Schedule and Candidate Advanced Preparations

Sample weekly schedule for the assessment center:

Monday
All assessors are asked to be present Monday morning at 9:00 a.m. for an orientation and training time. At 11:00 a.m. candidates register followed by lunch for everyone. The assessment time for everyone begins after lunch at 12:30 p.m.

Monday afternoon and evening will include a leadership presentation, and candidates presenting their mini-sermons and philosophy of ministry. The day will end with a staff meeting.

Tuesday
Tuesday morning begins with breakfast and a time of worship followed by small groups working on case studies, another leadership presentation and lunch. In the afternoon there is a leadership presentation and evangelism exercise by candidates. The evening includes a listening exercise and interviews with a staff meeting closing the day.

Wednesday
After breakfast and a time of worship on Wednesday morning, there are interviews followed by lunch and presentations of church planting strategy presentations. There is some free time in the afternoon and a staff meeting after dinner on Wednesday.

Thursday
Thursday is the final day of the assessment and begins with breakfast and worship followed by individual interviews. The assessment concludes mid to late morning.

Preparations candidates need to make:

Candidates will be asked to make two presentations: a “Mini-Sermon,” and “Philosophy of Ministry.” Both presentations will take place during the first two days of the Assessment Center. Please come prepared to make the presentations at any time. Details regarding the two presentations are below.

Mini-Sermon
You will have 10 minutes to present your mini-sermon. You will then have 5 minutes to present your call to ministry and then 10 minutes for questions.

The mini-sermon should be similar to what you as a church planter might preach to the new church. Assume it is your first Sunday and more than 50% of the group is unchurched.

In your call-to-ministry presentation (which is part of the Mini-Sermon presentation), answer the following questions:

1. Why do you believe God has called you to the ministry; what were the formative events that led you to this conclusion?

2. Why are you interested in church planting?

3. If you are married, do you both feel called to ministry and/or church planting?

4. Each spouse should describe the other using 5 descriptive adjectives, and then elaborate.

5. How would you like to be remembered when you die?

Philosophy of Ministry
In this exercise, candidates will have 10 minutes to give a presentation. This presentation should deal with recruiting people for your core group and for involvement in ministry. A candidate should give particular attention to expressing your philosophy of ministry in this ten-minute presentation.

Following this presentation, there will be fifteen minutes of group questions for you and your spouse concerning philosophy of ministry, church planting knowledge, discipleship and evangelism.

• For the two presentations, Mini-Sermon and Philosophy of Ministry, each candidate will need to have the two presentations prepared in advance.

• If English is not the language in which the candidate normally presents a sermon, he or she may give their presentations in written form in English and make the presentations in the language that they normally use.

• Candidates need to be creative in both presentations. We want to see the “real person”. A candidate should come prepared to show who they really are and NOT what they think we want to see.

Candidates will also need to complete all assigned assessment tools.  Information will be e-mailed to candidates as to how to complete these assessments.