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

Thank you Joe Kwiatkowski 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):

75%

62%

90%

56%

40%

68%

56%

43%

90%

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:
I am totally a “how to” person. I love to motivate others to action. It frustrates me when working with people and they do not act or pursue a course of conduct but motivates me more to encourage them and work them to do so. I want/long to see Holy change in peoples lives and to see them become more mature Christians. As an exhorter I am very “practical, a good counselor, serious-minded, and orderly” as the definition of exhorter entails-that defines me to a “t.” And I don’t mean this pridefully, but I take when I speak in one-on-one settings or in groups because I speak, people listen. If we’re having conversation that is focused on life change, when I speak I want it to matter. I also think a great benefit of this as one of my gifts is that I have the uncanny ability to leave other people’s problems “in the office” and not take them home.

This gift’s evident in my life in the following ways:
I believe this ties in with the previous gifting of exhortation/encouragement. I am a teacher/counselor by trade and have been one for 12 years. I feel being a good encourager/exhorter includes having the ability to teach what your encouraging other people to do. I looked at the definition and all I can say is “yes.” —-> “You love the Word, enjoy reading, may be a little shy of strangers, are creative and imaginative, and prefer teaching groups over individuals. You are generally confident, self-disciplined, and sometimes technical. You probably love charts, graphs, and lists. You would sometimes rather just do research, but “must teach” because others would not teach it the way you would. The use of a verse out of context upsets you and you question the knowledge of those who teach you. You are organized and enjoy studying. You are so concerned with accuracy that you often dwell on the trivial, giving others the feeling that you give too many details. “

This gift’s evident in my life in the following ways:
Unlike someone who is a visionary who has huge dreams and goals, I have the ability to look at the vision and map out multiple ways to accomplish that vision. Because I am a very detailed person I can look at each “avenue” and look at what would happen if we did “x,” or what would happen if we did “y,” and be able to make the decision possible based off of the possibilities that could happen. Along with that, I am able to see what will be needed to accomplish each “path” to get to attaining that vision. I would agree with this one as well.

[H]eart

1. Spending quality time with my family.

2. Study things with a purpose

3. Exercise-being outdoors

To be honest, anything but children and youth at this point in my life. It’s it a bit easier to do life with people who are married and with younger children as that is my life currently and it’s easier to speak into their lives as we are going through familiar things.

Spiritual-laziness, marriage and family, parenting, bible literacy, men’s ministry in relation to the aforementioned and in general.

Marriage/family issues
Spiritual laziness
Policy/politics

[A]bilities

School Counselor (12 years)-High School and Elementary

Pastor/Church Planter, Addictions/Recovery Pastor, Youth Co-Pastor, College-aged ministry Pastor, Deputy Sheriff. I am a National Certified Career Development Facilitator but have not used it in any capacity.

Doctrine, Theology, Addiction and Gospel Recovery, instilling vision in a core team, preached weekly sermons (exegetically and topically) as part of the church plant and was a part of a preaching rotation at Restoration Church, I’ve filled pulpits all across Buffalo, NY and I was a three day keynote speaker at a father and son retreat where I did five lessons with the focus on character and integrity over the three day span. I was also hired by a local college to teach three sections of a general “Religion” course but stepped back prior to beginning because of the church plant. Working on the public schools, I have taught countless classroom lessons such as, but not limited to; self-regulation, puberty, bullying, sex education, suicide, graduation requirements, and have administered self-exploring assessments such as interest inventories, personality inventories, and career assessments to assist in students making the best post-high school decisions possible.

My ability to discern things. I have the ability to notice the fine-point details, the ability to judge something well and the ability to understand and comprehend something through observing behaviors and having conversation with people. And based off of that, I can assess how to approach the things/people/circumstances in the midst of the discernment.

[P]ersonality

Reserved

50-50 High/Low Risk

Peace Maker

People Driven

50-50 Follower/Leader

Routine

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

Beaver- Organized. Beavers think that there is a right way to do everything and they want to do it exactly that way. Beaver personalities are very creative. They desire to solve everything. Desire to take their time and do it right. Beavers do not like sudden changes. They need reassurance.

Strength: High standards, order, respect
Weakness: Unrealistic expectations of self & others, too perfect.
Limitation: Seeing the optimistic side of things, expressing flexibility

Golden Retriever- Good at making friends. Very loyal. Retriever personalities do not like big changes. They look for security. Can be very sensitive. Very caring. Has deep relationships, but usually only a couple of close friends. Wants to be loved by everyone. Looks for appreciation. Works best in a limited situation with a steady work pattern.

Strength: Accommodating, calm, affirming
Weakness: Indecisive, indifferent, unable to express emotional, too soft on other people
Limitation: Seeing the need to be more assertive, holding others accountable

[E]xperience

Same as the first one that was submitted. Too long to type 🙂

Crossroads Christian Church, East Aurora, NY as Youth Administrator, Co-Youth Pastor and College Pastor. 2000-2007

Restoration Church, Amherst, NY. Youth Leader, Church Planter and Recovery Pastor. 2009-2016

The constant outpouring (and prayer) from my Aunt, my Uncle and a mentor Pastor who built in my life personally and spiritually.

My 11-year marriage and the birth and life of my three girls.

Church leadership from Restoration Church taking the time to empower me, aid in exploring my gifts, allowing me to work within my gifts and releasing me to do so.

Recently there has been a lot of death surrounding our family. My aunt passed away a few months ago, our neighbor who we were close to passed away suddenly, a good family friend back in Buffalo passed away, a close friend of ours’ cousin passed away and now my cousin has lung and esophagus cancer which could shorten his life now drastically. This has put a lot of things in perspective for me. The timing of it with the Surrender Series at Cornerstone has really impacted how I view things; my marriage, my choices, my parenting and my relationships. Life is too short. God has told us that in his Word. Tomorrow is not promised. Only today.

Financial “struggles.” Working two jobs for five years and still only having enough money to pay our bills. I guess one could call this a “positive” experience as we’ve had the privilege of seeing God always provide for everything we’ve ever needed and then some. We have also had the opportunity to talk to people recently who we poured into while we were struggling. We gave to them as they were struggling more than we were and it was a huge blessing to hear years later that how we gave out of our lacking greatly impacted their lives.

My first church, Crossroads Christian Church, I had the (un)fortunate “privilege” of seeing the church split. I had worked in leadership as a youth administrator and volunteered as a youth leader and also started and built up the college ministry for quite some time and as that time was coming to an end, the church went through an awful split. I had been wounded (or taken offense) to some things but my view of some things changed when I saw the Senior Pastor basically get crucified as they held a church wide meeting to discuss the split. He was torn apart but stayed humble and kept silent. I saw Christ in him that night and have never forgotten that experience. I have great respect and love for that man and it has aided me in having grace with people that I have worked with in ministry but also with those around me that will point fingers and cast blame for things they are ignorant of. In addition to that night, I got to see this man walk out, week by week, after that night and move forward, continue to drive towards the vision God gave him and watch God continue to be faithful to the ministry at the church because of this man’s humility.

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. All three of these are tied in together….Become independent financially (ie: own apartments, buildings, self-employed) to be able to be freed up to give more of my resources for the sake of the Gospel-resourcing goals below.

4. Work side-by-side with my wife in some sort of ministerial capacity. Whether this is voluntarily or even if it’s working side by side in something like founding our own not-for-profit type organization.

5. In relation to #4, if I could be a part of leading something that would strengthen families in all levels, not enabling but actually restoring, rebuilding/building up and strengthening families on all levels, I would love to see that and see how it transforms an entire community, culture and society.