Have you ever experienced one of those situations where you are suddenly reliving something you've done before - but this time you have a completely different perspective? Last week I got to be part of a church planter's assessment in the Philadelphia area with Converge. About two and a half years ago, Kimi and I went through this process as we began to explore whether or not God was calling us to plant a church. It's an intense week to say the least. Long days, high stress. We were there with a handful of other potential church planters. The days are filled with personality profiles, psychiatric evaluations, group based problem solving, projects, preaching, interviews, presentations, and more. There's pretty much never a moment when you aren't being assessed by a group of people with clipboards.
Monday, October 4, 2010
On the other side
So this last week - there I was, sitting on the outside of the circle, clipboard in hand. Haha. It's funny how that happens isn't it? It was a really great experience for me though as I was able to recall the thoughts and feelings that I had during that time. There was so much uncertainty, so much fear, so much anticipation of what might be. When we left the assessment center, we felt we had a very clear direction from God about our next steps. It ultimately led to a resignation, a cross country move, and the birth of a new church community.
Anyway, I loved the process. As brutal as being assessed was, being an assessor was maybe even more brutal. While the stress isn't there, the hours are much longer, and the weight of what we were doing in trying to determine God's call on people was pretty heavy. I'm thankful for the opportunity to affirm people and to be a small part of their journey into what I know is going to be a life changing endeavor. I value opportunities like this one and I'm committed to helping other church planters as much as I can.
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