Consider our seasoned ministry experts who are available to help your church or your ministry organization.
Don Wiggins, M. Div., D.Min.
Biography: Don has been serving churches for over 40 years. After completing his educational training, he began his ministry service as a pastor for congregations within The Christian and Missionary Alliance denomination in Florida, Georgia, and Illinois. He earned his M.Div. and D. Min. at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. Later he served as ministry professor at Toccoa Falls College and Crown College. His leadership strengths were further affirmed by being selected to serve the C&MA as vice president for Church Ministries. There Don pursued training with IDAK to specialize in assessing pastor candidates and guiding pastors who experience conflicts with their congregation. Don led the denomination to incorporate IDAK’s assessment process for all church districts. Today Don and wife Linda live in Carver, MN and are the parents of five married children with 16 grandchildren. He serves as superintendent for the C&MA North Central District with offices near Minneapolis, Minnesota. Don co-authored with John Bradley, IDAK president, a book on pastor candidate assessment chronicling over 25 years of church candidate screening, A Practical Theology of Assessment. Don’s unique insight into the needs of pastors and ministry leaders is a special resource to the community of faith.
Biography: Jay Diller has been serving churches and ministry leaders for over 30 years. He began his work life as a commercial electrician, later owning an electrical company in Pennsylvania and Vermont. During his business career, he had many opportunities to provide counseling and coaching for those in his church and his community. His success in helping others led to the pursuit of a MA in counseling from Western Seminary in 1991. Upon graduation, he served as an associate pastor and assisted the human resources division of a large international mission, serving East Asia. His position of member care involved employment screening assessments, training new staff, coaching leaders and doing mediation work with teams in conflict. This international work resulted in over 30 international trips to most of the world’s continents. In the past 20 plus years he has served as a part-time counseling professor with a graduate school on the east coast and one seminary on the west coast. During this time he secured an earned doctorate in strategic leadership. In 2006 he secured a full-time position as Professor of Counseling & Leadership at Faith Evangelical College & Seminary in Tacoma, Washington. This role has included assessing graduate students and local area pastors/ministry leaders with IDAK’s assessment systems. He has served for 12 years as the Dean of the Leadership School at Faith International University & Seminary where he developed most of the leadership courses and trained others to teach them.
Biography: Dan brings fifty years of ministry experience, assisting thousands of churches. His specialty is helping churches grow and remain healthy by selecting the right pastor. He also has a heart for coaching new pastors to discover their best fit for service. Prior to establishing his practice as a church health consultant, he served as vice president of Church Ministries with the Christian and Missionary Alliance denomination. Early in his ministry he recalls being active in mentoring and coaching younger men and women. After completing his education at Nyack College and Alliance Theological Seminary, he and his wife, Iris, served many years in Native American communities in Minnesota and the Dakotas. Later he became a pastor in Montana and Wyoming and a district superintendent before serving as vice president for the C&MA.
John Bradley M. Div., D.H.L.
Biography: Since 1969 John has been assessing candidates for job placement. He began as a head-hunter in Fort Worth Texas and soon transitioned to specialize in counseling ministry leaders to find their optimum service. Following seminary in 1983, John began consulting with churches to identify the optimum profile for their lead pastor. IDAK has served well over 30,000 clients, hundreds of churches and ministry organizations, as well as companies, government agencies, and nonprofits. John has trained over 900 counselors, campus professors, HR directors and psychologists in IDAK’s assessment systems. IDAK’s training has been approved for seminary graduate credit at Western Seminary and Dallas Seminary. Three doctoral dissertations focusing exclusively on John’s research and assessment of natural talents has been completed. Throughout John’s term of service, he has authored and co-authored multiple books on aptitude assessment including A Practical Theology of Assessment. In 2009 he received a Doctorate of Humane Letters from Faith Evangelical Seminary.
IDAK provides a comprehensive assessment for churches and ministry organizations to assist with identifying the optimum future leader which fits your church or organization’s culture, values and priorities. Our services can include a minimum of online aptitude testing (The MAX Report) supplemented by different levels of counselor assistance. Your organization’s priorities can be discussed with one of our highlighted counselors to determine the level of service which is best for your organization.
Pastor selection Video training for church elders.
Click here for course description and sign up.
In attempting to advance a TEAM work culture, occasionally there can be personnel conflicts which need resolving. Our counselors are experienced and certified to provide for your church or organization a impartial and God honoring assessment of an individual’s strengths and job performance as well as adjustments to the job description or new ministry roles outside of your organization. Our service begins with a confidential phone call where we can listen to your situation and then propose how we can be of service. Contact the counselor whom you prefer to begin the inquiry process.
In order to ensure that each person on your organization’s team is working at peak capacity, IDAK has developed a group seminar which assists in identifying each person’s God given natural talent strengths and how to evaluate one’s job duties for maximum service. Each participant receives their own on-line Talent Discovery Guide assessment and instruction on how to determine their own maximum service job duties. At the completion of the training, each participant is expected to meet with their own direct report to discuss their findings. This leadership assessment can also be provided on a one-to-one basis with a more comprehensive assessment and report feed-back. This more comprehensive assessment is called a Ministry Leadership Team Audit.
When it appears that a manager or senior contributor does not appear to fit your organization’s vision or goals, IDAK provides a complete, employment transition service to assist that individual to get a new job. Services are pro-rated according to weeks/months of consultation requested.
The Max Report and MAX Prime (Spanish) Report are popular online assessment services. The most common application is for employment screening and church pastoral candidate screening. A total of 86 traits are tested which include Character, Temperament/Personality and Natural Talent traits. These instruments are simple to use as all the exercises are online. Reports are emailed within 2-3 days after completion. To request the MAX, one can attend a 4-hour training seminar to be certified to interpret results for one’s personnel. IDAK also offers a one-hour telephone report interpretation which does not require training certification.
To view a sample MAX Report, click here.
If you have been asked to complete a MAX Report, go to IDAKgroup.com/MAX to register.