Coach’s Corner

Waiting… anticipating…nevousness…excitement. I remember well all of those emotions and more as I prepared to go through a church planters assessessment four years ago. I had no idea what lay before Lesley and me. We had no previous exposure to this process. We had no prior connections to the assessment group. All I knew was that I had heard a few people talk about how intense a week of assessment can be.

Imagine having a dream… having a passion… having a vision for what could be, and having to place the future of that in the hands of a goup of people you do not know. That is the essence of a church planter’s situation when going through an assessment. That was certainly our situation several years ago.

As I look back on it today, I’m still amazed that what happened actually happened. I had no real pastoral experience. I was already in my 40s (not exactly prime church planting age). We had no pre-existing relationships with assessors that were “pulling” for us. All we had was each other and God and a desire to follow him into whatever he had for us.

To my never-ending thankfulness, that week was full of godly men and women who deeply desired to release those into ministry that they believed were particularly well-suited and gifted for it by God. It was not their desire to withhold that which God had already given, only to affirm it. By the same token, there are always people that need the insight of others to steer them in a different direction.

GOD TOLD ME…..

What do you do with that? How many times have we all heard someone doing something that made no sense, and when questioned, their answer was, “God told me”. Really? I will admit that there are times in the Bible where God moved men and women to attempt some pretty crazy things, but mostly when they were trained or gifted to do it. I think there are a lot of times that people say, “God told me” and all they really heard was rumblings inside from a bad burrito. God had nothing to do with it. But when someone says they heard from God, how do you argue that? Is that even reasonable? The short answer is YES! Everything…I mean everything can and should be evaluated by God’s word. Is a person gifted for it? Trained for it? God-suited for it? Does it line up with the clear teaching of scripture? What is the motivation? (You do realize that our motivations matter significantly to God, don’t you?) Is there a plan? Is it consistent with previous undertakings?

Proverbs tells us that there is wisdom in the “counsel of many”. I, for one, do not particularly enjoy submitting my plans to others for their approval. But God designed us in such a way that others see what we don’t. And when a group of godly people come together to hear from him and to make wise decisions, he will make things clear.

That is what we have come together to do here at the assessment this week. We are joining with others to hear from God and to speak into the lives and dreams of people who are willing to risk it all for the cause of Christ. It will be an exciting week. Please pray for us and these potential planters.

EDITOR’S NOTE: This was written on Monday morning, prior to the beginning of Day 1, but could not be posted due to connectivity problems.