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

Thank you Shannon Potelick 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:

21%

53%

59%

59%

68%

28%

43%

93%

68%

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 genuinely enjoy being helpful and easing the burdens of others by taking on tasks that they’re unable to do or don’t have time to do. I’m not super great at leading and being in charge of things, but picking up some of the pieces that get dropped or forgotten (even the less glamorous jobs) and filling in the gaps is where I find I do really well.

This gift’s evident in my life in the following ways:
I like being an encouragement to others and making people feel special and cared for, especially those who don’t feel seen and known. I’ve felt invisible in my own life and know how hard that can be, and I don’t like for others to feel that way. And my heart breaks when I talk to someone whose going through a hard time, especially when they’re enduring alone.

This gift’s evident in my life in the following ways:
I love to learn. I’m an avid reader and study-er, so I guess this makes sense from the perspective of having a lot of knowledge and enjoying deeper discussions about what passages mean and how they can be applied. I’m not sure I necessarily see myself as an upfront in a classroom teacher, but maybe one-on-one or in a small group discussion where everyone’s kind of teaching and learning from each other.

[H]eart

1. Spending time with good friends. Deep friendships where I can talk and share my heart without judgment and they can do the same with me — just doing life together and having community.

2. Being creative. Probably the two main outlets I have for this is through writing (I write fundraising/marketing copy for a variety of Christian non-profits for a living — plus I just love telling peoples stories and making up my own stories and hope to write novels one day) and through arts and crafts ( I’m an avid crocheter, currently learning to knit, can draw and do some cross-stitch/embroidery … basically just find it therapeutic to create and make things with my hands.)

3. Singing. This is a huge stress reliever for me — and frankly a huge way that I connect with God in worship, especially when I’m going through a hard time and need to praise Him through it. I’m shy, so this is really more of an alone-time thing for me, like while driving in the car or making dinner or something. I’m not super comfortable on stages with people looking at me, so I’ve never performed or anything like that. But singing does bring me joy.

I really enjoy connecting with people in a similar life-stage as me (single, young adult, female) because I find those relationships mutually beneficial — we’re kinda going through the same things and can relate/share each other’s experiences. But I can generally find something to enjoy working with most people.

Probably Journey Groups excite me most — because I feel like that’s where I get the community I crave and really get to know people. I struggle sometimes with dropping my own walls, and I think that’s the kind of setting where (over time) I’d be able to form those deep friendships and be vulnerable with people. And I think just making sure people feel seen and loved and valued at the church in general is something I care a lot about.

Abortion/sanctity of Life
Educational

[A]bilities

Copywriter at a fundraising agency. I write direct mail letters, emails, website/social media copy, newsletters, case statements, annual reports, brochures, books and e-books, catalogs, etc. all with the aim of inviting people to be play a personal role in the work God is doing around the world through a variety of Christian non-profit ministries.

In high school, I worked at an after-school care — I started out actually watching the kids, but that wasn’t really my forte. I ultimately switched over to the front desk to greet parents coming to pick up their kiddos and do more of the administrative stuff.

Writing. Arts and crafts (crochet, draw, cross-stitch/embroidery, learning to knit). Singing (decent voice, but shy about being in front of people). Eye for color/design. Good listener/encourager.

I don’t think I’ve ever actually taught a class or seminar on anything in my life.

Probably my willingness to do anything to help someone or serve someone. Either than or my creativity.

[P]ersonality

Reserved

Low Risk

Peace Maker

People Driven

Follower

50-50 Routine/Variety

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

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

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

Grew up in a Christian family — so I don’t know that there was ever a time where I didn’t know about Jesus. I made the salvation decision when I was 7 at the church where I grew up. And through a variety of experiences and set backs and mistakes that relationship has grown deeper and my understanding of who God is, His unconditional love for me, and the knowledge that He sees and cares for me personally has really blossomed.

My family was part of the core group that launched Rockside Church in Independence. The initial meetings were actually in my family’s home — and youth group started in our basement. I was an assistant in the kids’ church (not really my thing) and helped with ushering. I also played chords on the keyboard for the worship team to help fill out the sound until they found someone who could actually play-play.

Making a core group of solid friends in college really showed me what Christian community could be like when done right.

Getting a writing scholarship for college from Jerry B. Jenkins/having a professor (who is also a literary agent) tell me I was one of the most talented writers in the program really solidified my confidence in my writing and creative abilities.

This one’s gonna be longer (sorry in advance). The college I attended had two campuses when I started going (separate majors, career emphases, etc at each campus) — but at the end of my sophomore year, the campus I attended (which was the smaller of the two) was being shut down (this was in 08/09 after the market crash). I was very upset about this — a lot of my friends majors wouldn’t transfer to the main campus (mine was one of the few that was moving), a lot of my favorite professors had lost their jobs and wouldn’t be coming down to the other campus, etc. Didn’t understand what God was doing. Meanwhile, unbeknownst to me, my younger brother Adam was getting into some trouble with drinking and running with a bad crowd at his secular college … and over Thanksgiving of my junior year (my first year at the main campus), Adam told my parents he needed to switch schools to get out of that environment or he was afraid he’d walk away from God completely. Adam is a super social person and he needs lots of people and a big college — so if I had still been at the small campus, Adam never would have made the decision to join me at my college. But because I was at the main campus now, that’s what he decided to do and my being there to keep him accountable played a big part in that. One day, I got a phone call to meet him in the prayer chapel. Turns out, God had been working in his heart to change his major from Business to Christian Education/Pastoral Ministry. He wanted me to pray with him about it and we called our parents to tell them of his decision together. It was just really cool to be part of his story like that and also to see how God took something that was painful to me and used it for good — I almost think sometimes He allowed that campus to close just so I could be there for Adam. Especially now seeing how God is using him as a campus pastor for a mega-church in California … it’s just amazing to think I played even a small part in making that possible.

Being invisible/ignored in school. Always been shy and kinda overlooked by people in general — but in high school especially I felt very isolated and almost friendless. Spent my senior year of high school eating lunch alone reading a book because my only friend had a different lunch period than I did. Just makes me more sensitive to people who feel alone or unseen — and makes me want to make sure they know they are loved and matter.

Had a very toxic relationship with a boyfriend in college. It was good at first (or I wouldn’t have been in it), but when he graduated and moved back home he wound up getting involved with some old friends who were into drinking/smoking pot/etc. I wanted to be there for him and help him get some help, but we got into this cycle of him wanting me back and getting help, and then falling back into his addictions and wanting to break up. It was really devastating to me and I wound up having to just release him to God and take myself out of the equation because he was hurting me more than I was helping him. Probably the hardest decision I’ve ever had to make. So I have a lot of empathy for people who have good hearts but need to cut off toxic relationships for their own sanity, even though it’s so, so painful.

Not being able to find work for a year after college. It just felt like a let down after all that hard work and feeling like I was following God’s direction for my life for things to take so long to fall into place. Ultimately they did fall into place — I ended up with the perfect job and God was right on time as usual — but at the time I was feeling really frustrated and purposeless and crushed. I do feel a lot of empathy for people who are waiting for what God has promised them and it’s just not happening in the timing or way that they thought it would.

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. To use my writing gifts to bring people closer to God and inspire them to live out an amazing story for Him.

4. Serve and show mercy in creative ways, like by making/crafting things that bring people comfort.

5. Live in authentic community with others so that God’s love can be felt and experienced tangibly and practically.