The process through which new church pastors are recruited, assessed, trained, and deployed determines the success or failure of any church planting system. The goal of an effective church planting system is to attract high quality candidates, clearly identify their strengths and patterns of behavior, develop their skill sets, and assign them to a context in which they have an affinity for the target population. Taken together, these are the components for the foundation for starting strong, vital faith communities.

Attracting High Quality Candidates
A system that embodies the following characteristics increases the probability that it will attract high quality candidates for starting new faith communities:

• Denominational leaders are conversant with church planting literature.
• Significant funding is invested in new church starts.
• Multiple strategies for starting new churches are pursued.
• There is a history of successful new church starts.
• There is an investment in the training of prospective church planters.
• Planters receive ongoing training and coaching after starting the project.
• The assessment, training, and deployment system is clearly defined.
• Recruitment efforts are consistent and ongoing.

Assessment
Most church planters are marginal at best. By this, we mean that most of the prospective planters with whom we have worked have been nice people who wanted to serve God in a meaningful way — people of seemingly good character who were serious about their faith. These qualities, although important for people serving in Christian ministry, have little to do with the success of a church planter. Church planting requires behaviors and skills that are different from those needed by pastors of existing churches.

Behaviors, traits, and skills of successful church planters:

• They demonstrate initiative and the ability to manage their time without supervision. They need little structure.
• They have a history of starting new things (businesses, programs, and so on).
• They have a track record of recruiting people to serve on a team.
• They have the ability to determine the most important tasks that must be done, and they have the focus to accomplish them.
• They are comfortable with chaos and starting from scratch.
• They know their strengths and weaknesses and can build a team around themselves to build on the strengths and compensate for the weaknesses.
• Their desire to plant a church flows from a desire to help people meet, know, and serve Jesus. It is not because they can't get along in an existing church or because they are looking for a career change.
• They are not easily discouraged, nor are they quick to give up.
• They tend to be described by many of the following words: independent, entrepreneurial, maverick, driving, obsessive, hard-working, action-oriented, decisive, confident, self-starter, optimistic, and relational.

The church planting system must determine how candidates are going to be assessed and who is responsible for making the assessment. The assessment of prospective church planters may be conducted by the organization itself or outsourced to a consultant or assessment center. Regardless of the path that is chosen, the system will need to determine the criteria for selection. Every system has "knock-out" issues — those things that either must or must not be present in a candidate in order for him or her to be selected to plant a church within that system. Knock-out issues may be theological (for example, the prospective planter must have a Wesleyan theology); academic (for example, the candidate must be a seminary graduate); denominational (for example, the candidate must have been a member of our denomination for at least ten years); personal (for example, the candidate can not be one who uses alcohol or tobacco products); or spiritual (for example, the planter must speak in tongues). The specific knock-out issues vary from system to system, but they need to be identified. A thorough assessment process will also address the affinities of the plant; that is, the specific types of people and kinds of places in which the planter will probably be most successful due to his or her unique background and life experience.

Training: Developing Skill Sets in Church Planters
Training is often what makes a potentially successful planter into a successful planter. The church planting system must determine the key skill sets that are most needed by those planting churches, how those skills will be developed, and who will deliver the training. Skill development may be handled in-house, or it may be outsourced to a consultant or training organization. Training is not limited to the time frame prior to the beginning of the church planting project. Ongoing training is also needed, and the system will need to address how that training is to be provided. Both the planter and the church-planting system may find it helpful to create a personal development plan for each planter (and supervisor).

Key areas necessary for skill development and training, recruiting, holding a recruiting conversation, and enlisting people include:

• Formation and clarification of mission, vision, and core values.
• Development of a realistic timeline for the church-planting project.
• Fundraising, stewardship, investment of resources, resource development.
• Team building and vision-casting.
• The role and value of a coach.
• Launching team development, organization, and activities.
• Designing the worship experience.
• Finding and evaluating possible meeting locations.
• Clearly defining the target audience.
• Previewing services and pre-launch worship team development.
• Marketing, advertising, attraction events, publicity.
• Networking and building a web of contacts; developing influence.
• Balancing the demands of planting and personal/family issues.
• Church planting models: parachute drop, hiving, churches-starting-churches, and so on.

Deploying Church Planters for Maximum Effectiveness
Effective deployment begins with the fundamental assumption that not every prospective planter can start a church in a particular context with equal effectiveness. The church planting system has the responsibility to know both the prospective planter and the context of the church plant in sufficient detail to determine the probable degree of affinity between the two. An extreme example will illustrate what happens all too frequently in the assignment of church planters:

A 25-year-old planter from a small farming community in the midwest who was raised in a lower-income, blue-collar, traditional family is appointed to a planting project designed to reach affluent professionals working in the downtown business district or a major city in the northeast.

It is unlikely that the planter will have a high degree of affinity for either the context or the target population for the new church. In fact, the degree of discomfort could be so great as to cause the planter to quickly become discouraged or even quit. Deployment issues are critical decisions, not minor details.

Major issues in the deployment of church planters:

• When are the planters selected? How much time will be needed to prepare for the planting?
• Who selects the planter for each specific planting project?
• Who selects the area/context in which a plant will be located? What are the selection criteria for making this decision?
• How is affinity between the planter and the context determined, and who makes this determination?
• What are the expectations and obligations of the church planter and the church planting system and how are these communicated?
• How will success be determined, and what is the exit strategy if the criteria are not met?
• Are the criteria clearly defined and able to be measured quantitatively? Do the system and the planter agree about these criteria?
• How does the system receive feedback from the planters regarding the process of recruitment, assessment, training, and deployment?

The development of a church-planting system is a long-term process. A clear focus on issues related to the recruitment, assessment, training, and development of new church pastors is needed to ensure that these crucial components are strengths of that system.

The Rev. Jim Griffith is the founder of the Griffith Coaching Network, a network of coaches committed to helping church leaders develop more fruitful ministries. Jim spent the first twenty-years of his ministry life startingÊfive different congregations.ÊIn 1995 he entered a full-time coaching ministry to church leaders and congregations, a mantle he wears with infectious enthusiasm.

Dr. Don Nations is an associate of The Griffith Coaching Network and has trained as a consultant with Bill Easum. He is a Certified Human Behavior Consultant and is a nationally certified coach for church planters. He has both planted a church and served as a turn-around pastor for several churches during his ministry. He currently serves as the director of a teaching parish (cooperative church ministry), and he has published several articles. Don is available to coach planters, work with denominations and judicatories, train coaches, assess potential planters, and conduct onsite consultations.