Discover Your God-Given Talents and Inspire Your Community

Publisher is supposed to email access code. After weeks, and multiple contacts with the store customer service, still no access code. Publisher / seller should learn to provide real customer service and not do false advertisement of their product, promising what they don't deliver.

Switched to hardcover version. the store customer service is excellent and made the swap easy.

The thing I like about this book is its practical and positive orientation about giving voice to one's own set of talents and how this contributes towards community building. The whole orientation of its philosophy is so commonsensical one gets struck that one never thought about talents and skills that way. Nonetheless, this positive orientation seems to take a one-sided approach that diminishes the totally real reality of weakness and failures (or probably that's just me being rather cynical!). Also, the online-assessment is a very good one, although the fact that one has to buy a book to get a one-time, one person access code seems to be motivated more by marketing ideals, rather than pure good intention of helping out people discover themselves. All in all, it's a must read for serious community builders and church leaders.

We have just begun to use this text and accompanying workbook and video at our church for a seven-week study to determine our God given talents and calling. Apparently this material is also used in business for the same purpose. The initial process is to go online and take a strength finder assessment (approx. 30-40) minutes. This assessment then provides the user with a ranking of their top five strengths. Note: Each book has a unique code that can be used only once to take the assessment. The results from that assessment is then the basis for the remainder of the study, e.g., six weeks in the workbook. I have not read through the entire book. Most of the content is concerned with describing the thirty-four "themes" (e.g., strenghts). I would not recommend purchasing the book without the accompanying "Journey" workbook - and I would think that doing this on your own (with the book and workbook) would be valuable but not as vaulable as doing it in a small group.

Like Now, Discover Your Strengths, this book is not really a stand-alone book but essentially the second part of a two-part process:(1) taking the online strengths assessment and (2) using the book to interpret the results. Clearly, without the first half, you get little use out of the second.

But the code only works once! Unless you buy this book brand new, it will do you no good since you can't take the test. If you did buy it new and loved it, you can't pass it on to friends either because they won't be able to take the test!

Also, if you buy Now, Discover Your Strengths and use it well you probably won't need this book. It largely translates what you learned in the first book into church- specific opportunities. Common sense and a little creativity should fill in most of this information for you if you really understood it the first time around.

We used this book on a church staff retreat because it was suggested by our resource leader. Everyone was provided a copy and did the assessment on their own. It was a quick, and enjoyable read and gave us good information to both discover each other's talents and how we can work together as a team. We plan to keep an extra copy on hand for new staff as they are hired.

We have developed a weekend program around this book to use as a minsitry tool. Those who have participated have been been enriched through discovering their strenghts and how they can use their strenghts in their daily work life. Paticipants have also discovered ways to offer their strenghts to serve at church. The on-line survey is a wonderful tool. In addition to being accurate it gives participants the option to pick a time conveient in their schedule to go online and complete it in a private setting.

I love the applicability of this book to everything that I am doing. It has helped me work better as a part of every team I have helped in church, it has helped me at work, and it has helped me understand my friends' strengths better. These guys have the right idea: find your strengths, see how they work together, and start using them. The test that comes with the book is by far the best one I have ever taken for giving me a clearer idea of how God has designed me to serve, and it's even more important than the actual book.

After using this book with my leadership coach for 1 year, I've introduced it to my entire church staff. Everyone loves the insights it lends. If you've taken spiritual gifts assessments and personality assessments, this book and the Strengths assessments will no doubt take your self-mastery to a higher lever.

I appreciated the way this book helps staff find the focus of their strengths. It's a great way to help people know what others already know about them. I highly recommend this for a staff retreat.

Our only challenge was one person who was not able to use the number on the cover to access their test.

Once the access code from the inside jacket is used, it can never be used again. This means that you cannot buy this book used, borrow a copy from a friend, or even share it with a spouse. It seems like a marketing scheme to sell more books. We keep having to buy new copies for each member of our family. Owning 4 of these books is ridiculous!