S.H.A.P.E. Assessment Results

Thank you Doug Suess for taking the SHAPE Assessment. We encourage you to meet with a Church Leader that you respect, to go over your results, so that they can help you discover a place to serve in the church and/or community, and also to help you fine-tune your 5 Main Focuses/Priorities listed at the bottom of this email under the ‘Wrapping it up’ section. May God Bless You!

[S]piritual Gifts

Here is how your spiritual gifts scored (in alphabetical order):

87%

87%

65%

84%

65%

81%

71%

65%

87%

To see descriptions on the Spiritual Gifts and how you can use them to further Christ’s Kingdom on earth, visit this link.

This gift’s evident in my life in the following ways:
My third grade teacher told my parents at a parent/teacher conference: “Doug would be a genius if he just had a secretary.” I have to prioritize my schedule so that I can be at my best. When I am organized, nothing can stop me! ; )

This gift’s evident in my life in the following ways:
Having organized and coached dramas with Biblical messages, I best evangelize by relating the Bible and messages to the everyday person. I am not haughty, nor do I rise above others. The best way for me to evangelize is to see where others are at, and go from there, bringing them understanding of the things of God.

This gift’s evident in my life in the following ways:
This is often combined with Evangelism. I’m more of a teacher than an evangelist, but I try to do both by connecting with my audience of one, or a crowd.

[H]eart

1. Spending time with my family, and watching our son and daughter grow strong in Christ.

2. In my current job, I’m around many people who talk about vulgar things, and often use the F-bomb, etc… My temptation is to correct them when that happens. What I’m noticing though, is that they are realizing that I don’t act that way, and yet remain interested in what they are saying between the F-bombs. Being patient isn’t easy, but I know that somewhere down the line, these people will look to me for encouragement, which will lead to an eventual discussion about a relationship with Christ.

3. Bible study, personally, and with family/others.

People that are focused, yet, not uptight. Humor is a great quality! All ages.

Excite: Churches that invest in the future generations….lest we die out.

Concern: 2020 was very telling on a lot of issues. Churches that are fearful of issues around them will eventually fold like wet cardboard, and won’t be of any use for God.

Abortion/sanctity of Life
Parenting
Educational

[A]bilities

A courier at FedEx/Express

Teaching (28 years), Restaurants, General Motors Security, Many Retail Jobs, Hospital ER, Tutoring, Babysitting…

Creativity, Marketing, Relating to others, Photoshop

How to best interview/get a job.

The ability to relate situations to a message.

[P]ersonality

50-50 Extrovert/Reserved

High Risk

Peace Maker

50-50 People/Project Driven

50-50 Follower/Leader

Variety

Your Primary was ‘The Lion’, with your Secondary coming in as ‘The Otter’, and here are the descriptions of your Personalities, and how they can be used for God

Lion- This personality likes to lead. The lion is good at making decisions and is very goal-oriented. They enjoy challenges, difficult assignments, and opportunity for advancement. Because lions are thinking of the goal, they can step on people to reach it. Lions can be very aggressive and competitive. Lions must learn not to be too bossy or to take charge in other’s affairs.

Strength: Goal-oriented, strong, direct
Weakness: Argumentative, too dictatorial
Limitation: Doesn’t understand that directness can hurt others, hard time expressing grace

Otter- Otters are very social creature. Otter personalities love people. They enjoys being popular and influencing and motivating others. Otter can sometimes be hurt when people do not like them. Otter personalities usually have lots of friends, but not deep relationships. They love to goof-off. (They are notorious for messy rooms.) Otters like to hurry and finish jobs. (Jobs are not often done well.) The otter personality is like Tigger in Winnie The Pooh.

Strength: People person, open, positive
Weakness: Talks too much, too permissive
Limitation: Remembering past commitments, follow through with discipline

[E]xperience

Grew up staunch Catholic. In my 20’s I began to question what I grew up believing. A friend invited me to study the Bible with him. I eventually accepted Christ as my Lord and Savior back at the end of 1990.

Sunday School Teacher/ Youth Mentor – Group leader at Winston Salem First Assembly of God (Winston-Salem, NC) From 1995-1997

Sunday School Kids drama participant – Kids Fine Arts Drama Coach – Royal Rangers Leader – Grand Rapids First Assembly of God (2008-2019)

Youth Director / VBS Coordinator – Oakhill Church (2022-2023)

Wonderful parents! (Both have passed away in the past year and a half.)

Great role models in wherever I’ve worked in Youth Ministry

Seeing kids, elementary through high school, that have stepped up and felt more comfortable talking about the things of God…even (and especially) in front of crowds!

Working alongside teachers with negative attitudes…and especially witnessing parents putting their own kids down in front of them. Makes me upset, wanting to uplift those kids, and others who need some encouragement and support.

Working under a pastor that did not see the importance of investing in future generations. Catered to the part of the congregation that did not want to grow. This is why we like our current church (Berkley) so much better. Lots of investment!

This last one is an experience that I gave myself, and regret it, but have learned from it. When I was in 4th grade, I played flag football. Every time I got in the huddle, I said, “Don’t give the ball to me!” And…I never got the ball. I was fearful of messing up and facing conflict. To this day, I am always willing to try new things, even if I’m not comfortable with them, because I don’t want to rule myself out of any opportunities that God might have for me.

Wrapping It Up

The Challenge: Based upon your S.H.A.P.E. Assessment above (the way God wired you), If you knew you couldn’t fail … and ‘lack of money, or time’ was not an obstacle… list your Top 3 Things you would ‘Focus’ your Life on, next to #1 Loving God & #2 Loving Your Neighbor (these would be your ‘3 God-Sized Dreams’ for your life)?

1. My Relationship with GOD

2. My Relationship with Others

• Putting Your Spouse First
• Your Kids Second
• Everyone Else After those

3. Missions! I would love to not just take my family on a missions trip to serve, but to see if that’s something I would want to do on a full time basis.

4. I would love to own a large barn on a big property for youth groups to be able to use on a regular basis for retreats or weekly meetings.

5. To always be involved in a fun/spiritual/focused men’s group.