Guest blogger Steve Stroope here, in my book Tribal Church I talk about what I look for in a church planter. For the last 3 days we have looked at the first 3 characteristics of a church planter:

1. The Church Planter should be a strong leader.

2. The Church Planter needs to have strong teaching skills.

3. The Church Planter should have some prior vocational experience and success in that field of endeavor.

And today we’ll wrap up this series of posts by looking at our final characteristic:

This is the most important of the four characteristics…

A Church Planter needs to be a Person of High Character.

There is obviously no simple evaluation tool to measure this attribute, but without it you’re asking for trouble.

That’s one reason why it is vitally important to know the candidate extremely well or know someone who does.

The investment we make is too large to leave this issue to chance or to try and determine character with only a couple of interviews.

Take time before making a decision to look into past history, check references and talk to people that can give you insight in the candidate’s character.

Oh, and you’d be amazed by what you can learn about someone by a careful read of their Facebook and Twitter pages.

Evaluate what kinds of posts they share and the activities they like to participate in.

Of all the essential characteristics we’ve looked at this week, Character is by far the hardest to determine.

That said, no other quality has so much riding on it, so it’s worth whatever time and energy it takes to do your homework.

I hope this brief blog series has been helpful. If you have not yet read my book Tribal Church, I would encourage you to pick it up today and see how God might speak to you as you read it.

Steve

Editor’s note: Don’t forget – Nelson is hosting a FREE Church Planting Webinar on “The Top 3 Church Planting Mistakes” next week.  If you are a church planter, this is one online event that you will want to attend. It is free for church planters.

Sign up online at Church Leader Insights by CLICKING HERE

© Nelson Searcy. All Rights Reserved.

About Nelson Searcy

Nelson Searcy is an experienced church growth strategist, pastor, church planter and coach, consulting with churches around the world. As founder of Church Leader Insights and the Renegade Pastors Network, he has personally trained more than 3,500 church leaders in over 45 denominations through live events, seminars and monthly coaching. Nelson is also the Founding and Lead Pastor of The Journey Church, with locations across New York City and in Boca Raton, FL. Nelson and his church routinely appear on lists such as “The 50 Most Influential Churches” and “The 25 Most Innovative Leaders.” He is the author of over 100 church growth resources and 18+ books, including The Renegade Pastor: Abandoning Average in Your Life, Ministry and The Difference Maker: Using Your Everyday Life for Eternal Impact, and At the Cross with the People Who Were There. He and his wife, Kelley, have one son, Alexander.