The 3 Colors of Ministry : A Trinitarian Approach to Identifying and Developing Your Spiritual Gifts

This is an excellent tool for everyone, but specially for those who are looking to know more, identify and learn how to use in a better way the gifts that our lord has gave us.

The thing I like about this book is the way that it helps one understand why and/or how we might be having trouble in certain areas of ministry. For example, let's say that you've always felt you "should" do hospitality, but every time you've gotten involved, it's been a fiasco. Or youth ministry. Or Bible study. This book is full of questions and sort of worksheet-things that help you figure out where your strengths and weaknesses lie, and can help you understand more about your personality type as regards your skills in the church environment. It's not one of those "fruity" self-absorbed books that makes you ponder yourself ad nauseum, but rather a set of tools that helps you figure out what kind of tool you are. It has a lot of different kinds of resources, so it can be used by church groups and officials as well as by individual congregants. It is also ecumenically friendly. I bought my copy from a pastor of a Methodist church, and as a moderately high church Episcopalian am having no trouble at all understanding it. Highly recommended.

(I am a pastor who uses this book in my church's spiritual gifts and ministry placement process. I am also a consultant for Natural Church Development-this book is part of a four book set to help churches improve in placing members into ministry roles). This book is part of a massive paradigm shift which started several decades ago (for the Church growth writers and researchers). The book Natural Church Development and the national partners for the author (Christian Schwarz) have demonstrated there are 8 crucial areas of health for Churches. One of these 8 crucial areas is 'gift-oriented ministry'. The book 3 Colors of Ministry is the book which contains the actual tests used for individuals who want to identify their spiritual gifts. The book also has explanations for everything. There are two tests. The Change Compass attempts to show you which person in the Godhead (Father, Son, Holy Spirit) you tend to focus most on and which one you focus least on...with the idea of bringing balance into your life by fully reflecting the fulness of God as He is revealed to us in scripture. It is an interesting idea which is built on the concepts explained in Schwarz's book 'The Three-fold art of experiencing God'. (That book will someday be a classic in my opinion). I have found this test to be very accurate in my life. Research has now proven what the bible said all along...that every member of the church should have a ministry. Research has also proven that everyone should minister using the spiritual gifts God has given them. NLT 1 Peter 4:9 Cheerfully share your home with those who need a meal or a place to stay. 10 God has given each of you a gift from his great variety of spiritual gifts. Use them well to serve one another. The main reason most people use this book is to identify their spiritual gifts for use in a local church. Schwarz categorizes 30 different gifts (everything from music to leadership). The way we use this book is with a 'Spiritual Gifts Counselor'. A Spiritual Gifts Counselor is trained to interpret the results of the tests in this book. There are three books in the 3 Colors of Ministry series besides this one. Using this book in a mentoring relationship....developing a process for a church and a book for spiritual gift counseling. This book is the actual test. Unless there is a well designed process for a member in a church to embrace ministry and use their gifts, it will be pretty frustrating to buy this book and take the tests. It should be part of an organized effort. 4% of the people who take this test will find the results are not accurate. The authors state this fact in the book. This test is the only one on the market that has weighted scores for each gift based on field research (every question has a slightly different weight). Now a story....when I first took these tests I felt an amazing sense of 'how did they know that?' Something inside clicked. It was very helpful. My wife took another