Find Your Fit Guide

1. Ask God for guidance 

We do not want to overestimate, diminish, or bypass the importance of prayer. Since God is the one who has called and gifted you to serve, He is the one we should start asking direction from. Therefore, we believe step one in finding your fit is asking God for guidance through prayer. 

When you begin praying, we do not believe you should be looking for a special sign or “writing in the clouds.” You do not need to overthink this. We encourage you to begin by simply asking God to open the doors He wants you to walk through, close the doors He wants you to stay out of, and give you wisdom to discern His leading.

There is no specific timeline to go by; we just encourage you to begin this process with consistent and expectant prayer. 

2. Understand your spiritual gifts

Every believer has been given a “spiritual gift” for the common good of the body. You will grow through using your gifts and the body will be built up because of it. Therefore it is crucial for you to understand the spiritual gifts God has given you so that you can begin to consider how to best use them. 

You can start by following these steps:

• Take this free spiritual gift test: https://gifts.churchgrowth.org/spiritual-gifts-survey/ (this is one of the many spiritual inventories out there. Feel free to use this one or another one that you prefer.)

• Write down your top three results.

• Read the definitions and descriptions.

• Reflect on whether you agree with the results.

• Seek advice from a spiritual mentor or two. Ask what they think your spiritual gifts are and if they agree with your results. 

Take all that information and to the best of your ability, try to rank your top three spiritual gifts.

3. Identify your natural abilities

In addition to spiritual gifts, God has given you natural abilities. Unlike spiritual gifts, you did not gain these upon salvation—these were a part of God’s common grace toward you even when you were not a Christian. Also unlike spiritual gifts, these are strengths you have that are not specifically called spiritual gifts in the Bible. 

Though they are not “spiritual gifts,” they are still from God and a part of how He intends to use you for His purposes. 

Therefore, another important step in finding your fit is identifying your natural abilities. You can start doing that by answering the questions below:

• What do other people say you are good at?

• What abilities do you feel you are above average in?

• What comes easily to you? 

• What have you worked hard at and become good at? 

• Why are you good at these things? 

Take all that information and try to summarize it into three to five categories. 

4. Examine your personality

In addition to spiritual gifts and natural abilities, God has given you a personality. He has wired you distinctly and intentionally. Your personality often determines how you process information, relate to people, engage emotions, and more. Because we are born with a sin nature, our personality has been affected by sin. There are positives that come with our personality and negatives. However, it is helpful to understand how we are wired and how that might inform the kinds of roles we might fit well in. 

There are several personality tools that can be helpful—Myers-Briggs, the DISC, and sixteen personality types to name a few. We personally recommend the Enneagram. There is no perfect tool—this includes the Enneagram—but it has helped us greatly understand ourselves better. If you are willing to use the Enneagram as a tool, follow these steps. If you prefer a different tool, that’s fine.

• Visit the Enneagram Institute website: https://www.enneagraminstitute.com/type-descriptions

• Take time to read the brief description of all nine types. 

• Select the top three that best describes you. 

• Click on your top three and read the more in-depth profile.

• Discuss your results with a spiritual mentor.

Take all that information and try to pick the Enneagram type that best describes you.

5. Follow your passions

In addition to everything listed above, God also directs us through our passions and desires. Take time to think through the follow questions:

• What motivates you?

• What gets your passions flowing?

• What do you love doing?

6. Leverage your experience

The final part of yourself to reflect on is your experiences. Make a list of the jobs and ministry experiences you have filled in the past. After you have made a list, attempt to answer these questions:

• What jobs or roles did I most excel at? 

• What jobs or roles did I excel least at?

• In what jobs or roles did I feel most fulfilled?

• In what jobs or roles did I feel least fulfilled?

7. Explore your options

Now that you have thoroughly vetted yourself, it is time to start exploring what options of service are available.

• Consider your spiritual gifts, abilities, personality, passions, and experience. 

• Pick one area that best utilizes your gifts, abilities, personality, passions, and experience. 

• Fill out an application for your areas of interest.

• Go through the onboarding process.

• Look to the church leaders for guidance.

8. Test it out

No matter how much you read about something or talk about it, you never really know what it is like until you try it. Once you and the church leaders agree on a specific service role, test it out for a short period of time. This may look like shadowing or attending a few meetings. 

9. Commit and serve

After you test out an area of service, you should ask two questions: 

• Do I still feel like this is a good area for me to serve in?

• Do my leaders still feel like this is a good area for me to serve in?

If the answer to both questions is yes, commit to serve for the service term. Once you understand the expectations and agree to them, start serving. 

If the answer to the questions is no, we want to take you back to step 7. If the role you tested is not the right fit, something else is, and we want to help you find it. 

10. Re-evaluate

Once your service term is up, do not assume you should stop or assume you should continue. Instead, take time to re-evaluate. These questions might help:

• How did this ministry year go?

• What did I learn about myself? 

• Did my gifts fit the role well?

• Am I still needed in this role? 

• Are there any other areas that I am excited about serving in or think could be a better fit for me?

Discuss your answers with your ministry leader and try to make a decision together.