Finding Your "Strengths" and "Spiritual Gifts" One part of Discovering your S.H.A.P.E. Eastbrook Church

I will be facilitating or teaching a class on S.H.A.P.E at Eastbrook Church in July. 

Using Your SHAPE to Change the World!

July 12,19,26   Eastbrook Church 9:30 Fellowship Hall

The Lord created each of us individually with different Spiritual Gifts, Passions, Abilities, Strengths and a unique Personality with different Experiences. This class will help people put the pieces of the puzzle together, so we each can be most effective in our families, church, community and the world.  When we serve according to our SHAPE, we leave a legacy that gives glory to the LORD so when we stand before Him one day, we will hear, "Well done, my good and faithful servant." 

We will also be discussing "Strengths"  

For Boomers and Beyond!

Some of us…are in Half Time or 3^rd or 4^th quarter of our lives!

Great!

Just like a football game…a lot can happen in the last quarter and even in the last minute of the game!

This can be the most exciting time of our lives!

God has the script written!

Join us on Sunday July 12^th with other Boomers for the first session…If this time of life is alittle puzzling to you, we can all be an encouragement as we work together to put all the pieces of the puzzle together.

You do NOT have to be a "Boomer" to attend. 
The earlier you discover some of these principles and put them to use in your life...the more effective you will be in your ministry, career and family! 

If you would like to learn alittle more about "Strengths" before the class, you can go to "popular posts" on right hand side of this blog. This blog was started in preparation for a similar workshop I facilitated at the 2014 Annual Red Cross Disaster Conference Oct. 2014.  That is why you will not see any reference to anything relating to God or spiritual things before that date! 

This BLOG is Searchable by Keywords. See Search feature on right hand side. 

Can also "follow" me on Twitter 

Alittle more on "Strengths:


There are 34 or more "strengths" as defined by Strengthsfinder 2.0

My top 5 Strengths are: 
Connectedness or Connecting
Belief
Achievement
Responsibility
Relator

No one "strength" is better than any other. 
This is important! 

Whatever your "Strengths" are, you can use them in any volunteer position and do a better job! 




If you are volunteering in any non profit or considering it, ideally you should want to know your strengths and abilities. We are think we already know them, but do we?

You might also want to read a good book on what makes a non profit great.  Good to Great in the Social Sector by Tim Collins. 

Tim wrote this book after he wrote Good to Great.
He  looks at companies to see how they went from being good to great. 

The major key in their success was having the right people and those people in the right positions using their "Strengths". No one "Strength" is any better than any other.


Another good book that you can probably get from your library is: Now Discover Your Strengths by Marcus Buckingham and Donald Clifton.  This is more for managers & supervisors showing them how they can help their employees be more efficient in their work. A very good book!

There are several assessments that will show you what you "strengths" or "talents" are.

A good assessment is Strengthfinders.2.0  http://strengths.gallup.com/110440/About-StrengthsFinder-20.aspx       You can purchase at Amazon for about $15

It has a code in the back of the book that you use when you go online to take the 177 question assessment. After taking the assessment you get an immediate printout of your top 5 strength and a commentary on how to further develop those "talents" into strengths.
Taking either of these "Strengths" Assessments is not a prereq. for the class.


The results of knowing your "Strengths" is that you can use them in your job, career, volunteering and in your marriage.  

An interesting exercise if you are married, is to have your spouse also take the "free" Strengths assessment and compare them. Shows how you how to better understand and relate to your spouse.

The Strengthsfinder 2.0 Assessment gives a beautiful 16 page printout showing how to further develope your "Talents" and how and where you can most effectively use them. More on this in class!

Now if you are ready to tackle your Abilities, a good book that is probably out of print is Discovering Your Natural Talents by John Brady and Jay Carty.
John Bardley has a company called    Idak Group
They have an online Abilities Assessment. Cost $27. Very good.

If you wish to go further, you can find out your S.H.A.PE. 

S is your Spiritual Gifts.
H is your Heart or Passion
A is your Abilities
P is your Personality
E is your Experiences.

There are several websites that offer an online survey.
They are approaching this from a Christian worldview. The Spiritual Gifts part.