About AssessME

David A Posthuma Tells the Story…Twenty Years Ago and More!

David A. Posthuma tells the story of AssessME.org, which began more than twenty years ago. He is the founder, owner, and systems designer of AssessME.org and E-Church Essentials, LLC. This organization operates as both a business and a ministry, with a mission to assist churches in making disciples of Jesus Christ since 2002. Their goal is to empower churches with tools to create, equip, and mobilize disciples into mature faith and effective ministry service using high-impact assessment programs.

Early Years

David A. Posthuma started developing assessments for AssessME.org in 1994 while working on discipleship tracking models and participating in a think-tank on disciple-making strategies led by Dan Webster. In 1997, he created and tested the initial spiritual gift assessment, GraceGifts. However, in September 2000, the Twin Towers were destroyed in the 9/11 attacks, leading to the collapse of the Christian tech company where David worked as Director of Product Development and Marketing.

The eChurch Vision

However, in 2001, David could not ignore a vision he had of creating an eChurch platform to assist in various aspects of church ministry. Fortunately, Dan Webster organized a trip for David and his wife Tamara to Oregon, where they spent several days working on the details of David’s eChurch vision with consultant and strategic planner Tom Patterson, author of Living the Life You Were Meant to Live. Notably, Tom had been a leader at IBM for many years and had also been a key consultant for the development of Saddleback Ministries in California.

How Could James Say No?

Following the consultations, David met with James Wiersma to share the vision that God had placed on his heart. They were acquainted from working at a tech company before 9/11. David knew that James was a talented internet programmer with a good job, as well as a devout Christian. So, David explained his eChurch vision, offering one year of full-time work and basic health insurance. James requested time to pray about it. David did not expect to hear back from James. However, when they met again, James accepted, stating that he had been praying for an opportunity to use his skills for God’s work, so when the chance arose, how could he say no.

The Founding of E-Church Essentials, LLC

The founding of E-Church Essentials, LLC began with the development of assessment tools, which were released in beta form by 2002. In 2003, E-Church Essentials, LLC was officially launched, along with the introduction of the E-Church Network, the world’s first multi-module eChurch platform. Among the modules offered by the E-Church Network, the assessment module proved to be the most popular. In response to this success, in 2005, the assessment module was launched as a standalone program called AssessME.org.

Mobile First Shuts Down the E-Church Network, AssessME.org Goes Solo

In 2015, due to the advancements in mobile-first internet technologies, a decision was made to rebuild the E-Church Network. However, after evaluating the significant cost associated with this project, it became apparent that AssessME.org was experiencing faster growth than the E-Church Network. Therefore, in 2015, it was strategically decided to shut down the E-Church Network and focus all resources on enhancing AssessME.org.

COVID Almost Kills AssessME.org

Like many other businesses, AssessME.org almost met its demise due to the impact of COVID. However, we are grateful to our faithful Lord and Savior Jesus Christ for helping us survive the storm. Unfortunately, we then faced the harsh reality that many of our church clients had to let go of the individuals managing AssessME within their churches in order to reduce budget expenses during the crisis. With churches not holding services and attendance dwindling, church leadership saw the need for human resource management as unnecessary. As the effects of COVID began to diminish, David realized that the expected residual sales for AssessME.org were no longer feasible. Sales dropped to historic lows, leading to projections that AssessME.org would be forced to close its doors by Fall of 2023. David began preparing for this potential outcome.

A New Partnership Leads to a New AssessME.org

After meeting with several individuals and organizations about the potential purchase of AssessME.org, they all expressed concerns about the impact of the Biden economy on the software service’s relaunch. At this point, my loyal friend and programmer James Wiersma suggested establishing a partnership and developing a plan for his eventual takeover of the company, as David is expected to retire in the future. With our partnership in place, James began the task of rebuilding and fully updating AssessME.org.

The New AssessME.org

In January 2024, AssessME introduced a completely revamped generation of its software. This new version includes enhanced reporting and search functions, as well as full mobile compatibility. Additionally, we transitioned to a membership subscription model, simplifying the onboarding process for churches interested in using AssessME.org.

How We Now Implement Our Mission:

AssessME provides churches with both the disciple-making systems and volunteer mobilization processes that they often lack. Our programs incorporate the following five assessments:

AssessME Client Map

Is your church on our map? Locate our thousands of U.S. client ministries. We also support client churches within 36 countries.

Please Contact AssessME

Please contact us. We value communication with both prospective clients and current client churches…we never charge for our support!

Meet Our Assessment Designer and Owner of AssessME.org

David’s Mission is to Help Church Leaders Make and Mobilize More Disciples of Jesus Christ.

BIO: David A. Posthuma

David A Posthuma is the author and designer of AssessME.org and its assessments. In addition, David has authored three pastoral resource books: “Made for a Mission”, “eShift- The Internet Influenced Church”, and “Active Discipleship”. Moreso, he has also written numerous published ministry resource magazine articles. In short, David excels in systems design, new ministry development, team building, and church consultation.

David graduated from Calvin College in Grand Rapids, MI with a B.A. in Education & Religion. Then, he graduated from Trinity International University in Deerfield, IL with an M.Div.. Finally, he earned two post-graduate Clinical Counseling Certifications from Mac Neal Hospital in Chicago.

Since graduating in 1990, David planted two churches. In addition, he revitalized a dying church in Chicago, and also revitalized two declining churches in Michigan. David began his ministry career by launching a large-church College and Career ministry that grew from four young adults to over 125 in one year. However, in 1998, the Lord redirected David’s ministry path calling upon him to design software solutions for the church market. Today, David manages AssessME.org. So, if you email or call AssessME.org, the vast majority of time David will personally respond.  In addition, David also serves as an author, speaker, conducts leadership workshops, and serves as a church consultant.

David’s books include:

Made for a Mission Book Feature Ad
Active Discipleship Book Feature Ad
eShift Book Feature Ad

What Leaders Say About AssessME.org

Leonard Sweet Recommends of E-Church Essentials, LLC and AssessME.org
Leonard Sweet
Para-Church Leader, Speaker, Author, & Seminary Professor

REGARDING E-CHURCH ESSENTIALS, LLC

“Ever wonder what it was like to have been on the ground floor with Jeff Bezos of Amazon.com or Pierre Omidyar of eBay.com? Wonder no longer. Join Dave Posthuma of E-Church Essentials and hold on –- the future of the church is forming right before your eyes and under your feet.”
Read More

Dan Webster Recommends of E-Church Essentials, LLC and AssessME.org.
Dan Webster
Para-Church Leader, Speaker, Author, Willow Creek Pastor, Crystal Cathedral Pastor

REGARDING E-CHURCH ESSENTIALS, LLC

“Dave Posthuma and E-Church Essentials share my passion to train and inspire leaders to live authentic lives of great impact. Rarely do you meet someone as passionate about the church with the technological genius of David A. Posthuma.
Read More

AssessME.org protects the privacy of our client churches and parachurch ministries. Select the button to the right to read our policy statement.

Demo Modal - test

Some Content 

Any editing will show.

An Investment that Pays for Itself Financially

Pew-warmers don’t tend to give much to their local church. Whereas, people who are invested in personal ministry…particularly ministry service that fits their design and calling…are more likely to give sacrificially. Financial gain is never our motivation for mobilizing people into effective ministry service. But, if AssessME.org can help you convert one non-giver into a consistent giver, your AssessME.org budget is covered!

×
Community Bible Church
Ruth Ott (Top-40 Largest Churches)

“We have partnered with AssessME.org since 2010. AssessME.org has been very useful to help our people better understand how they have been uniquely designed by God.

Based upon AssessME.org data, we have developed a total church volunteer book, as well as a website where people may select from over 80 different volunteer positions. We also have linked our data with Fellowship One™ and are able to give each member who completes the assessments a list of the top five ministries that would best fit their personality and spiritual gifts.

To date, we have assessed more than 10,000 people for ministry fit. By using the AssessMe.org selection process we have been able to consistently identify leaders to teach classes each semester. If you are looking for a process to equip your members in one easy format, I would recommend AssessME.org.”

Ruth Ott
Connections Pastor – Community Bible Church
×
Life Pointe Church
Robb Perry, Executive Pastor

My name is Rob Perry pastor at Lifepointe Church in Raleigh NC.   I understand that you are exploring the services of  AssessME.org and the CCB integration.  We started using AssessME.org way back in 2011 or 2012 with an initial purchase of 500 assessments.   Earlier this year, we bought another 500 packs and activated that CCB integration.  The integration is wonderful because it did away with us having to manually check AssessMe for results and update CCB profiles.  Now, when a person takes the assessment, the results automatically show up in their my.lifepointechurch.com profile (i.e. CCB).  The integration nominal fee was totally worth it.

How do we use the assessments?  We use the results to help equip and develop people who call Lifepointe their church home.    Let me share a few and if you need clarification or want to talk more, feel free to email or call.

  1. As part of a class or teaching series, we have offered assessments to people who wanted to take the next step.  After a person takes the assessment, a leader (volunteer or paid) sits down to review the results and connect the person with opportunities within the church.
  2. The lead pastor has used the tool to pull together people who like to dream and think strategically.  We searched CCB for people who … have attended within the last X timeframe and have a pioneering or strategic leadership style.
  3. Staff leaders and team members have used the results from the ePersonality assessment to understand how their team member is wired and what they can do to maximize that relationship.   This helps carry the church’s mission forward more smoothly.
  4. We use the tool to invite people into special outreach opportunities. As they step into serving, they begin to experience the power of the local church and how you can connect others to Jesus through opportunities that they feel fit them best.  For example, we had a firehouse ask if we could bring our Ice Cream truck to their Open House.  We thought it was a great opportunity and got it ‘covered’.  Well, the team that covered that event said it was very very difficult.  There were lots of people who came to that Fire House event that lost a loved one and coming to this event was therapeutic.  They people covering it were so overwhelmed as they tried to talk to people and hand out ice cream.  The next year, we did the event again.  However, we queried CCB for anyone who is attending who has the  Spiritual Gift of Encouragement (or Pastoral / Encouragement Leadership style).   When the team came back from that event, they said things like … “that was a powerful event”  “I am so glad we were there as a church”  “so many people come who are hurting”  “count me in next time”…    the assessment results made that happen along with the CCB integration.
  5. As we work with our ministry leads, we will only get more and more intentional, and specialized, in leveraging AssessME.org and CCB.   You can’t beat the price of the assessments.  We will also take a look at the NextSteps product as a potential tool to help church members self-feed as part of their spiritual growth.

If I can clarify anything here, please don’t hesitate to reach out.  I know it is a core dump of a lot of misc examples.  Bottom line, we like the partnership and have continued to keep it up!

Rob Perry
Executive Pastor
 
×
Crossroads Church
Michele Gerbrandt, GoServe Director

We are a multisite church who has used CCB now for almost 9 years. We also use AssessME.org for our congregation to explore their spiritual gifts and as a part of our discipleship process.

I was so excited when the integration happened, before that I would have to hand enter the results into CCB. This had become overwhelming and not possible to keep up. So, for the one-time $99 fee, I was thrilled to solve that problem. In CCB when we have specific serving positions open, it is great to do a search in CCB on particular gifts and reach out to people. It has really helped with our prayer team and often prayers are not people who speak out. By having people’s spiritual gifts as part of our database is has enriched the data.

If you have any further questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out.

Grateful,

Michele Gerbrandt
goServe and Communications Director 
 
×
Mid-Cities Community Church
Pastor Mickey Eckles

I’m writing briefly to tell you about our experience with AssessME.org and CCB. We used to do spiritual gifts testing on paper, and as you well know, that’s hard to keep up with. We love that the AssessME.org tool allows for use of the charismatic gifts, automatic integration into our database is key. The fact that we also get a leadership assessment, personality profile, and ministry interests on individuals is icing on the cake. It allows us to run reports on all of these profile results and has helped us with recruiting for needs and areas of ministry coverage.

We also use the AssessME.org tool in a big way with leadership development. It has helped us learn more about potential hires, how someone is wired that we are trying to understand better etc. We have a form on CCB that allows people to purchase and complete the AssessME.org profile. Many of our groups use this as part of their small group experience. We are about to start taking all new members through the AssessME.org tool as well. We take about 30-40 people a month through a newcomers process (we call it Connect 4) and AssessME.org is about to be part of that experience for all new people placing membership at Mid-Cities. People love seeing how God has wired them. It also helps us more effectively connect them to serving as well. By the way, David’s book, Made for a Mission, is an excellent read for leaders and in a class setting.

Anyone can go online and register to take the AssessME.org profiles. It’s so great to get automatic integration into our database. We currently have 344 people that have taken the AssessME.org profile, which is about 23% of our regular adult attendance.

Mickey Eckles
Adult Ministries Pastor 
×
Fair Haven Ministries
Pastor Tom Elenbaas
Fair Haven Ministries Pastor Tom Elenbaas Fair Haven Ministries Pastor Tom Elenbaas To Our Partners in Ministry: At Fair Haven Ministries, we have been using AssessMe.org for a year now, and it’s been wonderful. As we build an equipping ministry, knowing the combination of Leadership Style, Giftedness, Personality, and Skills is highly valuable. It’s so easy for ministry leaders to search in for people whom God has already uniquely designed to fit the areas in which our ministry needs them. How true it is that God provides the people where he leads in ministry – and AssessMe.org helps to make the connection. The AssessMe.org staff has also been very helpful to us in working with our church management software…. Many of our people…who have taken the assessments have been encouraged, and valued them greatly. One couple found confirmation for a call to move their whole family to Texas for a new church plant. Small Groups have used the assessments to grow deeper in discipleship and service. Ministry Leaders are helping their volunteers to better understand themselves and to help them get involved in areas which are better suited to the way God has uniquely designed them. Fair Haven Ministries even used the assessments with our youth in an intensive discipleship ministry. Our ministry now uses AssessMe.org as a required part of our discipleship process for new members and new leaders. We have also done a whole church series of sermons that revolved around the uniqueness of each member of the body that God uses to change the world, and we used AssessMe.org as a key piece of that series. If you haven’t used it, and particularly if you’re still doing data entry or fiddling with endless paper and binders, I suggest trying it out. Fair Haven Ministries Pastor
 
Tom Elenbaas
Fair Haven Ministries
 
×
Susan Ketcham 
Denominational Client: RCA Church Multiplication Division

Dear AssessME.org:

In my position, a major responsibility is to provide dependable assessments for potential church planters for the Reformed Church in America. This assessment tool has become a standard part of our assessment process for two years now. I have found it to be very effective as it helps to paint a picture of the individual and how God has already been at work in their lives, equipping them for the work He has for them to do. I recommend it all the time! Thanks for your fine work. What a blessing to the church!

 
Susan Ketcham
RCA Church Multiplication
 
×
Leonard Sweet
Para-Church Leader, Speaker, Author, & Seminary Professor

REGARDING E-CHURCH ESSENTIALS, LLC –

“Ever wonder what it was like to have been on the ground floor with Jeff Bezos of Amazon.com or Pierre Omidyar of eBay.com? Wonder no longer. Join Dave Posthuma of E-Church Essentials and hold on –- the future of the church is forming right before your eyes and under your feet.”

REGARDING THE BOOK eSHIFT –

“I expect this book to stir controversy, but of the best sort: Eye-opening and mind-altering perspectives on what it might mean for the church to embrace the internet today as the primary delivery system for learning and faith development as our Protestant ancestors adopted the book as their primary delivery system in the Reformation Church.”

Leonard Sweet, best-selling author and professor (Drew University, George Fox University), and chief contributor to sermons.com

Leonard Sweet
Church Futurist, Author, Teacher & Speaker
×
Dan Webster
Para-Church Leader, Speaker, Author, Willow Creek Pastor, Crystal Cathedral Pastor

REGARDING E-CHURCH ESSENTIALS, LLC –

“Dave Posthuma and E-Church Essentials share my passion to train and inspire leaders to live authentic lives of great impact. Rarely do you meet someone as passionate about the church with the technological genius of David A. Posthuma. I love how he is helping churches by leading them into the technological future. Pay attention to what he is doing and access his outrageous resource. It will help you as you both grow and organize your church.”

REGARDING THE BOOK eSHIFT –

“The church has been choking for decades on the naive assumption that the world hasn’t changed. eShift provides the necessary Heimlich Maneuver to clear her throat so that the fresh air of life and relevance can return. If you are over 40 this writing will be a wake-up call. If you are under 25 you will shout Hallelujah that someone has finally stated things as they truly are. Either way, eShift is a gift to the church. Let’s hope it’s one that is opened and applied, not ignored.”

Dan Webster
Authentic Leadership, Willow Creek, Crystal Cathedral
 
×
Connections Pastor

 

We’ve been using AssessME.org for approximately 16 months now and have found that the assessments have helped us with our discipleship model, as well as, serving opportunities within the church. We use the assessments on the front end of our process, membership class, to help our body identify and understand not only their spiritual gifts but also, how the gifts can be used in various roles within and outside of the church. Since AssessME.org is directly connected CCB, we can easily search for a specific gift, leadership style or even personality profile to help fill open leadership roles within our discipleship model. 

The assessments are very easy to understand and transferable from a church setting to a business application, which creates additional value in the AssessME.org process.

Blessings,

Bud Darr

Connections Pastor

North Metro Church

678.290.7830x 122

northmetro.org

×