This June, The Gallup Organization will publish Living Your Strengths, written by Albert L. Winseman, D.Min., Donald O. Clifton, Ph.D., and Curt Liesveld, M.Div., M.A. Written especially for members of churches, Living Your Strengths uses Gallup's revolutionary StrengthsFinder assessment tool to help individuals discover their talents, then develop strengths and then put them to use in deepening their spiritual growth and finding the right fit in their service to others.
Beginning today and continuing for the next five weeks, Tuesday Briefing will run adaptations from this important new book.
American churches are experiencing a power shortage. It's not the kind of power shortage that can be solved by opening new natural gas fields or drilling new oil wells or building new electrical plants. The shortage is in fulfilled human potential. In churches all across the United States, people aren't harnessing the power of their innate gifts. They are not fulfilling God's purposes in their lives. And most people don't even know it.
You can detect the roots of the problem in The Gallup Organization's 2002 national study of congregation members. It reveals that most people (53%) do not strongly agree with the statement, "In my congregation, I regularly have the opportunity to do what I do best." Clearly, too many individuals' talents and strengths are going unrecognized and unappreciated. And this adds up to a huge loss of human potential that otherwise could be tapped for the transformation of society.
We need a revolution in our congregations. A strengths revolution. Living Your Strengths was written to get that revolution started.
The Folly of "Weakness Prevention"
Most people have grown up with the "weakness-prevention model." They've been told that to become strong, successful, or truly serve God and the world, they must "fix" their weaknesses. They've been told that their talents and strengths are a source of sinful pride. (Many confess every Sunday to being "miserable offenders," and to a host of other inadequacies.) What they really need to do, the "weakness experts" say, is to develop their areas of non-talent. Then they will be ready to fully serve God and the world.
That thinking is just plain wrong.
In Gallup's research into human potential over the past 30 years -- including interviews with more than 2 million people -- the evidence is overwhelming: People will be most successful in whatever they do by building their lives around their greatest natural abilities, rather than their weaknesses. In other words, your talents should be your primary focus. The problem is that most people don't even know what their greatest talents are, or how to go about discovering them.
Christianity teaches that God has given each of His followers a unique combination of talents, as well as a calling -- a calling to serve others, to advance the cause of Christ and the church, a calling to ministry. An individual's calling is the purpose with which God has infused his or her life; talents and strengths determine how that calling will be addressed. When you discover your talents, you begin to discover your calling.
Everyone possesses a deep reservoir of untapped potential. That potential is your talent, waiting to be discovered and put into use in your life. The degree to which individuals can unleash the power of that potential -- i.e., to which they can discover their unique talents -- will strongly influence their level of engagement with their faith organization, not to mention their jobs, personal relationships, and many other aspects of their lives.
Upcoming adaptations in this series will more closely examine the role of talent in faith communities.
