Remembering



On Monday, a very good friend of mind sent me an encouraging e-mail. The last few months, I’ve been sending out my resume to churches. The last month, I’ve been jumping through some hoops for a church in Missouri but I received a letter on Saturday saying thank you but no. Teresa and I have been praying for God’s prefect will to be done with this church and His will was done. I know that God will open the door to the place He has for me to pastor. I know this door will open in God’s timing and I am really okay with that. God has mold me into the man I am and He knows what He has planned for me so I’m waiting on Him and while waiting on Him, I’m serving at a great little church.

In the e-mail from my friend, he asked if I ever had a ministry assessment. The fact is I have through the SBCV (Southern Baptist Conservatives of VA) back in 2006. I went through an assessment when Teresa and I were praying about starting a church and the SBCV had me fill out a questionnaire which had an assessment section. In the assessment section, there are four types; an Initiator, an Organizer, a Developer, and a Revitalizer. I answered 32 questions by circling which best describes me (scoring 1 through 5). You could get up to 40 as a score. The “Developer” is what I am; my score was 39 out of 40. The questions were:

1. I like to take something that has already been started and organized and grow it to it’s fullest potential.
2. I like to keep things under control.
3. I like for things to operate smoothly and efficiently.
4. I love to facilitate improvement in an organization.
5. I like to work within given structure.
6. I tend to get a little uneasy when things are disorganized and inefficient.
7. I like to build effective teams.
8. I like to commit to things long term.

The Developer’s type description is spot on for me;

“You like to take what has been started and organized and develop it. You are good at taking things to the next level and providing good leadership to grow the church. If you are considering church planting you may be better suited to be the pastor of a mission church or at least where the mission has a core group of people. You will still need to cast vision and organize. If you are a developer you may struggle in an area where you have to start something from scratch. You should consider gathering some people around you who are initiators.”

A few months after this assessment, the SBCV approved us to be Church Planters and we started a Bible Study in an apartment where a friend lived. We worked this area for 10 months forming a 4 person Bible Study. We did several events in this time but nothing came out of it. God did show me much in this brief time of Church Planting. Refreshing my memory of my type helps to make sense of this period of ministry. I feel that God had us going through this time to mold us into tools He will use in taking a small church and developing the group to reach their community. My passion is to equip the saints to grow in their walk with Christ and teach them to share the love of Christ with their families, friends, neighbors, co-workers, and their community at large.