By Rev. Dr. Travis Guse, PCC
Of all the assessment tools that I’ve used in my coaching over the years, the one that my clients have found the most energizing in life is the CliftonStrengths assessment (formally known as Strengthsfinder) from Gallup. In fact, this assessment tool introduced me to the world of coaching. In 2007, I was at one of those crucible moments of my life after leaving my first congregation as a pastor to find some much-needed healing for my wife and myself after a challenging ministry experience. During this time, I attended a leadership training facilitated by Mosaic in L.A. There I was introduced to the Gallup Strengthsfinder assessment.
When I took this assessment, a new world of personal understanding opened up for me. It gave me language for things I always knew about myself, but I didn’t have the words and articulation to explain it to others. It helped me understand why I always felt like a square peg trying to be put in the round hole of pastoral ministry during seminary. And it gave me permission to be the person God had created and redeemed me to be in Christ rather than trying to be someone I was not.
This experience was a pivotal moment for me in my life and ministry that gave me a greater self-awareness of my God-given design and opened the door to the world of coaching. Afterward, I attended a Strengths Coach training through Mosaic in partnership with Gallup. Through this training, I discovered how coaching could serve as a personal and practical way to disciple people to discover and more intentionally live out their authentic calling in Christ in love and service to their neighbors in all their callings in life. Now through coaching, I could help those I served to create awareness of why they are here and how to make a more significant Kingdom impact in the lives of others.
In Ephesians 2:8-9, Paul affirms that we are saved by grace through faith as a free gift because of Jesus. Yet, in verse 10, we hear that we are saved for a purpose, “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” Therefore, to better understand our specific purpose in life and the good works that we have been created and now redeemed to fulfill, we need to have a greater awareness of God’s workmanship in our lives. Only then will we have a clearer picture of how we are to uniquely love and serve our neighbors in all of our various callings in life in an authentic way to how God has gifted each of us for the purposes He has in mind.
The CliftonStrengths assessment has been the most effective tool in my coaching ministry for empowering believers and unbelievers alike to make that discovery. This assessment is more accurately a talent-finder, helping people discover their natural God-given talents – how they naturally think, feel, and behave. It doesn’t measure for every talent in life, but it does help people identify their talents out of 34 different talent themes that are universal to all people and lead to living successfully. Then, by adding knowledge, skills, and experience, these talents can be developed as Strengths. Of course, this does not mean that we should overlook our weaknesses. Yet, Gallup advocates that our most significant opportunity for success is developing our natural talents and harnessing them to build a Strengths-based life.
As I’ve utilized the CliftonStrengths assessment in my coaching within the Church, it serves as a powerful tool for helping people discover what they are naturally good at in life and how they can engage with those talents in the life of the Church. The CliftonStrengths assessment can be a great way to change the emphasis of stewardship away from just focusing on money and helping people discover their God-given talents. Gallup has found that as people realize what they are naturally good at in life and how that aligns with their congregation’s mission, they also give more of their time and treasure toward that mission.
Not only does the CliftonStrengths assessment help people discover how their God-given talents can be used in service within the life of the Church, but it also serves as a powerful way to help them engage their talents to make a more significant impact in the other domains of their life. As I’ve coached people to discover their Strengths in the ministries I’ve served, they often reply how they not only better understand how to use them for service within their church but also how they can be used Monday morning at work or within their families. CliftonStrengths can be an effective tool in coaching others around vocational discipleship so that they can be the blessing God has gifted them to be.
While many effective assessments can be used for coaching in ministry, CliftonStrengths is one assessment that every coach should add to their coaching tool belt. It honors God’s First Article gifting in people’s lives as something of value within the life of the Church. It can also help empower God’s people to be the Church, to more effectively love and bless others authentically where God has called them to serve in life within their workplace, families, and community.
