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Should you do personality inventories with leaders & volunteers? What about spiritual gifts assessments? With all the options and trends these days, people are googling everything from Myers-Briggs, to Colors, to Enneagram, to Strengthsfinder. If you’re wondering how to best use inventories and assessments to get volunteers in the right places and build healthy teams, keep reading! We’ll be going over common mistakes churches make when using inventories and assessments, and how to use them better. Stay tuned to:
- Explore the benefits as well as limitations of using inventories and spiritual gift assessments in churches
- Learn where many churches have gotten this all wrong
- Hear why I think everyone should quit asking “What number are you?”
- Learn the best way to help volunteers find their place in ministry
I want to begin this post with a disclaimer. This is my opinion based on my personal experience in ministry, from big churches to small churches. Your experience might be different! I have so many ministry friends and mentors I dearly love and respect, who have completely different views on this topic. So, If you’re one of them, I love you tons, and it’s great if you have a different view or if you completely disagree with me.
Inventories And Spiritual Gift Assessments
I tend to avoid controversial or divisive issues that aren’t foundational to loving Jesus and loving people. However, I’ve been asked by many people to cover this topic. Churches use an endless number of assessments. They use questionnaires to help us discover our spiritual gifts, inventories that tell us where our own strengths lie, and quizzes that guide us to find our passions. Often, when churches offer these quizzes, questionnaires, or full-on studies, they lead to helping people discover their places of service within the church. The problem arises when there’s a hidden equation that looks something like this:
Personality Assessment + Spiritual Gifts Inventory + Passion Quiz = Ministry Position
This equation is false! I don’t think we should be using these assessments as a means to put people into ministry positions. Not only are the assessments sometimes not accurate, but they also were never designed for this reason. I don’t think assessments and inventories should ever be used in a prescriptive way.
The First Controversial Statement
In my opinion, too many people use inventories and spiritual gift assessments in ways that limit growth, exploration, and God’s grace. God is way too big to be put in a box, and so are we. Before you break out in hives because you love inventories and assessments, I do too. I just think we usually use them wrong. All spiritual gift assessments tell you is how someone rated on a checklist, it doesn’t define people. They don’t define what people can do, how much they’ve grown, or what they can handle.
I am a follower of Christ, and I believe in miracles. I believe in transformation by the Holy Spirit, and that God can equip me for whatever He sees fit at whatever time He sees fit. If it’s true, that He made me a little lower than the angels, which is true for all of us, then I’m a whole lot more than any inventory could ever measure. We are more than we can ever measure, and inventories and assessments put limits on us.
Please don’t assume that I don’t like inventories and spiritual gift assessments, because I love them. I love human psychology and the amazing way God created us to function, relate, learn, and grow. However, most of the time, they are used very poorly, especially in the church.
The Second Controversial Statement
Many people have been damaged by the inventories and spiritual gift assessments that are used in the church setting. These quizzes and questionnaires are not solutions to a problem. They are merely a piece of the puzzle. They present information to add to your knowledge base and cultivate curiosity.
You can have someone who scores amazingly on a leadership scale, who should never be given the keys to the building. You can also have someone score high in the teaching category on a spiritual gifts test, who should never be put in the position of teaching. Inventories aren’t good for this. They aren’t part of an equation to get to a goal. They are just a piece of the puzzle, and sometimes they are totally wrong.
One of the biggest limitations of inventories and spiritual gift assessments is that the person answering the questions is biased. We are all biased because of our experiences, our beliefs about ourselves, and what we’ve been told.
When taking these inventories and assessments, people often don’t like the box they’ve been placed in. This causes them to feel worse about themselves than they did before they took it. They also cause people to limit themselves to the words on an assessment. They see a limit to their gifts and their potential. Inventories and spiritual gift assessments become a complicated avenue of judgment for people. In addition to all of these things, we end up limiting God. I’m not saying that these inventories were set up this way, I’m suggesting that this is how they are experienced by many people.
5 Tips For Using Inventories And Spiritual Gift Assessments
How do we limit these negative experiences from happening? I want to propose 5 tips:
1. Cultivate Self-Knowledge
Teach people that this is merely a piece of the puzzle. This is meant to be explorative. Remind people that it might not be accurate.
2. Be Intentional
If you choose to use inventories or assessments with teams or volunteers, be intentional about each part of the process. Have conversations, ask questions, and process what it all means.
3. Ask The Right Questions
Refrain from calling it ‘Results’ or asking people how they scored. These words imply that there are good and bad rankings. Instead, ask people what they learned or what seems right to them.
4. Remember That People Are People
Stop asking people “What are you?” People are not numbers! They cannot be reduced to a box or an enneagram number.
5. Acknowledge Limitation
Acknowledge the limitations of inventories and assessments. If you are going to use them, be upfront and pray through it all.
What Would Jesus Do?
Any time I’m making decisions or am using tools and strategies I like to ask myself if Jesus would have used these tools. Jesus called the disciples to follow Him and meet the needs of others. We are all created uniquely, with varying gifts and styles. However, even though we are all individuals, God frequently called His people to undesirable places. He called people to missions that were beyond their scope and presumably didn’t match their personalities.
While it’s true that Jesus didn’t have access to the amazing tools that we have today, I wonder if He would’ve used them if He did. I don’t know the answer. Maybe He would have, I think they’re fun. However, I don’t think He would’ve used them to assign ministry positions.
Next Steps: Using The Following Tools
Personality
Strengthfinders, which is now CliftonStrengths, is one of my favorites. I would suggest using the book and studying it with a group. The deeper you go, the more you’ll learn. The DISC inventory is good as well. There can be a spiritual component to DISC which can be kind of fun.
The Meyers-Briggs is a class. A lot of people are familiar with this. However, it is more complicated and clinical. I’m not saying it’s a bad choice, it’s just not the friendliest one.
A lot of people love Enneagram. However, I don’t love this one that much. I find it confusing, and too much for my brain. I also feel more judged when I do this. It’s like I walk away liking myself less.
Spiritual Gifts
I have not encountered a single true spiritual gift inventory that I like because there isn’t a specific scientific or psychological base. Most of these inventories were just created by someone like you and me. They are more of an experience-based type of quiz.
I think it’s presumptive to try to take an inventory to discover our spiritual gifts. I believe different kinds of gifts often aren’t listed in God’s word. I don’t think the listings in Scripture were meant to be exclusive or complete. God has gifted people in supernatural ways at different times. If He can gift you for a specific time and situation in the future, then you wouldn’t rely on an inventory now.
Passion Assessments
Have you ever been through this, where there’s a quick inventory to help you determine your passion area, which usually leads straight to a ministry area? Although this is well-intended, I’ve seen so much go wrong when a local church has a campaign to help people find their spots in ministry with an assessment. I’ve seen so many people get stuck here and almost get paralyzed when they discover that they don’t have a passion or think God forgot to give them one.
I also don’t think this is based on biblical truth. I don’t think you need to have a passion for kids, ministry, or even evangelism. You might be passionate about these, but a lot of people don’t have clearly defined passions, and that’s okay!
Shifting Your Focus
I think that inventories and assessments can be fun! They can sometimes provide people with a piece of the puzzle, giving them a better understanding of themselves and others around them. However, if you’re going to bring inventories and assessments into your ministry team or volunteer program, you should focus more on processing and conversation rather than the results.
If the Personality Assessment + Spiritual Gifts Inventory + Passion Quiz does not equal a Ministry Position, then what does? I’m a big fan of getting off the couch to start moving. Keep in mind that you don’t have to know your passion, gifts, or personality strengths to start serving.
Develop a culture in your church of taking little risks and trying new things. Let’s develop a safe place where people can try things before they commit and where they can explore new things they’ve been curious or scared about.
Read More:
Hey Church Volunteers! Quit Trying To Find Your Passion
5 Ways To Use The Enneagram Personality Test In Your Church
How To Get Honest Volunteer Feedback – Small Church Ministry
