No, I’m not talking about their hair styles, the clothes they wear or even their gender or ethnicity. Features like this might be important to fit specific contexts but the deeper question is about the characteristics they exhibit.

The question of what a successful church planter looks like was a question Dr Charles Ridley had when he did his doctoral thesis and researched church plants across the USA and Canada. The findings that came from this important work are regarded by many as the gold standard of church planter assessment and form the basis of the assessment processes used by many church planting ministries.

Ridley along with (Dr) Bob Logan have recently taken their work in church planter assessment further with fresh research. Interestingly, the list of desired characteristics hasn’t changed, but significant fresh insights have been gained.

Before we list the characteristics, here are some frequently asked questions and responses that you may find useful.

Question: If the research was from North American church plants, are the findings useful in a different cultural context?

Response: Yes. That’s because the research findings are based on principles that aren’t restricted to a particular culture. For example, faith is still faith – irrespective of the culture the church planter is in.

Question: Would a different set of characteristics apply depending on whether a mega church or a micro church network were being planted?

Response: The core characteristics apply irrespective of the size or style of church. For example, if you are married, it wouldn’t be wise to plant either a mega church or a micro church network without the whole hearted agreement of your spouse!

Question: What happens if the assessment process demonstrates some areas of weakness in a person where ideally they should have strengths?

Response: This doesn’t necessarily mean the end of the line, but rather it may indicate that more experience and coaching are necessary to strengthen the areas that are weak.

Question: What if a person definitely feels that God has called them to church planting but the assessment process has indicated that they wouldn’t be a suitable candidate to lead a church plant?

Response: It may well be that the call to plant a church is genuine, but the role that they are suitable for is as a team member rather than team leader.

So, what are the behavioural characteristics of a successful church planter?

There are 13 characteristics as follows:

1. Visioning capacity
2. Intrinsically motivated
3. Creates ownership of ministry
4. Spousal cooperation
5. Relates to the unchurched
6. Effectively builds relationships
7. Committed to church growth
8. Responsive to community
9. Flexible and adaptable
10. Builds group cohesiveness
11. Resilience
12. Exercises faith

Whilst being strong in all 13 areas is important, Logan and Ridley would say that the first 6 in the list are critical.

“The successful church planter must have a basic competence in each of these areas to begin with. If a candidate is really low on one of these areas, it’s a warning sign. If a candidate is really low on two areas, he or she really shouldn’t plant a church, at least not in the primary planter role.”

Logan Leadership: Knock-out Factors for Church Planters

One other factor that is important to understand is that in assessing prospective planters you aren’t looking for answers about how they would mobilise a team, but instead you’d be looking to discover how they had created cohesiveness in a team in the past. That is, you’d be looking for established patterns of behaviour rather than good intentions about how something might work in the future.

More information about the 13 Behavioural Characteristics Assessment process can be found at the following two links:

Logan Leadership: What Does It Take To Be A Church Planter – The Timeless Core Competencies

Churchplanting.com: Church Planter Assessment – 13 Characteristics and Test

Is a good assessment process really worthwhile?

I’ll leave the response to this question to Robin Wood:

“On average, the church plant failure rate is around 50%. Using this assessment process (The 5P’s), I have watched church planters with this particular profile succeed 97 to 99% of the time. Huge difference!”

Churchplanting.com: Characteristics Of A Successful Church Planter