Tools and Resources

When using any tools there are a few things to remember:

• God tells you who you are, not tools.  Tools can help in the discovery process but they are not without limits.

• God put us in a church family in part to give us a safe group to help us discern, test and process through ideas and questions.  As we use any of these tools, we must not trust ourselves only or the tool only but we need to test things with those that know us and who can speak into our lives because they know us, love us and we trust them.

• You are part of the Body of Christ thus your SHAPE is not a duplicate to anyone else’s.  You are a unique and critical part of this faith communities’ capacity to be effective and faithful.  Thanks for being a part of this faith family!

• The Holy Spirit is about empowering for witness.  So, these tools are available to help us discern where and how we are being empowered by God to go make disciples. No one can do everything!  But we are all SHAPED for witness since this is what Jesus told us to do.  Taking the time to discern your SHAPE is critical lest you are trying to do things that are:

  • Not in your gifting

  • Trying to be someone you were not created or equipped to be

  • Attempting to imitate others or do things others should be doing.  (We tend to do this because these other tasks or gifts feed a false view of yourself and/or feed ego. This means instead of being true to how God create me I am trying to be someone else.)