Rector’s Reflections
Recently I have had the privilege of journeying alongside a group of people doing the SHAPE Course.
The course aims to enable church members to understand the unique SHAPE God has made them, the gifts he has given them and how he might want to use them. This is so that God’s Kingdom may be built up as each person finds the ministry to which God is calling them in the Church and in the world.
The purpose of the course is to help each of us to live and serve with more joy, satisfaction and fruitfulness and to help build a healthy growing church. But it’s not just about doing things in church. It also relates to the way we engage with our family, friends, job, local community, voluntary and leisure activities.
The SHAPE Course is 6 weeks long and each session, coupled with some tasks in between, helps each person to reflect upon a different aspect of their shape: their spiritual gifts, their heart’s desire, their abilities, their personality, and their experience.
- Spiritual Gifts (God’s unique gifts to you)
- Heart’s Desire (what motivates and excites you; what you love to do)
- Abilities (your talents, knowledge and skills)
- Personality (your character, personal qualities and strengths)
- Experience (your life experiences and what you’ve gained from them)
The course has prompted some great discussion and prayer and has enabled people to get to know each other better. We have discovered things about each other which we didn’t know before and we have learned to appreciate each other in new ways.
Sometime in the future, the SHAPE group is going to lead a service in church when they will be able to tell you a bit more about their experiences of doing the course.
We hope to be able to run SHAPE again sometime after we have done the ALPHA Course in the Autumn term, so if you think you might be interested in either of these courses, please do let me know.
As ever, take care and God bless,
Sue