I repeated those words over and over to Jay McSwain on a weekly basis as his “D” personality persistently asked me to attend a PLACE class at church.  Jay’s role as assimilation minister, lead to him to create the PLACE curriculum.  Since my family was new to the church and Jay was piloting the new curriculum, I was a prime candidate for the PLACE class.  Yet, having been involved in ministry all my life, I have taken several personality and spiritual gift assessments.  Therefore, I felt I did not need to take another test.  One Sunday, Jay asked me to attend the workshop yet another time. I quickly tried to make up an excuse of why I couldn’t attend.  He then asked, “What do you do for a living?”  I stumbled around and embarrassingly said, “I am currently unemployed.”  His response was totally unexpected, when he said “Great!”  He went on to explain how the PLACE class could not only help connect me to ministry, but also how it could help me in life.  How the PLACE class could help identify my God-given strengths and gifts and how these things combined with my passion and life experience could actually help me find a job.  Since I had three very young boys at the time, the word J-O-B, resonated.  Jay also shared with me that a test is something that you pass or fail.  PLACE includes five assessments, one of these being a spiritual gifts assessment.  An assessment is an opinion of yourself, not a test.

continue reading…I’ve Taken A Thousand Spiritual Gift Tests Before