When we arrived at Grace Fellowship, the host church, my stomach was in such a knot! My mind full of expectations, yet had no clue what to expect. As we walked up the stairs, we could hear others chatting and my inner hermit began to want nothing more than to sink deep into my shell! But I persevered and instantly, the Lord gave me a friend. Another wife, around my age, who was warm and friendly and we began an easy conversation. "Whew, thank's Lord..." was all I could say. All the couples were friendly and eager to make the rounds and shake hands-we were grateful! Interestingly enough, the assessors were assessing from the very moment we walked up those stairs; watching how we interacted with each other and our spouse-there was never a dull moment!
As we all made our way into the main meeting room, the whirlwind began. Introductions of each couple and each assessor gave us an idea of who we would spend the next intense 4 days with. After the intros, we were quickly catapulted into the first assignment. Ryan (each guy) had been asked to prepare a 10 minute mini-sermon. Ryan did great (I'm partial of course) and I was probably more nervous than he was! After his sermon they called me to the front to join him for some Q & A's. They also asked us to share 5 adjectives to describe each other - fun to hear what the other would say : ). Towards the end of the day, Ryan then presented his Philosophy of Ministry to another group of assessors, again followed by the two of us participating in some grueling Q & A's. I say grueling, but mostly it was challenging. They asked very poignant questions to get to the very heart of your calling as a couple-it was very good to say the least!
The next day was spent split off into smaller groups (spouses separated) doing activities. The main goal was to see the different personalities come out. The assessors were taking notes the whole time about how we interacted with each other-in the end, great exercises to help us learn to better communicate and identify others' strengths. Speaking of strengths, I'll end with this. Before going to the assessment, the assessment group gave both Ryan & I 3 different personality/strength finder survey's to fill out. One was the Golden (basically Meyers Briggs on steroids), D.I.S.C, & the Clifton Strengths Finder. The strength finder was by far the most insightful for me. It helps you identify your top 5 strengths. And honestly, I was surprised. It identified areas in my life that were completely untapped. But I'm thrilled because they are areas I've always felt called to explore more deeply, but kept second guessing myself. I won't do that again-too much wasted time! If you are interested, I can't encourage you enough to get a hold of one of the strength finder books-in each book is a code to give you access to take the survey for yourself...SOOO good!!!
All in all, an amazing week away. We did end the week with a "result" so to speak. There was only one way they look at the end results: are you the right person for the lead pastor in a church plant. Not, are you fit for ministry or are would you make a good pastor. The 4 outcomes are:
Recommended-yes, you have the building blocks necessary to plant a church and are ready, but we encourage you to still make sure this is what the Lord is calling you & your family to do.
Recommend w/ Conditions-you have most of the building blocks, but should take the next 6-12 months to work on some of the suggestions they give you.
Recommended w/ Strong Conditions-Take 2 years off and really seek counsel and the Lord's heart for your next step.
Not Recommended-you're not the right fit to be the lead pastor of a church plant.
We were Recommended with Conditions, which is where we thought/hoped we would be. We have some areas to pray through and walk through but we're excited to see what the next few years have in store. Thanks for reading!
~Emily
Thanks for sharing Emily! I'm also excited to see where the Lord will take you. I like what you said about "being more nervous than Ryan" when he gave his mini sermon; I was the same way when Josh spoke at church! Would love to get together sometime and talk more!
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