Get assessed
to plant a church

The assessment process is vital to ensure potential planters are prepared for the hard yards ahead.

Planting a church is hard work. Reach Australia wants to inspire, equip and unleash as many new church planters as possible. This starts with a rigorous assessment process.

We use a detailed process and interview developed by church planters to assess whether you have the character, conviction and competency to plant a church.

Our church planters are supported through one to one coaching, a genuine peer network, training events and resourcing.

Join a network committed to seeing new churches evangelised into existence across Australia.

"Church planting was unknown to me, something I’d never thought of doing. The assessment process affirmed that I could plant a church.”

Ben Ho
Church planter of Centenary Evangelical Church in Brisbane

The assessment process

Phase #1: Steps to complete before the assessment interview

  • Do the Church Planter Questionnaire online
  • A face to face or phone interview with someone from the Reach Australia church planting team
  • Fill out the application form, including listing the names of 7 character references, from minister/pastor, friend/peer and someone you have been discipling
  • Complete a Ministry and Planting Questionnaire. If married, wives complete Wives Questionnaire including providing the names of 3 references
  • Write a church plant strategy of your plans, hopes and questions around your potential future church plant

Phase #2: Assessment interview

  • Once you have completed the assessment documents we will arrange for the assessment interview to take place. If married, this includes spouses. The assessment interview takes about 2.5 hours to complete and will be undertaken with experienced Australian church planters and/or people in ministry.

Phase #3: Report and recommendations

  • At the completion of the interview you’ll get an assessment report and recommendations.

"The people who assessed me really cared about me. It wasn’t about ticking a box, it was - “How can we help you? How can we put you in the right direction for growth?”

Thomas Kite

“I was very reluctant to do the very long questionnaire. I was quite overwhelmed by how many questions there were. But the forced self-reflection was actually just what I needed.”

“Sometimes you and your circle become a bit of an echo chamber. It’s great to have an outside perspective to press into things and make you think differently.”

“The process felt like a huge amount of trouble and inconvenience to my life, but it helped me be aware of how my weaknesses could affect my family and the church plant.”

“It was so thorough. The things they said I needed to work on were spot on.”

“The questionnaire enabled the assessors to really understand my strengths, weaknesses, temptations and blind spots.”

“Getting assessed is a lot of work. But it’s worth it. The assessors are very sincere and generous in their efforts to understand you.”

“Assessment pushes you to know who you are and what you bring to the table. Then someone pushes back and asks questions. It’s uncomfortable, but helpful.”

“It’s a humbling experience, especially as we thought about the demands church planting places on families. Assessment has helped me understand that I need to invest more into the home.”

“It helps you to examine what’s in your heart and your desires for gospel outreach. It gives you multiple lenses on your own character - your weaknesses and strengths.”

“The process isn’t telling you exactly who you need to be. It’s about using the way God has made you and shaped you, and using those strengths for his kingdom.”

“It’s a rigorous process. There are a lot of heart-searching questions. It can be quite confronting, but it’s done in a pastoral way.”

“The time and effort is costly, especially if you’re already in full-time ministry. But the benefits far outweigh the costs and time that you put into it.”

“Even if you don’t get a green light to go ahead with church planting, the benefits of doing it still outweighs the cost of time. You’ll get clarity on what would be best for you.”

"It gives you an opportunity to self-evaluate. Is this really what I want to do now that I’ve understood more about myself?"

“I learned I needed to focus on team-based ministry. I’m not the kind of person who can just go out on their own. I really love how assessment brought that out.”

Got 15 minutes?
Do the Church Planter Questionnaire

Find out which church planting model might suit you. Get the results emailed to you instantly.

Got 5 minutes?

Read this article featuring four people who have gone through the assessment process.

Got 10 minutes?

Listen to 25 short episodes on the Church Planting Australia podcast. Find answers to all your questions about the who, where and how of planting healthy, growing and evangelistic churches across Australia. 

Got 30 minutes?

Listen to this episode from The One Thing podcast on the assessment process.

Drop us a message to apply to get assessed

Got questions?

We’ve developed the Church Planter Questionnaire  to provide clear feedback on your suitability for church planting and ministry and your strengths.

This is the first step in the assessment process. After you’ve completed it we’ll organise a conversation between you and one of our Reach Australia church planting team to discuss the results and your suitability for church planting.

After assessment, if your outcome is recommended or recommended with conditions, here’s what you get:

  • Follow-up call – Derek Hanna will talk you through your report, clarify and answer any questions.
  • A coach – We’ll connect you to a coach who can keep pushing you along, someone who can regularly speak into your lives and your context. This is mandatory for the planter, optional and highly recommended for the wife. 
  • Free holidays for you and your spouse (if married) –  We recognise planting is hard, and so generous donors have made it possible for planters to spend 2 days away to enrich their marriage in each of the first 3 years of planting.  The Refresh conference is in September each year, held on the Gold Coast in a five star hotel, all expenses (except for flights) paid.
  • Bootcamp – A three day boot camp to help you connect with other planters (husbands and wives), to build peer planter connections from across the country, and to keep sharpening your skills and convictions around planting and reaching the lost.  
  • Online resources – Access to online training and resources. These are a combination of material from other planters across the network and training we’ve built to help you prepare and launch well. 

The ideal time is about 12-24 months from your anticipated launch date. We encourage all our planters to spend the time preparing well before starting a new church. A long lead time gives you the option to work on areas of growth, build a launch team and begin praying for and evangelising your community.

You may also be at Bible College and keen to explore whether church planting is something you should pursue when you look for employment. A church planting assessment can help you make good and clear decisions about whether planting is something you should be looking to do in the future. 

If you are unsure whether you are a church planter, do not have a clear conviction, lack giftedness, are uncertain of what you are to do, do not have a timeline in place, but are still contemplating whether church planting is for you, the Church Planter Questionnaire would be a good place to start. You’ll chat with someone from the Reach Australia Team once this has been completed. It might be that it’s not the right time for you to complete the full assessment.

It takes between 15-20 hours to complete the required documentation for the assessment process. That’s because we care about potential planters and want to make sure they are well prepared for the hard yards ahead. There are several documents to fill in for both the potential planters and their spouses. We also collect references from a wide range of people that our potential planters and their wives have done life and ministry with. Applicants will also be required to submit a sermon for evaluation and prepare a detailed church planting plan. Once all the documentation is collected there’s a 2 hour assessment interview. Planting couples will be assessed by three experienced people in ministry, including one couple.

 

It’s worth persevering if you intend on breaking new ground in Australia. This process will you do the work on the ground, whatever stage your plant is up to.

You may also be at Bible College and keen to explore whether church planting is something you should pursue when you look for employment. A church planting assessment will help you make decisions about whether planting is something you should be looking to do in the future. 

If you are unsure whether you are a church planter, do not have a clear conviction, lack giftedness, are uncertain of what you are to do, do not have a timeline in place, but are still contemplating whether church planting is for you, the Church Planter Questionnaire would be a good place to start. You’ll chat with someone from the Reach Australia Team once this has been completed. It might be that it’s not the right time for you to complete the full assessment.

It’s free. Generous Christians who want to see our nation won for Christ partner with Reach Australia to cover 100% of the assessment costs.