An honest self-examination — using the very areas Send Network evaluates.
If you pursue planting in the U.S. Track A, Send Network will walk you through a formal assessment. Do not fear it. Its purpose is not to judge you but to give you and your sending church a clear, honest picture of your strengths, your growth areas, and your readiness — so you build on rock, not sand. You can begin examining yourself now, long before you apply, using the same areas the assessors use.
Send Network currently measures a planter's readiness across nine essential areas, and the assessment also examines your theology and preaching. Here they are in plain language, each with a few honest questions to ask yourself.
1 Calling
Can you clearly tell the story of your salvation and your call to be the lead planter? Is your motivation a genuine love for lost people, and has your call been confirmed by mature believers, your sending church, and — if married — a spouse who shares it?
Can I explain my call simply, without rambling or hedging?
Is my deepest motive the lost — or ambition, escape, or proving myself?
Who, on their own, has affirmed this calling in me?
2 Emotional & spiritual health
This is the inner life: your walk with God, your spiritual habits, your rhythms of rest and work, your self-awareness, and your honesty about hidden struggles — including purity, addictions, and whether you have real accountability and, where needed, a recovery plan. The aim is not shame; it is to make sure you are walking in health before you carry others.
Do I have real rhythms of rest, or do I run on empty?
Who truly knows the hidden parts of my life?
Am I fighting any battle alone that needs to come into the light?
3 Family dynamics & relationships
Your ability to build and keep healthy relationships — with believers and with lost people. If you are married, the vitality of your marriage and whether it is strong enough to bear the strain of planting; whether you and your spouse are a unified team. If single, the strength of your accountable friendships.
Is my marriage strong enough to bear added weight — or will planting expose cracks?
Does my spouse share this call with the same conviction I do?
Do I have lasting, honest friendships, or a trail of strained ones?
4 Vision
Whether you can articulate — and begin to implement — a clear vision for the church and a strategy for the people and place you are called to.
Can I describe the specific people and community I'm called to?
Do I have a plan, or only a dream?
5 Leadership
A track record of recruiting, developing, and multiplying teams; leading people in a Christ-like way; handling conflict and, where needed, church discipline; raising support; and an entrepreneurial readiness to start something from nothing.
Have I actually led people, built a team, and handed leadership off?
How have I handled real conflict — not in theory, but in life?
Am I developing other leaders, or doing everything myself?
6 Communication & social skills
How clearly you communicate, and how you relate to strangers and potential partners — your warmth, self-awareness, and ability to build trust. Much of planting is meeting new people and earning their confidence.
Do people generally warm to me?
Can I build trust with someone I've just met?
7 Missional engagement
Whether you personally evangelize and live as a missionary where you already are: having gospel conversations, knowing and loving lost people by name, understanding your community's makeup, and practicing hospitality.
When did I last share the gospel with someone?
Who are the lost people I actually know by name?
Do I really understand the community I live in?
8 Disciple-making
Not just leading people to Christ, but making disciples who make disciples — a reproducible pattern of multiplication, not a one-man show.
Whom am I discipling right now?
Has anyone I discipled gone on to disciple someone else?
9 Theology & teaching
Sound doctrine and the ability to handle and preach the Word: a clear grasp of the gospel, salvation, and the person of Christ; alignment with the Baptist Faith & Message 2000; faithful, text-driven preaching; and wisdom in applying Scripture to real life and pastoral care.
Can I clearly articulate the gospel and the core doctrines of the faith?
Can I preach a passage faithfully, drawing my points from the text itself?
Do I affirm the Baptist Faith & Message 2000?
How the assessment process actually works Track A
It's a pathway, not a single test. In broad strokes:
Interest form & application You begin by expressing interest and applying through your sending church and Send Network.
Pre-assessment questionnaires Several online questionnaires (completed by you and, if married, your spouse) help gauge readiness across your planting capacity, personal character, and marriage health.
The assessment retreat If invited, you attend a two-day, in-person retreat where experienced assessors explore your strengths and growth areas across the areas above. (Regions charge a registration fee — for example, one 2026 California retreat listed $399; confirm your region's cost.)
Results & a growth plan You receive honest feedback and a growth plan to work through with your sending church.
The honest outcomes — all three are a gift
The retreat may affirm that you're ready to move into Send Network training; or that you're not yet ready and would benefit from development and reassessment later; or, in some cases, that planting is not your path at all. That last word can sting — but receiving it early is a mercy that can spare you painful, discouraging years. Clarity, in any direction, is care.