Cross Cultural Church Planting Assessment, Part Three

Last week we took a look at some of the competencies that are important for church planters in North America. Today I want to discuss briefly the idea behind behavioral assessments.
In behavioral assessments a person’s past behavior is a good predictor of their future performance. For example one can make a prediction on a person’s “initiating” ability if you can look at their past performances regarding the ability to create some thing from nothing. If I were to ask you “tell me about a time where you started something from nothing” how would you respond?
If you were to say for example that “when I was a teenager I needed some extra money. I decided to start mowing yards to have more money.  I designed and printed  publicity brochures and handed them out to my neighbors and friends. I got  a few customers and did a pretty good job with their lawns. They told others about my work.  Soon I could not do all of the work so I hired a few others to help me mow the lawns.”  In this case the person started a small business. In my opinion this person demonstrated the ability to start something from scratch.

However, I would then ask a follow up question “can you tell me about a time where you started a ministry?” I ask the “follow up” for I want to try to establish a pattern of that behavior. The more times I can see that pattern in their life then the more accurate of a prediction that I can make.
So to continue this “fictional assessment” let’s assume the person being assessed then answered:
“Well, in college I was talking with some of the guys on our hall and they kept talking about spiritual matters. They had all sorts of questions. I decided to start a bible study for people who were spiritually seeking. We started in my dorm room but it quickly grew too large for the room. I identified some potential leaders in this group. I spent some time training them and then we started these groups on other halls and in several places on campus”. Again this guy demonstrated the ability to start something from nothing.
In the church planting world I would say this person has potential in one key component of being a church planter. He has the ability to start something from nothing. He has shown me this in at least two specific examples from his past experiences.  In church planting assessments “the more longstanding the behavior, the greater its predictive power.” Behavior Description Interviewing, New Accurate, Cost Effective by Tom Janz, Lowell Hellervik, David C. Gilmore, Prentice Hall, 1986.
By indirect observation of behavior you can take a zoom lens into the past. By looking into the persons past we can gain a handle of their behavior consistencies that can allow us to have some understanding of their future performance in a given context. The more recent the past behavior, the greater its predictive power.
Next week I am going to write a post about if this can potentially be applied to a church?