Got back to our room at 9 after a 12 hour day. When we got together this morning we started out with a little worship and then just a little intro. Our first project was a case study where we broke up into groups of 4 or 5 (Chris and I were separated, as were all spouses), then we were given a church plant situation gone bad and we had to break it down, figure out what went wrong, what happened, and if it were us would we have taken the job. Anytime we were doing activity there were a group of assessors watching how we interact with each other, skills we brought to the table, group dynamic, etc. And there was this insane time limit on everything that was so stressful! It's kind of hard knowing someone is watching you all of the time. I caught myself looking at everyone and worrying too much what they were all thinking!
We came back together and had a presentation on the strengths finder test we took before we got there. It was a very interesting/enlightening presentation, and Chris and I are definitely becoming keenly aware of the type of people we need around us to have a successful team. Especially considering the fact that we end up so similar on most of these things! There are a lot of good things about that, but there's a necessity to have people that don't think like us around us! All of these tests and processes are just fascinating because not only do you learn more about yourself, but you can understand everyone better and see how to better relate to those around you. We took a lunch break after this.
Lunch/eating times are awesome because not only we get to build relationship with the other candidates, but we get to know some of these amazing assessors as well. The amount of care, time, and investment these people are making into us is almost overwhelming. One time this afternoon I almost started crying just thinking about how grateful I am to be here, these people here that care so much about wanting God's best for us, and all of the people in our life that have been praying for us, thinking about us, texting us, and have contributed to us being here. If you're reading this and you are in that category, thank you. We love you.
After lunch we had an evangelism interview, one on one. This was our philosophy on evangelism, questions about how we've been evangelizing in our personal life, and how we would lead someone to the Lord. That was kind of tough, but not as bad as I thought it would be!
We then had another group case study. We were given an example of a city and some info, and we then had to come up with a church plant out of that which included philosophy of ministry, strategy, vision, etc. This was also timed. Chris and I came to the conclusion when we got back together that we both felt like we sucked a little bit at these timed things! Not feeling quite as confident as yesterday :)
There was another presentation over our final test, the Golden Portrait Personality profile, which is very similar to the Myers- Briggs test, for those of you that are familiar with that. We had lots of time for questions about these profiles after the presentation. Then eat again!
The last task of the day was probably the craziest. It was an Apprentice style (the Donald Trump reality show) task. All of us (20 of us) were given a city that we were planting a church in. We were to come up with a presentation to pitch to a business man with some big bucks to persuade him to invest into and fund the plant. The goal was to plant a church and within seven years plant five more out of that one. This means we staff the thing, study demographics, cast vision, have strategy, come up with how much money we need, all of that. We make a 25-30 minute presentation tomorrow where everyone has to speak. 20 people. 20 I think I have the best idea leader people. You imagine that environment! It got a little crazy at times, but I was very impressed/proud of my husband. Of course, when things get out of hand, he shines because he steps right in and is able to sum up what everyone is saying and get on track. I can tell the people in the group respect him as a leader. And again, of course, everyone is watching us. So we will see what happens tomorrow when we make this massive presentation!!
The last thing we did was during all of that group time, they pulled couples out one at a time for a counseling interview. This was with one of the assessors that is a really amazing marriage/family counselor who also professionally does these personality things- in other words she knows what she's doing! She just had a personal time with us as a couple, asking us some questions and making suggestions for us. Really important things like how we guard our time and our hearts, stuff like that. The kind of stuff that will kill you in ministry if you don't have a handle on it. It was a very encouraging/ sweet time.
I'm not even going to proofread anything I just wrote. So it's highly likely that there are lots of mistakes/things that don't make sense. That's unlike me, but I'm zonked. Also said I would take pictures today but I didn't. Oh well. Tomorrow perhaps. Must get some rest. Even after not feeling so great and assured about ourselves today, it is still an amazing time. I am loving every minute of this.
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