Psychological Evaluation of
Ministry Personnel
The
evaluation begins with an email, telephone or fax referral from the supervising
pastor or the personnel director of a missionary sending agency. Then the
candidate should contact this office to personally arrange a time for the
evaluation process. The fee will be paid at the time of the evaluation either
by the candidate or the agency requesting the referral. The fee for a usual
evaluation is $800.00 covering a two-to-three-hour face-to-face individual clinical
interview. This fee also includes all materials needed in the administration of
the standardized psychological tests. (Generally consisting of two tests, with
administration, scoring, and interpretation) and a written report.
Additionally, there is a time for telephone consultation between the evaluator
and personnel director to clarify any parts of the report and/or to answer any
questions.
Usually,
the evaluation can be completed within one full day (up to three hours of
interview and three or four hours for paper and pencil testing). While not
required, a two-day arrangement is generally recommended because the second day
can be used as a feedback time for the candidate. A confidential written report
containing the findings and analyses usually takes about two to four weeks to
be emailed to the supervising pastor or the missionary sending agency.
Upon
the first meeting of the face-to-face interview, the candidate will sign an
authorization to release the confidential findings of the evaluation. In other
words, the candidate will be informed that the confidentiality that exists in
this evaluation process is conditional. The candidate will be made clear of
this point. The candidate will fill out a four-page biographical questionnaire
to establish a written record of family history, educational and occupation
history, ministry and spiritual history; drug and/or alcohol use history,
family history of serious mental illness; history of emotional, physical or
sexual abuse; history of destructive behaviors; and personal perceptions of
strengths and weaknesses.
The
candidate will take at least one or two computer scorable and standardized[1]
psychological tests. The results of these instruments will be used as objective
evidence to complement the subjective-clinical findings for the formulation of
the impression, analyses and the final recommendation. The report will
generally include areas of strengths and weaknesses for the personal benefit of
the candidate.
After
the report is forwarded to the supervising pastor or the personnel director of
the missionary agency, this office will be available for a limited time of
telephone consultation to clarify any unclear items.
[1] Standardized tests are instruments that have been normed and researched to establish a standard of reliability and validity. These instrument will include the MMPI: The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory; MCMI: The Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory. MCR: The Marriage Counseling Report (for couples). The latest versions of these instruments will be used. Chinese translations of these can be made available to candidate whose primary language proficiency is Chinese.