This June, The Gallup Organization will publish Living Your Strengths, by Albert L. Winseman, D.Min., Donald O. Clifton, Ph.D., and Curt Liesveld, M.Div., M.A. Written especially for religious leaders and other church members, Living Your Strengths discusses the process of helping congregation members investigate their innate talents, and then put them to use in deepening their spiritual growth and finding the right fit in their service to others. This is the second in a series of adaptations from the book.
To understand how churches often fail to tap their congregants' natural abilities, consider the story of Liz and Rick. A young married couple, Liz and Rick moved to a new city and found a congregation to join after several months of searching. They went through new-member orientation and told the coordinator that they wanted to get involved in the church. They weren't quite sure what they wanted to do, but they knew they wanted to do much more than just attend services.
A few weeks after they joined, they received a call from the new-member coordinator asking them if they would be greeters for services during July. Rick and Liz agreed and dutifully showed up to shake hands with congregants for four Sundays in July.
The couple had almost diametrically opposed reactions to the experience. "I loved it!" recalls Liz. "This was great. I like meeting new people, and being a greeter made me feel like I was making a contribution to my congregation. I'd do it every week if I could!"
But Rick's reaction was not so positive. He remembers, "It was like pulling teeth. I was really uncomfortable. I didn't know what to say or what to do. It doesn't come naturally for me like it does for Liz. I guess I'm just shy by nature. I sure hope no one asks me to do this again."
By asking Rick and Liz to serve as greeters, the new-member coordinator was subscribing to the myth that "an active member is a faithful member." The coordinator must have thought, "Anybody can be a greeter. After all, it's a great way to get to know the members of the congregation." So she asked Liz and Rick to fill roles in the congregation without first discovering their natural abilities -- their talents. She lucked out with Liz, who will likely become more engaged by the experience. But if she continues to ask Rick to be a greeter, he will become disengaged very quickly.
Why did Liz and Rick react differently? Because Liz loves to meet new people and win them over. In her world, there are no strangers, just friends she hasn't met. So being a greeter fits naturally with Liz's innate talents. Rick, in contrast, doesn't want to meet and greet a stream of people. It makes him uncomfortable and doesn't come naturally to him. Rick would rather deepen existing relationships than form a bunch of new ones.
Rick's predicament is all too familiar in churches across the country. The church lives of many congregation members -- not to mention your personal, family, or professional lives -- could be much more fulfilling if they were better aware of their strengths. The first step is defining what a strength is -- and what it is not.
What Is a Strength?
A strength is the ability to provide consistent, near-perfect performance in a given activity. This ability is a powerful, productive combination of talent, skill, and knowledge.
Consider Steve, who for the past 20 years has been teaching Bible studies at his church. His classes are always popular, and he often draws a standing-room-only crowd. "I got started doing this by volunteering to teach a six-week class on the Gospel of Mark during Lent one year," he recalls. "I teach training classes at work, and I thought I'd give it a shot. I loved it! Even though that first class went well, I knew I wanted to get a lot better at it."
Over the years, Steve has audited classes at the Bible college in his community, taught himself elementary Greek and Hebrew, subscribed to a biblical archaeology magazine, and learned to do multimedia presentations to enhance his lessons. "I'm a much better teacher than I was 20 years ago. It's definitely been worth the effort." Steve started out with some natural talent for teaching -- by adding skills and knowledge, he built those talents into a strength.
The key to building a strength is to first identify your dominant themes of talent, then delve into those themes to identify a specific talent, and finally produce a strength by refining that talent with knowledge and skill.
Next week: "God didn't make you well-rounded."
