing other  people into ministry. And they're sharing the task with others in a way that's  empowering to others. Number four, reaching the unreached. church planters,  the ones that are gifted for church planters have a pattern in their life of reaching the unchurched. They have many unchurched relationships, and they're often  with them. They spend time hanging out with people who don't follow Christ.  They spend significant amounts of time at the homes or in the places of  association with people who aren't Christian. They form relationships that are  meaningful with people who aren't followers of Jesus. They have multiple  examples of people that they've led to Christ. The successful church planters  are people who don't plan to lead someone to Christ, though, but that they've  already led others to Christ, they've had experiences and their recent  experiences, their experiences, within the last few months or a year of someone  that they've helped make a first time commitment to Christ. They've discipled  these people, they have folks that they're discipling, and helping find a role in  ministry, those that they have led to Christ. To Dr. Ridley observed these four  and yet 1/5 quality as a primary quality, these are primary qualities that  successful church planters. Evidence give evidence. And this fifth one is spousal support if the planter is married, that the planter and the couple have a clear  sense of their role in ministry. That is, is that the planter's partner knows where  they fit in, knows how that they can be a good partnership in church planting that their marriage has been tested, and yet it's strong. It's gone through times of  challenge, and it's come through successfully, that both the husband and wife  are united in their commitment of church planting that, that the partner is  supportive of the planting experience in the planting call, and that they're not  dragging their feet or uncomfortable or unwilling. Those five areas that we've  just covered, are what Dr Ridley observed to be the primary areas of successful  church planter behavior. Now, you can take some time and review those and 

ask yourself, How do I do? How would I measure up in any one of those areas?  Do I have an evidence of practice of of launching things from scratch? Am I  internally motivated? Do I tend to build other people's involvement in things? Do  I show evidence of an evangelist and a passion for sharing the gospel and  spending time with unchurched people. And if I am married, am I in a strong  tested and supportive relationship? Those are the primary things that that can  give evidence to your readiness to be a church planter Dr. Ridley identified  some what we'll call secondary things as well. And those include the following.  Number one, effectively building relationships that the planter is good and  effective in their people skills, good listener, good conversationalist. People like  to know Him and be in relationship with them, easy to relate to lots of friends,  that the planter is committed to church growth and commitment that church  growth means that that you've either grown a ministry successfully and one  would hope that that would certainly be the case. But you also understand some of the growth principles and methods that you understand how it is that  churches grow and what some of the human factors are, that can bring about  church growth. So an awareness of church growth methods, and a desire to  learn your church growth methods are certainly qualities of a bit of a successful  church planter that you're responsive to the community. That is to say that your  eyes are out there on the community around you and you see a community  need. And you have a habit or a practice of meeting those community needs.  That, that that's a natural place for you to jump in, and serve the community at  large, because you want to be responsive to a specific need. That you use the  giftedness of others, you help others find out what their spiritual gift is, you help  them take a spiritual gift assessment, you help them discover their spiritual gifts, and then you help them use their spiritual gifts. and train them in the use of that  spiritual gift. Number 10, flexibility and adaptability that as a, as a leader, you  can keep an open mind and recognize that you may not always have the right,  or the best idea, or the best strategy, that that there may be new information you need to be open to or you may need to change, you may need to adjust some  things. Number 11 are building small groups that you are successful at starting  small groups that are effective, most new church starts began with a home Bible study or a Bible study in a small circle, a small group. And so that, you know,  effective church planters know how to start groups that are small like that and  have a positive small group experience and then start another small group that  successful church planters have this capacity to bounce back, call it resilience.  They go through a hard time, but they don't stay down long. There may be a  tough Monday morning, there may be a hard day. But it doesn't stretch beyond a few hours or a day or two. And you bounce back. And you're enthusiastic about  the ministry again. exercising faith, that you demonstrate spiritual vitality that call to planting that you're spending time with Christ following Christ in relationship  with Christ abiding in the vine, abiding in him as he abides in you, and therefore 

bringing forth fruit, the fruit that lasts. Those are the secondary behavioral  qualities that Dr. Ridley observed. Now, after you've reviewed that list of 13  qualities, the first five of which are most important. You might wonder how would I score that? How do I did? How did I do? And you may well do some initial  thinking about scoring it just by following these steps. First of all, the amount of  the data or the amount of specific examples that you're able to share under each of those areas, the higher the score. In general, if you have, for example, started a lot of things from scratch. And you've started a number of organizations or a  number of Bible study groups or a number of small businesses from scratch.  That gives you a higher score, you're a stronger and more likely candidate in  that particular area to be successful as a church planter. Thirdly, the intensity of  the complexity the example merits a higher score. So for example, a person who who starts a few things from scratch, but the the organization that they start,  tend to grow quite large, or tend to be quite complex in terms of the breadth and  the depth of the organization. That's going to merit a higher score. So there's  some there's some subjectivity in this assessment in terms of scoring, because  a person may only evidence for example, a few things in some categories, but  the depth and the period of time and the complexity of the examples they give  may call for a higher weighting of the score. And Dr. Ridley's assessment, each  category is scored individually, 1 being low and 5 being high. And then all the  scores are collected. And the best Ridley. behavioral interviews really should be  scored by a trained professional. And you may not have that available to you.  And so today's assessment, and today's training is really an opportunity for you  to do some personal reflection on these categories. To become aware of these  categories, you may not necessarily have the benefit of actually being assessed  by a trained professional in the Ridley behavioral model. However, you can  discover your own personal behavioral assessment score. And I'm pleased that  for English speakers, there is currently an assessment available through  www.churchplanterprofiles.com , www.churchplanterprofiles.com. If you click on  that, to the free assessment tab, and then follow the steps to number one,  create an account. And then number two, take the free assessment, you can  take an assessment that will take you about 90 minutes, and you will get a  score. That score is significantly based on the Ridley model that we have just  been training you through here today. Assessment it's it's maybe not the most  exciting subject that you're going to run across in these training sessions. But it  certainly is perhaps one of the most important. God has created us all with gifts  for ministry. We're all unique. And we don't all play the same roles best. There  are places that we all do better than others. And so discerning your place and  your fit in the kingdom, and discerning whether it's as a church planter is well  worth the time and effort that you'll spend. As you seek to ascertain where Christ is leading you remember, remember, however, that the church planting  assessment, the sort that we've just talked through, is behaviorally based, that 

you may be called to be a church planter, but maybe just not today. Maybe  there's some behaviors, maybe there's some practices, maybe there's some  learning and some and some experiencing that you need to do a bit more of  over the next several months or years, so that you indeed can step into the high  call and high opportunity and high challenge of church planting with confidence.  And with God being your helper, the best you can bring as an obedient servant  of Christ. God bless you