1. Your Spiritual gifts Heart’s desire Abilities Personality Experience for God’s Service Six meetings in a small informal group, enabling people to discern their gifts for God’s service.

2. Session 3: Aims for this session To clarify what you have learned about your personality. To explore other aspects of your personality and character, and to discover how you function most effectively and happily: How are you energised? How are you organised? How do you learn? How do you make decisions? R

3. Meeting Famous Personalities Which famous personality would you most like to meet? Why? (What is it about them which attracts or interests you?) R

4. Your Personal Reflection Exercise Personal Reflection on your Personality Handout 2PR completed this past week How did the exercise go? Did you find it easy or difficult to get feedback? Did other people see you quite differently, or was there a fair amount of agreement about your personality? How did you feel beforehand and afterwards? Did you gain fresh insights and encouragement? C

5. Feedback in Pairs Find a partner that haven’t paired up with yet Take your Personal Reflection on your Personality sheet In your pairs, share and discuss your responses to the 3 “reflection” questions at the bottom of page 2. You’ve got about 7 minutes each. C

6. Challenge and Growth: Reflection & Prayer On your own, spend a moment looking at the feedback you received. Does it show any negative aspects to your personality? We all have wounds and scars from the past, as well as failings and weaknesses. In silence now, ask the Holy Spirit to show you whether you need to repent or be healed of any of these, and ask to be transformed more and more into the character of Christ. Take Time for Silent Prayer. Lord, in your mercy Hear our prayer. C

7. Celebrating our Differences Do you feel encouraged by some of the positive feedback about your personality? It’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking that your character is so much worse and less holy than everyone else’s… But.... Jesus often told his disciples not to compare themselves with each other. God loves diversity - he rejoices in all the personality-differences between us. C

8. Celebrating our Differences There is no such thing as a perfect Christian personality. Think of some of the people in the Bible, who were used by God in amazing ways – they were all very different characters: Abraham, Sarah, Moses, Esther, David, Ruth, Mary, Peter, Paul… They all had different strengths and weaknesses, but God used them.

9. Celebrating our Differences The Church would be no good at all if our personalities were all similar. We need to be:- Aware of our differences; Accept our differences; Appreciate our differences.

10. Celebrating our Differences Let’s Read Together... If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be?... But in fact, God has arranged the parts of the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. If they were all one part, where would the body be?... The eye cannot say to the hand “I don’t need you!” On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable… Now you are the Body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it. 1 Corinthians 12: 17-21, 27

11. Celebrating our Differences Pray together... Dear Lord we pray that today’s session will help us to be more aware of our personalities and the differences between us. Each of us needs to keep working and praying at accepting those differences, and appreciating those differences. In Jesus name. Amen

12. How are you Energised? Have you ever listened to someone enthusing un- stoppably about their favourite sport or hobby or solution to the world’s problems…and you’ve just sat there trying to look interested but really thinking “How on earth can they be so excited by something that’s so boring?!” It’s obvious that we are all very different in terms of what energises, enthuses and excites us. Equally, we’re all very different in terms of what we find draining, stressful or boring.C

13. How are you Energised? It’s important to discover what sort of activities and situations energise us. Then we can look for ways to serve God, which involve those sort of activities and situations. When we feel energised and positive, we are much more likely to be creative and effective in what we’re doing. God wants to use our energies, not to frustrate us!

14. How Are You Energised? Handout 3A – HOW ARE YOU ENERGISED Flipchart Grid... Are we Similar or Diverse? HIGHESTLOWEST THINGS PEOPLE IDEAS INFORMATION

15. What does this mean for the future? When you are seeking how to serve God... look for activities which will enable you to work with your stronger preferences. these are not necessarily the things that you are best at in terms of skills but you will do them in a more enthusiastic, motivated, committed and creative way because they are your preferences. If you have two that are fairly equally strong, seek to combine them. For example, if you are strongly energised by: Ideas and People: join a planning group; Things and People: join with other people in a practical task; Information and People: work with other people on researching or using facts and figures; Information and Things: find out information and apply it to doing a hands-on task on your own.

16. Growing in Christlikeness How do you think your spirituality fits in with (or is shaped by) your personality? There is no such thing as the perfect Christian personality but... we are called to become more like Christ, as we follow in his footsteps. There are certain qualities of character which need to grow in us, so that our lives reflect Jesus. It is the work of the Holy Spirit to grow these qualities in us, so they are described as the fruits of the Spirit. R

17. Growing in Christlikeness St. Paul writes to the Galatians: You were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Galatians 5:13,22

18. Growing in Christlikeness Whatever our personality is, we need to pray regularly that the Holy Spirit will grow these qualities of character in us. Which do you find hardest? Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self- control. Quietly ask God to ‘grow’ it in you. Lord in your mercy Hear our Prayer

19. How does your personality prefer to operate? Each of us operates very differently in terms of how we prefer to learn and to organise ourselves. We respond differently to change, or to pressure and need to be aware of that response so we can understand what roles and situations suit us best. God needs all sorts of personalities!! Their is no ‘good’ or ‘bad’.

20. How does your personality prefer to operate? This exercise may raise interesting complexities – eg. someone may prefer to organise themselves in a very structured way at work, but in a very open-ended way on holiday! Let’s all stand and create plenty of space down the centre of the length of the room. Taking each of the 4 questions below in turn, say which end of the room represents which end of the scale. Ask them to go and stand where they would generally place themselves on the scale between the two extremes; representing how they actually operate, not how they’d like to be.

21. Question 1. How do you best learn and take in information? A) Through reflection, intuition and imagination. B) Through experience, facts and practical matters.

22. Question 2. How are you organised? A) I like things to be unstructured, open and flexible, ‘go with the flow’ B) I like things to be structured, planned and tidy, with clear goals.

23. Question 3. What is your attitude to change? A) I like to be steady and well-rooted. B) I like to be a pioneer and risk-taker.

24. Question 4. How do you respond under pressure (eg. to do something big at short notice)? A) Better than usual. B) Worse than usual.

25. Jot down a few words to record your preferences... Example...... I learn best through experience and like things to be structured, planned and tidy. In some situations I like being steady and well rooted (family and church come to mind) but in others I’m also a risk taker and respond really well under pressure.

26. Now...think of some of the main ways you serve God at present. Ask yourself: “Would I use the words I’ve just written above to describe my current activities, roles, and ways in which I serve God?”

27. If your answer is “Mainly Yes,” then you can feel encouraged that you are using your unique personality in God’s service. However, often our life-situations force us to operate in ways that do not match our personality-preferences. If this is happening in several areas of our life simultaneously (e.g. family, work, church etc.) then it can be very difficult and frustrating. Sometimes we may need to be open to growth and change in our own personality and comfort-zones (and ask God and other people to help us in this), so that we can operate in appropriate ways; Sometimes we need to find means of changing the ways things operate, or even to shift to new activities/work/forms of Christian service. If possible, take some time in the near future to pray about this and discuss it with someone who knows you well.

28. Pray In pairs share one prayer-request each arising from today’s session, and pray for one another either aloud or in silence. End with The Grace or a Blessing. R

29. Personal Reflection on Your Abilities Handout 3 PR – Personal Reflection on Your Abilities. Member’s Notes for session 2 : Experience R

30. Questions?