Spiritual Gifts Assessment
The spiritual gifts assessment included in AssessME.org is an important aspect of our ministry mobilization program. Unlike other spiritual gifts assessment tools, AssessME.org filters the practical ministry gifts through personality dynamics. We call this technique "personality filtered giftedness".
This is a crucial step to ensure that people are mobilized according to their created design. For example, your ministry leaders may search for the general category of Teachers or for a subset of relationally-focused teachers called Small Group Instructors.
For this reason, we recommend that you take the Personality test and Leadership Style test prior to taking our Grace Gifts spiritual gifts assessment.
Serving from Our Strengths
Another powerful feature of the Grace Gifts spiritual gifts test is that it provides focus. The individual report format focuses on the top six gifts listings and the team building report only tracks the top three listings. It is essential that Christ’s people be affirmed for the strengths that God has given them and that team building within Christ’s Church is based upon those strengths.
People who serve out of weaker spiritual gift areas will always experience higher levels of stress, lower levels of satisfaction, and limited effectiveness. While God says, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness " (2nd Corinthians 12:9a), the whole reason for exploring Spiritual Gifts is to learn how God designed and is empowering people for ministry...a foundational team building principle.
In addition, spiritual gifts should always be interpreted in light of each individual’s personality test results. Our personality defines how we use and express the spiritual gifts God has given us.
Spiritual Gifts Debate
Significant confusion exists around the topic of spiritual gifts. Well-meaning Christians differ on the number available, their definitions and application. AssessME.org respects this theological debate and it is not our intent to take sides. Designed exclusively for ministry mobilization of church members, AssessME.org is not intended to serve as a platform for biblical instruction. It is the responsibility of the local church pastor to interpret and apply the spiritual gifts as they believe God intends.
As a human-resource tool for the local church, AssessME.org is designed to support the following principles. First, Spiritual gifts are represented in two distinct categories: self-evident gifts and personality-dependent gifts.
Self-evident gifts, also known as "Revelatory Gifts," are generally understood to be tongues, interpretation of tongues, miracles, etc. In his book, "Made for a Mission", David Posthuma describes the nature of revelatory gifts on page 183:
"A second category of spiritual giftedness exists that is strictly revelatory in nature. In other words, God "reveals" them through us only at the moment the specific gifts are needed. The revelatory gifts are distinctly different in nature from the practical ministry gifts. While the practical gifts are augmentations of our created nature and their utilization is filtered through our personalities, this is not the case with revelatory gifts. Instead, they are used in the moment as directed by the Holy Spirit. For example, a Christ follower may have a sudden and overwhelming awareness that God desires her to pray over someone for their healing. When she prays for the individual, God in turn heals. The Christ follower may or may not ever again be able to repeat the use of such a miraculous gift. Nor does her personality dictate how the prayer for healing should occur. When referring to revelatory gifts, it may be more accurate to communicate that "God has used me to heal others," rather than "I have the gift of healing." Revelatory gifts are not something that we can possess. They are not natural to our humanity. These "grace gifts" are extended to us in such a manner that human beings can never take credit for them. They are clear and unadulterated penetrations of the divine into our fallen world. Revelatory gifts may include: Healing, Word of Knowledge, Prophecy, Speaking Publicly in Tongues, and Interpretation of Tongues. Some theologians also include Exorcism within the revelatory list".
If God has worked through an individual in such a manner, then that person would definitely be aware of the fact. For this reason, the default setting for assessing spiritual gifts within AssessME.org does not include self-evident (revelatory) gifts. However, the AssessME.org program does support assessing self-evident giftedness as a system option (See "Center Options" within your ministry’s administrative account).
Personality-dependent gifts are often called "practical gifts" or "service gifts". Our God-given personality influences how we apply our various service-gifts. For example, if an individual was assessed to have the gift of teaching, their personality would define whether they would serve best within a small group (highly relational) or within a classroom (highly task-oriented). If we fail to filter assessed gift results through personality dynamics, we risk mobilizing people into inappropriate ministry positions. AssessME.org allows the end-user to drill-down and identify how their giftedness is "expressed" based personality dynamics and other practical factors. (Note: Gift Expressions are sub-categories of general gift categories) For this reason, AssessME.org strongly encourages system users to take the ePersonality and Leadership Style assessments, which focus upon personality and influence-styles, prior to completing the GraceGifts assessment.
The Bible does not offer one definitive spiritual gift list. With this understanding, AssessME.org is designed to be utilized as a human resource tool for the local church, helping mobilize every willing Christ follower into ministry service. Our program prioritizes God-given personality traits and encourages system users to evaluate their spiritual gifts through the lens of their God-given personality and leadership style.
The use of three distinct assessment tools provides an intentional check-and-balance with one another, ensuring the accuracy of the assessment results. When an inconsistency between the three assessments exists, leaders are encouraged to explore the inconsistency pastorally with the lay leader.
NOTE: To evaluate theGraceGifts assessment for your church, please register for a free 24 hour test drive. [TEST DRIVE]
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