Lyn at LifeShapedFaith was talking about a survey (APEST) she took to discover some of her spiritual gifts in terms of leadership.  She heard about it from Jamie and Jonathan (her husband).  It’s put together by Alan Hirsch at Forgotten Ways.  It’s quite interesting … and based on the gifts outlined in Ephesians 4:12 “apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds, and teachers”
My results were even more interesting…

Teaching … 25
Prophetic … 15
Shepherding … 15
Apostolic … 11
Evangelistic … 11

I don’t know what the numbers mean.  That teaching was one of my primary strengths came as no great surprise, since I teach almost as naturally as I breath, but that prophetic was my primary 2 came as a bit of a shock.  Until I read the description:

The genius of Prophetic leadership is the ability to discern the spiritual realitites in a given situation or community.  This leadership style communicates the elements of the spiritual realities of God’s people and communities.  The Prophetic has an innate sense of knowing the mind of God on issues concerning growth and transformation.  As a leader, he or she is concerned that changes made today are needed to progress into the future.  The Prophetic leader seeks integration between spiritual realities and immediate need.  He or she is a questioner, freely disturbing the status quo or group awareness to solicit further questioning, all to gain clarity.  The Prophetic leader impacts communities through integration.  Prophetic leadership influences others by truth-telling, not afraid of speaking in a tension with the dominant way of thinking and practice.

Well … now that makes sense.  Now it makes sense why a long time friend of mine recently said, “You tell the truth so much sometimes I want to say, put a sock in it!”  Oh.  well.  It does come in handy when talking with BelleSon.