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

Thank you Matthew Dionne 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):

71%

56%

68%

56%

40%

84%

75%

34%

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 interested and changed by discovering truth. When I come to understand an important truth about God’s Kingdom and will, my first instinct is to make sure that other believers understand this.

This gift’s evident in my life in the following ways:
My initial conviction about the importance of Scripture has only grown. If this is God’s word – I feel that every person who calls themself a Christ follower should be submitted to it. I generally have a sense of peace or disease (read spiritual discernment) about the truth of a person’s confessions. I am usually not shy about following a prompting from the Holy Spirit to correct, rebuke or comfort (if needed) someone who I sense is straying. And I generally am able to do so without stumbling them or breaking the relationship.

This gift’s evident in my life in the following ways:
I care about the development of others. Even more than seeing lost souls outside of the church, seeing lost and broken believers who are living lives ruled by the world breaks my heart. I am willing to walk alongside people who desire to grow in Christ. I am more excited to see a brother or sister that I am walking with grow in effectiveness for Christ than I am to see my own “success”. watching the Holy Spirit work through people I love is a miracle.

[H]eart

1. Music – playing instruments and singing with others – especially worship music, but any kind of group music

2. Writing – I like to put my thoughts out and see them expand and narrow them down

3. Fixing things – I love to see things improve, to look at something, have a goal and vision for what it could be and take measurable steps toward that end is exciting.

I like to work with other leaders the best. people who are motivated to grow and refine their walk. we may be imperfect but there is a certain energy when a group of godly men and women share a common desire to serve the Lord.

Cultural poison – our churches too often become a place to gather like-minded people (conservative/liberal/charismatic/dogmatic/etc.) We aim to create a “product” that people “like us” will buy, instead of being molded, shaped and transformed by God’s Word and Spirit. We are so afraid to fail by human standards that we water down every desire to please God with spiritualistic reserves and niceties.

Abortion/sanctity of Life
Spiritual laziness
Other – the use/abuse of God’s Word for an agenda

[A]bilities

Lead pastor + also a tent making realtor (when I have time)

Finance, real estate, management, fast food/service,

multiple musical instruments and vocal – worship leading, tech savvy, organized, sales, public speaking

discipleship, Bible studies, exegetical process. mortgages, banking, home buyer seminars

thoughtfulness & Analytical nature – this causes me to consider things from different angles and never take my knowledge and understanding for granted. it helps to keep me humble and drives me to constantly strive to understand and know God’s will better

[P]ersonality

50-50 Extrovert/Reserved

50-50 High/Low Risk

Challenger

People Driven

Leader

Team

Routine

Your Primary was ‘The Lion’, with your Secondary coming in as ‘The Beaver’, 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

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

[E]xperience

I was raised in a “religious” family, but not a very committed Christian one. I heard the Gospel regularly and intellectually assented to its probable truth, but it wasn’t until after walking away, living a prodigal life and seeing the insufficiency of my own ability to be “good” did I realize that I was not a Christian. I trusted in the Lord after being confronted with the question “why would you want to come to church and pretend to be a Christian? – if you want to live in the world, why not just choose that. to me, the realization that following Christ had a cost and a purpose changed my life.

2005-2009- Evangelical Covenant Church of Milwaukee, WI – lay youth leader and worship leader,

Covenant Church of Schaumburg IL – staff youth pastor 2010-2012 (?) –

2013-2019 – several other lay positions in various Converge churches in Illinois and Colorado including community groups, discipleship program leader, men’s ministry leader, worship leader

2020 – Current Calvary Green Valley Ranch Denver Colorado – Lead Pastor (began as assistant pastor)

Marriage at a young age – I had to choose and decide what kind of a husband I would be – I couldn’t bear to let the best woman in the world down. it led me to question if I needed to seek Christ for “help being a good husband” – He had other ideas for my life

the birth of my first son – helped me understand a fraction of the love that the Father had for me. before that I never could understand why the Father would care so intimately

Discipleship that I received while at Bible college. What I learned in school was helpful, but the interest that these godly men took in me shaped my idea of what it means to be a pastor.

Bankruptcy – It tore down my pride and self-sufficiency. forced me to trust in and obey God. watching God provide exactly $43 because my checking account was negative and that was exactly what I needed to buy a coat for my 2 year old son. it was humbling and freeing to know that God has me in hand

my wife’s recurring brain tumor and surgeries. we found that God is a miracle worker – because of the location of the tumors the doctors tell us we never should have had any kids but He gave us 4. not only that, we got to see God’s hand at work through others in the Body of Christ.

being rejected and disappointed by a pastor that was in charge of me. After 9 years of waiting on the Lord, going from place to place without request or seeking money I was told that I would be hired as the community pastor and sent out with a blessing for a church plant, but I came in one Sunday to find that another young seminary graduate was hired to do the things that I was in charge of – I cried out to the Lord in anger , told Him I was done with it. He very clearly told me through another unrelated person that same day, that I needed to minister to who was in front of me and stop worrying about the size

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. Expand the ministry of Calvary GVR into a ministry hub for our area – a place that is known for God’s Word, Love and Truth

4. Teach and Disciple as many other pastors and leaders as God will give me

5. go back to Bible School and pursue higher Masters/Doctoral – not to seek higher position, but to know God deeper and to learn more from Him