Finding Your Place and Your S.H.A.P.E. In God's Kingdom Work
God has created you and shaped your life in unique and wonderful ways so
that you can experience the joy of helping the Kingdom of God to come on
earth as it is in heaven (Matthew 6:10). We do different things to make a
living, but we all have the same vocation, or calling, which is to use our
talents, abilities, interests, personality, and experience to follow Jesus,
to strengthen His Body, the Church, and to enlarge Gods Kingdom on earth.
When we use our abilities for Gods glory, we come to know God more fully as
we obey Him and He accomplishes His work through our lives.
Rick Warren of Saddleback Church in California developed the S.H.A.P.E.
acronym several years ago, and it has become widely used to help Christians
discover their unique SHAPE for ministry. This acronym has been adopted by
ACS, the company that makes our church management software, as a template
church members can use to let church leaders know how to deploy their skills
most effectively.
The leaders of our WORSHIP, MEMBERSHIP, DISCIPLESHIP, MINISTRY, and
MISSION TEAMS need to know what SHAPE you're in so that they may help
you find your place (or places) of service in God's kingdom work through
this congregation. To that end, we have prepared both an
Online S.H.A.P.E
Inventory that you can submit through your internet browser and a paper and pencil version
of the S.H.A.P.E. Inventory that you can
download and complete at your leisure. You can either turn in that
completed document to the church office or enter the information in our
Online S.H.A.P.E. Inventory.
The adventurous among you may log
in to our church database and enter the information in your own record
(In order for you to log in to Access ACS for the first time, your name,
email address, and phone number must already be in our database. If you
experience problems logging in, you may email
brian@fbcbristol.org. The S.H.A.P.E. Inventory information is called
"attributes" in the database).
Below you will find Internet links that provide
online gift assessments that may be
helpful as you consider your gifts, particularly if this is a new concept
for you.
Resources