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Living Your Strengths
Trinity is a strengths-based church; we encourage our groups and teams, staff, council, youth and children to all understand their unique design and make a difference in the world.
Do you have the opportunity to do what you do best every day? Do you bring your best to your relationships, your community, your work and your church?
Chances are, you don't. All too often, our natural talents go untapped. From the cradle to the cubicle, we devote more time to fixing our shortcomings than to developing our strengths.
Living Your Strengths is a process that helps you to identify, affirm and serve from your strengths. It includes the Clifton StrengthsFinder ® assessment and Trinity’s own workshop designed to bring us together to explore our strengths and learn about the incredible power of our community when we serve God from our strengths.
To help people uncover their talents, Gallup introduced the first version of its online assessment, StrengthsFinder, in the 2001 management book Now, Discover Your Strengths. The book spent more than five years on the bestseller lists and ignited a global conversation, while StrengthsFinder helped millions to discover their top five talents.
The 34 Strength Themes
| Achiever | Activator | Adaptability | Analytical |
| Arranger | Belief | Command | Communication |
| Competition | Connectedness | Consistency | Context |
| Deliberative | Developer | Discipline | Empathy |
| Focus | Futuristic | Harmony | Ideation |
| Includer | Individualization | Input | Intellection |
| Learner | Maximizer | Positivity | Relator |
| Responsibility | Restorative | Self-Assurance | Significance |
| Strategic | Woo |
Resources for Adults
Living Your Strengths Book & Assessment
Living Your Strengths shows people how to use their innate gifts to enrich their congregation and community. It teaches you to identify and affirm your talents, and how to use them for growth and service. The apostle Paul wrote: “For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ.” He meant that every individual- every member- plays a role in energizing and shaping the Church. Living Your Strengths will help you find your role-and most importantly, it will inspire you to discover your true calling. Click here to order online.
Now Discover Your Strengths is the book that started it all. It shows you how to leverage your strengths for your own development, for your success as a manager of others and for the success of your organization. Now, Discover Your Strengths is a ground-breaking business book.
Click here to order online.
Strengths Based Leadership identifies three keys to being a more effective leader: knowing your strengths and investing in others’ strengths, getting people with the right strengths on your team, and understanding and meeting the four basic needs of those who look to you for leadership. This book contains firsthand accounts from some of the most successful organizational leaders in recent history from the founder of Teach for America to the president of The Ritz-Carlton, as they discuss how their unique strengths have driven their success. Click here to order online.
Resources for Children & Families
StrengthsQuest www.strengthsquest.com
For college-age: StrengthsQuest, Gallup's strengths development program for college-age students, gives students the opportunity to develop based on their strengths rather than their weaknesses. In other words, it helps students learn what they do best, then build their lives on those talents. With StrengthsQuest, students can discover and develop their greatest talents, use their strengths to improve their grades and increase their learning, and strategically determine a rewarding career path.
StrengthsQuest Helps with Academics
How do you prefer to study -- in a quiet corner of the library, listening to music in your room, or with a group of friends? StrengthsQuest can help you thrive in your academic career by showing you how to focus on what you naturally do well.
StrengthsQuest Helps with Career Choice
Your career choice is one of the most important decisions you will make. StrengthsQuest can provide you with guidance and ideas for your career.Imagine a job where you have the opportunity to do what you do best -- every day.
You’re Smarter Than You Think www.thomasarmstrong.com
For ages 10-16: Psychologist, Thomas Armstrong simplifies the psychological theory of multiple intelligences. He helps readers discover the different ways they are smart, and he encourages them to explore and improve how they learn at school, at home, and "everywhere you go." One chapter at a time, he covers eight different intelligences--word, music, logic, picture, body, people, self, and nature--and talks about what they mean in a kid-friendly style.
The StrengthsExplorer www.strengthsexplorer.com
For ages 10-14: From the Gallup Organization, The Clifton Youth StrengthsExplorer is designed to help kids discover their talents - and make the most of them. Wouldn't you rather be told what you're doing right, instead of what you're doing wrong? The Clifton Youth StrengthsExplorer tells kids just that.
Your Child’s Strengths www.strengthsmovement.com
Jenifer Fox, M-Ed is the president of the Purnell School, author of the critically acclaimed book, Your Child's Strengths, the award-winning, groundbreaking strengths-based curriculum, The Affinities Program and the leader of the Strengths Movement in Schools.
Strengths in Focus www.strengthsinfocus.com
Chris Trout is particularly focused on children and youth with vulnerabilities, such as those in foster care, with special needs or facing other personal or environmental challenges.
Jody Thone
Director of On Purpose Ministries
Phone: 651-439-7400, ext. 119
Living Your Strengths
Thu., March 29, 6-9 p.m. – Living Room
Cost: Class Only: $20; Class & Book: $30
Based on the work of the Gallup organization and over two million interviews, Living Your Strengths is a process that helps you indentify, affirm and serve from your strengths. It includes the Clifton StrengthsFinder™ assessment and Trinity’s own workshop designed to bring us together to explore our strengths and learn about the incredible power of our community when we serve God from our strengths. Led by Amy Karlstad, Walt Ogburn and Jaclyn Peterson
*Please Note: You must take the Clifton StrengthsFinder™ prior to attending this session.
Click on the box below to register for this class.
Q & A with Walt & Amy
Living Your Strengths Workshop Facilitators Amy Karlstad & Walt Ogburn
What are your strengths?
Amy: Woo, Maximizer, Empathy, Positivity and Communication
Walt: Maximizer, Analytical, Input, Responsibility and Intellection (In addition, I have identified three more strengths that I utilize less frequently. They are Arranger, Individualization and Relator
What difference do you think this work makes in people’s lives?
Amy:
I can only hope that it makes a positive impact on their lives. The goal is for people to gain more self-awareness, to go out into the community and utilize their strengths in positive ways that impact them personally and/or professionally.
Walt:
I know that for some people discovering their strengths can be a turning point in their lives. However, for most participants it is just another step in their personal awareness. I think most participants leave with a clearer understanding of what makes them unique. Some participants may explore their strengths from a spiritual perspective, and some may only look at their strengths from a work or family perspective. Any perspective is fine – the most important thing is simply to recognize their strengths and reflect on how they can live more from their strengths.
Jody Thone
Director of On Purpose Ministries
Phone: 651-439-7400, ext. 119
