Church Planting Assessment Center
In addition to supporting our existing churches, ACGC is committed to seeing new Advent Christian churches planted across the United States. Coordinator of church planting Adrian Dixon has developed a number of processes, partnerships and resources to help our churches, conferences and regions plant. One of those partnerships is with Converge (converge.org), an organization that is committed to starting and strengthening churches worldwide. They have had great success at planting more than 950 churches. One factor in their success is the process for perspective planters to start lasting churches. The culmination is a rigorous multi-day assessment for potential planters and their spouses.
Converge has been generous enough to allow ACGC to be a part of these events when we have someone interested in exploring a call to church planting. Last week, April 9-12, I was able to be a part of an assessment center in Turlock, California. I was joined by Adrian Dixon, WACA superintendent Rick Qualls and Rev. Johnson Raju of the Asian Indian Advent Christian Church in Silver Spring, Maryland. We had two couples attending, Edwin and Emely Martinez-Lopez and Jeremiah Paul Jacob and his wife Annie.
Every day was packed with meetings, interviews, presentations and group projects from early morning until late evening. In all, there were 12 couples being assessed, but only two Advent Christian couples. The evaluations were conducted by a team of more than 15 assessors, including successful planters, planters’ wives and professional counselors. Our two couples were encouraged and received extensive feedback and direction. Please pray for these couples, that God would grant them clarity and discernment as they move forward. Also pray that the Lord will raise up more church planters in our midst.