This overview for local pastors or leaders provides an overview your role and Reliant's role as we work together in the Missionary Assessment Process. We want your team to be strong. So we're here to help you evaluate up to seven areas critical areas for missionary success. We're detailed but we're also looking for the big picture so you can make Spirit-led choices about how to add members to your team. The Reliant Assessment is more than just an interview to satisfy Reliant's hiring requirements (although we do that). Our Assessment give our church or church or ministry a confidence that their candidate has been given a holistic screening. Reliant strives to provide some things that are not as easy for a church plant or small ministry to do, such as: Reliant is a joint partner with the local church or ministry in assessing candidates. Reliant works as a "deacon ministry"—both serving and leading. We lead by providing: We serve by: Our goal is discernment and agreement between the two parties. The church has a key perspective that Reliant does not have, and they are who we are seeking to serve. Reliant has a key perspective that the church does not have, and you depend on us to share that. We conduct our independent evaluation in the following areas, and then collaborate with you (the church or ministry) to make our assessments: And as applicable: We maintain detailed standards for each of these. See the Reliant Assessment Manual or for future missionaries see the Reliant Summary for Applicants. All phases of the process is organized on at our online Assessment Hub. The Hub is located at go.reliant.org, and is available 24 hours a day for candidates, local leaders, and Reliant representatives to access. Candidates can know where they are on where they are in the process. Candidates and local leaders create accounts on the site—our team is available for help on using the site. A place to start. Candidates are invited to create an account at our Assessment Hub as far as a year or two ahead of when they intend to submit their application. They can learn about Reliant and begin preparations for assessment and fundraising. Formal application covering: We call our application and interview process an Assessment, because we believe it reflects the holistic process. It acknowledges that we are typically not making black and white decisions, but participating with the local ministry in the complicated work of God calling and maturing someone for ministry. The Reliant assessment process seeks to gain a clear and honest picture of the strengths and weaknesses of an individual candidate. However, we also acknowledge the essential role of God's Holy Spirit in the process, and we seek to make each decision prayerfully, guided by scripture, with counsel, and conferring with our local church and ministry partners. As we evaluate, we will often note areas of strength or areas of concern along the following lines. You don't have to use this language in your local interview and assessment, but we'll use it to communicate about ours. Type Description Action GREEN Ideal Candidate Accept. "YELLOW FLAG" Area of Concern. Not ideal. Possibly a wisdom issue. Noted in church report for awareness or discussion. Not a stopping issue. Most candidates will have some yellow flags. "RED FLAG" Significant Concern. Likely barrier to successful ministry unless addressed. Requires discussion and action plan with local church or ministry. Documented with one of three outcomes: AUTOMATIC DISQUALIFYING Unhirable Condition. Rare. By policy, including possible links to legal or insurance issues, Reliant will not hire at this time. Required deferral or rejection. Documented exception only from Executive Director and Missionary Resources Director. While we have relatively few Automatic Disqualifying conditions, we do sometimes suggest "Deferral" to a church and candidate who may need to improve an area. This approach underscores our belief that God really does effect change in life, character, and circumstances as we follow Jesus. Many Reliant missionaries who have received an initial Deferral in assessment, were able to improve the situation, and are full-time missionaries with Reliant today. As the local leader, missionary manager, and/or hiring pastor—you hold the crucial place in the Reliant process. In fact, Reliant does not accept candidates who do not have a sending church or ministry. Often it takes years to solidify a call from God to vocational ministry. We know that you are involved with people well before Reliant formally appears in the process. While discipling potential missionaries or church planters in ministry skill, Christian character, we encourage you to take advantage of Reliant recruiting events we try to schedule every year at convenient locations, such as campus networks and church planting events. If your candidate is less than a year from submitting their formal application with Reliant, encourage them to create an account on our Assessment Hub and enter our Connection Phase. The information there may help mitigate any surprises later on. Our church and ministry partners have a variety of styles and values on recruiting, many evaluate their candidates over time. Reliant also requests a formal interview / assessment be conducted by the local church or ministry. Our interview framework is flexible enough to meet your local values while consistent enough that Reliant missionaries can experience similar level of wise scrutiny across all our networks. Reliant standards. Reliant will ask questions in the major categories of: Walk with God and Spiritual Formation, Call to Ministry, Moral Conduct and Emotional Health, Ministry Skills, MTD Readiness, and if applicable: Spousal Support and International Readiness. Don't be afraid to duplicate these topics: in fact, we depend on it. The Your local church standards. There may be other areas you want to evaluate beyond what Reliant evaluates. For instance, you may have more specific doctrinal requirements than Reliant, or want to investigate how well this person fits with your current local team. Once the applicant has completed the Documentation Phase. Local Interview Phase and Reliant Interview Phase, they will wait in the Decision and Discernment Phase. Because of our principles from Scripture we stand by a policy of non-discrimination in our mobilization and assessment process.Why Assessment?
Have Confidence In Your Team
We Do Things You Can't
How does Reliant and the local ministry work together?
Reliant Assessment Standards
How Does It Work?
Online Assessment Hub
Six Phases in the Process
Connection Phase Documentation Phase Local Assessment The interview and reference from the local church or ministry. Reliant Assessment Interview with a Reliant Assessor, reviewing all previous documents, including church notes. Decision and Discernment Phase Collaboration of Reliant and local church or ministry leader to accept or defer the applicant. Provisionally Accepted Phase Preparing for Reliant training. Our Language
Assessment
Discernment
Areas of Concern: Yellow Flags & Red Flags
Yellow Flag examples
Red Flag examples
Deferment
What do I do?
Prepare your candidate
Interview your candidate
Simple Steps
Questions to Ask and Topics to Cover
Suggestions & Tips
Make a decision with Reliant about your candidate
Non-Discrimination
5 Comments
Julie Thomas
Hannah De Oliveira user-af632 (and you can tag anyone else) - The Field Manual is now going to have a space for Supervisors separate from MTD Coaches. Should this page and its children pages stay in the MTD Coach Space or move over to the Supervisor Space?
Hannah De Oliveira
Julie Thomas I'll let Courtney speak into this as the Assessment Coordinator but from my experience, it would fit better under the Supervisor space as they are typically the ones assessing their candidates on the local level, not the MTD coach.
user-af632
Hi Julie Thomas, yes Hannah is right! This should go to the Supervisor space. Thank you for checking!
Julie Thomas
Jenni Saniuk, Jon Crawford - Just tagged you in another comment, but realized that there is a whole section in the Supervisor Space with this content. Could you add this to your queue of Solomon pages to review? We won't make any additional updates to the Published pages until your team makes edits. (cc: Kristina Lilly)
Jon Crawford
Hey Julie Thomas- Two things on this as well as your other comment:
Thanks Julie and Kristina Lillyfor all your work on this!