Customer Reviews

Discover Your Spiritual Gifts: The Easy-To-Use, Self-Guided Questionnaire That Helps You Identify and Understand Your Various God-Given Spiritual Gifts

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The Bible talks about "kings and priests". Priests being those called to ministry, kings being those called to work in the marketplace. This book is clearly written by a "priest" and doesn't provide much help for those of us trying to operate in our spiritual gifts outside of the church body. This becomes particularly evident in the gift questionnaire at the end of book as most of the questions are based on what you have done within your local church. People can operate in their gifts outside of the church and in more creative ways than what is described in the questionnaire. Personally, I felt disappointed in the book and in the questionnaire since I operate in my gifts mainly outside of the church. Although this book will give you a straightforward list of gifts the Bible discusses, in my opinion it puts spiritual gifts in a box limited to operation mainly inside the church. For example, someone with the gift of prophesy could be a great leader who anticipates the most successful direction for his/her organization to take based on direction from God, it does not necessarily have to be a person who speaks out loud in a church service. Also, the questionnaire is only helpful if you are already a mature Christian successfully operating in a particular spiritual gift, not if you are simply trying to discover what gifts you may have based on what you enjoy or feel God is leading you to do.

Rather then using the word simplistic, I would call this book practical. This is an outstanding resource for anyone looking to help equip their church team with a basic understanding of their personal spiritual gifts. The condensed format makes it easy to teach and facilitate. Great idea for a 6 week small group study.
Pastor Adam Stadtmiller Author Give Your Kids the Keys: Navigating Your Child to a Personal and Sustainable Faith

C. Peter Wagner does an excellent job describing Spiritual Gifts in the Charismatic/Pentecostal churches today! I'd pick his over any others, hands down! We used it for Wed. night Bible Study! Be sure to use the individual Spiritual Gift Inventory for anyone wanting to test themselves and see their giftings.

The good thing about this book is that it included numerous gift categories. However, there are not detailed descriptions on each gift. I think the book is too lean.

So...who's gonna fix this problem--and how?

All of your favorite business books deliver the dismal statistics on employee engagement. StrengthsFinder 2.0 author Tom Rath writes, "Over the past decade, Gallup has surveyed more than 10 million people worldwide on the topic of employee engagement (or how positive and productive people are at work), and only one-third `strongly agree' with the statement, `At work, I have the opportunity to do what I do best every day.'"

Also the co-author of Strengths-Based Leadership, Rath adds, "In stark contrast, our studies indicate that people who do have the opportunity to focus on their strengths every day are six times as likely to be engaged in their jobs and more than three times as likely to report having an excellent quality of life in general."

The authors of The Carrot Principle: How the Best Managers Use Recognition to Engage Their People, Retain Talent, and Accelerate Performance [Updated & Revised] note that "according to a 10-year study of more than 200,000 employees, a whopping 79 percent of people who quit their jobs `cite a lack of appreciation as a key reason for leaving.' Another 65 percent of North Americans `report that they weren't recognized the least bit in the previous year.'" How tragic.

Next week, a dozen team members from a national association have invited me to invest a day with them and focus on what I call "The 3 Powerful S's." Three cheers for a ministry CEO who understands the foundations of work and relationships!

The 3 Powerful S's are: Strengths, Social Styles and Spiritual Gifts. You know the strengths resources (StrengthsFinder 2.0 and other books). You've probably taken one or more assessments like Myers-Briggs, DISC, Birkman, or even the four animals system. (What were they again? Muskrat, Chihuahua, Elephant and Platypus? I may have that wrong.) I prefer Social Styles (Analyticals, Drivers, Amiables and Expressives)--because those four words aptly describe the four styles.)

But the third "S" is the glaring gap in many churches and ministry organizations. We hammer folks who tilt towards bad theology, but don't take seriously the delightful spiritual gifts distributed to every Christ-follower by our loving, all-wise Heavenly Father. We don't pick our gifts--God does.

Pop Quiz! Tell me the about the 3 Powerful S's of your boss (or board chair): Top-5 Strengths, Social Style (or Myers-Brigg description) and Spiritual Gifts. If you passed this test, then list the 3 S's for your direct reports or at least three other work or volunteer colleagues. Did you pass or fail?

For years, I've offered a Starbucks card in workshops to anyone who can nail the pop quiz. I still have the coffee card--and that's a crime. Maybe even a sin.

What would happen in the Results Bucket, the People Bucket and the Team Bucket if everyone on your team knew and leveraged their own 3 Powerful S's--and the Strengths, Social Styles and Spiritual Gifts of everyone else? It would be dramatic and God would be honored.

If you're up-to-speed on Strengths and Social Styles, but have never invited your team members to take a spiritual gifts assessment, I recommend this book.
It includes an assessment of about 130 questions covering all of the spiritual gifts, as described in the New Testament (Ephesians 4, Romans 12, 1 Corinthians 12, etc.)

Very interesting. Fairly well written. Favorite part was the test. Would I recommend it- sure. It was the recommended book of this subject by my church- and honestly, it is concise.

Biblically sound.
Quick read.
Good for small groups.
Thought provoking, discussion stimulating questions at the end of chapters.
Helped me identify my spiritual gifts, and understand why I need to exercise them.

This book was really a blessing to me. I have been searching to discover my spiritual gifts. I found this book to be very helpful.