Campaigning for Your Church’s Well-Being … Gifted for More

by PAUL SCHREIBER

Coming in March 2023, the Gifted for More Church Campaign will offer congregations an extensive menu of resources to discover, grow, and share the gifts of their members. In partnership with Barna Group, LHM is making these materials available so churches can uncover the abundance of gifts already present in their midst but which often go unrecognized and underutilized.

“Strengths, talents, and abilities,” according to research done by Barna Group in 2022, these personal assets of church members often go by the wayside as simply unnoticed. Consequently, building up the body of Christ and reaching out to others with the Gospel languish, as the possibilities of gift discovery and implementation aren’t even on the radar. The truth is many today “struggle to understand or even see the gifts that they possess,” Barna reports. The good news, however, is that people want to take hold of and develop their gifts!

To help congregations and individuals do this is what the Gifted for More Church Campaign is all about. “We’ve put together a full suite of church resources that will help you build a culture that celebrates, discovers, and unleashes gifts in your church,” said Savannah Kimberlin, Barna Group’s associate vice president of church engagement. “Our hope is that you will get creative and find what works for your church—really commit to the journey.”

The Gifted for More Church Campaign features an extensive five-week sermon series to help churches engage with the journey of understanding their giftedness. It includes in-depth sermon outlines and accompanying slide sets that highlight key concepts and Scriptures. There’s a five-session small group Bible study with videos and a handy leader’s guide. The curriculum piece has video prompts, discussion questions, Scripture verses, and suggestions for putting concepts into practice.

Also included is the EveryGift™ Inventory, an easy-to-take online assessment of your giftedness in 12 distinct areas, which takes about 20 minutes to complete. When you do, you will take away a sharper awareness of your aptitudes, innate abilities, and acquired skill sets—and your mastery of these items. You can also share the EveryGift Inventory with others, so they too can see what kinds of untapped potential they possess!

And as a way to engage others, both Christian and non-Christian, in the journey of comprehending their own life’s purpose, four “Path to Purpose” videos offer real-life insights from guests who assess their lives, their careers, and their long-range journeys. Hosted by Kimberlin and Dr. Jason Broge, senior director of design and development for LHM, these videos show how life brings us challenges and opportunities to use our gifts for God and others. A leader’s guide gives info on utilizing these videos in a small group context and includes planning details, conversation pointers, video-related questions, and a call to action. All printed materials and slides in the Gifted for More Church Campaign can be easily downloaded and printed for use and distribution.

For those loving to drill down for more data, the Gifted for More Church Campaign offers a three-piece group of Research Resources. A 30-slide PowerPoint presentation (also available as a PDF) gives the viewer an archaeologist’s view of the data underlying what giftedness is and how it can be used to fuller advantage in our churches and relationships. To further clarify these findings, a video presentation hosted by Kimberlin walks through the PowerPoint’s graphics and numbers, highlighting areas where churches can assess their own situation and take advantage of congregants’ gifts that may be see next page neglected or undetected. Also available is the Gifted for More LHM-Barna monograph; it gives additional details on the research slides and offers commentary from others at Barna Group and LHM.

Though hundreds of hours of work have gone into the Gifted for More Church Campaign, it’s not really about statistics and colorful charts. It’s about living our lives, our specially God-gifted lives, in obedience to Him and in service to others, engaging in the work of His kingdom here on earth. “Giftedness is not a program. It’s an essential, organic dimension of living life as a human being and a Christ follower,” said Kimberlin. It’s vital that churches—especially as people grapple with the relevance of attending church at all—work at creating an in-house infrastructure to link people and their gifts with chances to exercise those gifts in building up Christ’s body and in serving their communities in missional ways, she added.

Of course, how will church members know about the Gifted for More Church Campaign unless they have been told? To help churches do this, a number of promotional tools are provided: an instructional PDF, an extensive file of social media/email images, ready-made copy to plug onto your images, and a video “sermon bumper” to preface messages based on the Gifted for More sermon series. A short how-to guide is included as well.

Truly understanding our giftedness as God’s people has so many upsides to it. “The first time I heard ‘You are a gift with gifts to share,’ as we brainstormed the Gifted for More data, I knew that was the key,” said Ashley Bayless, director of production for LHM. “The message that you and I are gifts—created by God with purpose—changes the way we see ourselves and how we see other people. Through Scripture and data and stories and discussion, we believe people will walk away with not just that