ABSC Church Planting Team Leader Vince Blubaugh speaks at the Send Network Arkansas Assessment Retreat held Monday and Tuesday at Indian Springs Baptist Church. (Photo by Cassidy Higgins (ABSC)
BRYANT, Ark. – Church planting candidates gathered Monday and Tuesday at Indian Springs Baptist Church in Bryant to confirm their calling and become better equipped as they embark on their potential church planting journey.
The two-day Send Network Arkansas Assessment Retreat was the culmination of months of the candidates completing various pre-assessment tools and interviews.
The assessment’s purpose is to identify the strengths and weaknesses to better equip and train the planters. Twelve couples from Arkansas, Oklahoma, Missouri and Illinois participated in this week’s assessment retreat.
The retreat included lots of prayer, candidate interviews, sending church workshops on what it means to sponsor and launch a church plant, and more. Each planter was observed by different assessors on topics like leadership, spiritual health, communication and family dynamics.
“Assessment is so important. It’s not to discover their call to church planting, it’s to affirm their call to church planting,” ABSC Church Planting Team Leader Vince Blubaugh said.
At the end of the retreat, the assessors create a final report for the sponsor churches and discuss the next steps to take with the planters.
Assessment Regional Consultant Shawna Sigmon of the North American Mission Board (NAMB) said she has been “impressed with the thoroughness of the assessors and the care and thought that goes into thinking through what is best for the church, what is best for the planter and the spouse and their family … and just the love for the Lord” she sees in the assessors and the local team.
Assessment Regional Trainer Shawn Kemp of NAMB said candidates are given one of three recommendations – ready, development needed, or redirect.
If given the ready recommendation, the candidate continues their journey of church planting and is given all the support that comes with an official Send Network endorsement.
If they receive a development needed, candidates are given a growth plan to complete in an expressed time frame before the opportunity of a reassessment.
If given a redirect, the assessors feel the candidate should pursue a ministry other than church planting.
“Whatever recommendation we give, it’s a recommendation in love for that couple,” Kemp said.