Last month, I (Erick) went through something called the “Five Fold Survey” with my disciples. Essentially it is an 80-question survey that helps you assess where your strength and focus is in the 5 ministry giftings of being an Apostle, Evangelist, Pastor, Prophet and Teacher.
The survey is based off of Ephesians 4:11-12 which says:
“And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ.”
At the end of the survey it answers the question: “why do we care about the results and what do they mean for our lives?” Essentially it says that each of us are created to live out of one of these 5 base ministry gifts. Of course, as it is with all giftings, there is one that comes more naturally to us and is the one we do best. It brings us the most life and the most joy. However, God is always trying to grow us in the areas we don’t excel at naturally. He give us a season to learn a gift that isnʼt natural to us, but is important for us to learn. This survey is a great reminder that there are going to be things in our lives that we’ll have to learn that we wonʼt ever be great at it, but we can learn to be truly competent in it.
This survey helped me gain insight into how I lack in the gifting in Apostleship (which is essentially the gifting of being a pioneer and/or visionary) and how that isn’t something I should just ignore and say, “well, I’m just not very good at that thing so I won’t try to develop it.” Instead it has spurred me on to think of how I can place myself in small situations where I have to exert the traits of an apostle and grow and develop in that area of who I am. It might not be perfect, it might not even be good, but it will help me to be truly competent in being an apostle instead of fearing my lack of ability and experience in the area and not doing it.
For my disciples, it really helped them understand the man God has made them to be. For one of them it helped reinforce who he already believed himself to be. It helped him see the “immature” traits of his natural gifting of being a Prophet and how he can grow and develop in that. For another it helped him see that his doubts in his natural gifting to be a Teacher were misguided and that he is indeed gifted in that area.
I highly encourage you to take a moment and take this quick survey. It will not only help you discover more about the person God created you to be, but it will give you insight on how to improve your ability to serve God’s people and round yourself out in the areas you feel challenged in.
E + C 