From Thom Rainer

• Effective leaders are loyal.
• Effective leaders are joyous and fun.
• Effective leaders have a strong work ethic.
• Effective leaders are self-aware.
• Effective leaders take initiative.
• Effective leaders love people.
• Effective leaders are tenacious.

Informative post from Scott Thomas, Acts 29 Director. The Acts 29 assessment process is very thorough and this post is encouraging for me. I would rather not be admitted into Acts 29 and not plant a church than to be encouraged to plant when it may not be best suited for me.

In April, I posted the 10 Characteristics of a Church Planter – a compilation of the characteristics and micro-skills we look for in planters – informed by our own Acts 29 assessment, and the assessment work of Charles Ridley, Mark Dever, J. Allen Thompson and others. The full list of characteristics and their corresponding 60 micro-skills is available here.

Since then, I wanted to know just how important each characteristic and micro-skill was to our Acts 29 members who are doing assessments, and wanted to created a standard minimum score for the 10 Characteristics.

We polled our members, and from a little over 80 responses gathered some very helpful data I’d like to share with you.

General Scoring

With a possible 300 points available among 60 micro-skills, the minimum score required was 84%.

The Top Three Characteristics:

1. Spiritual Vitality (93% score minimum)
2. Strong Marriage & Family Life (88% score minimum)
3. Theological Clarity (87% score minimum)

An encouraging element of second and third places is that they display a balance amongst our church planters in both the mental and applied knowledge of their theological beliefs. We do not want to be among the pastors who sacrifice their families for ministry, and divorce head-knowledge of the gospel from our personal practice of it.

The Top Five Micro-Skills:

1. “He gives evidence of a personal relationship with Jesus and a transformed life.” (4.9/5) -Spiritual Vitality
2. “He has a deep commitment to Biblical authority.” (4.8/5) – Spiritual Vitality
3. “He confesses the life of an Elder above reproach.” (4.8/5) – Spiritual Vitality
4. “He models a lifestyle of following Jesus.” (4.8/5) – Disciple-Making Skills
5. “He professes a healthy sexual relationship and purity within marriage.” (4.7/5) – Strong Marriage & Family Life

Our next step is to apply all the scores we have and weight our assessments appropriately. We are thankful to all the Acts 29 members who participated in this survey, helping us sharpen our assessment even more.

Sojourn is where the November 2009 Acts 29 Bootcamp will take place. They’re doing great things, and their love for Christ is palpable and attractive.

Very helpful post from David Putman, co-author of Breaking the Missional Code: Your Church Can Become a Missionary in Your Community. This advice is very, very, very timely as I just got a salary reduction at work and look to having raise support for planting a church.

Many churches fail to make it beyond two years because they fail to finance the mission.  Here are some simple principles that will keep you out of church planters bankruptcy.

• Raise at least two years of salary support before you ever move to the field.  Chances are it is going to take you longer then you think to get things rolling and especially self-sustaining.
• It isn’t money in the bank until it’s in the bank.  Unfortunately just because someone say they are going to support you doesn’t mean they are going to support you.
• Take responsibility for financing the mission.  If you are the lead pastor or church planter you are responsible.
• Work off of a spending plan from day one.  You need three things in starting a church: 1) salary support, 2) start up budget, 3) operational budget.
• Model the way from day one.  Generosity is caught, even more so then it is taught.
• Pay yourself and your team what you need, not what you are worth.  If you want what you are worth go do something else.  Church planting is a sacrifice.
• Make the big ask.  Jesus tells us we have not because we fail to ask.  It never hurts to ask.  The worst thing that can happen is for someone to say no.
• If you can’t raise the support, don’t plant a church.  Failure to raise the support could be a good indication of other things to come.