How to Find Roles That Fit Your God-Given Strengths

If you are a Christian, then you are called to use your gifts at church in a volunteer role or perhaps professionally. Choosing the roles that best fit your personality and interests can lead to serving God and the church more effectively. Your job satisfaction will also increase as you serve people out of your strengths. 

John Holland created a theory that can help you to have more job and ministry success and satisfaction. Holland identified six personality themes: Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social, Enterprising, and Conventional. He observed that any given person has two or three of these themes that are of much higher interest.

He also observed that any given job or ministry opportunity fits two or three of these personality themes. The Holland theory is the most widely researched and used theory for vocational fit.

Understanding the Holland theory and an accurate Holland assessment like the CareerFitTest.com, will help you identify church jobs and volunteer opportunities that fit who you are, are satisfying and put you on track for being a wise steward of your personality, skills and interests.   

Here are the six personality and interest themes:

Realistic 

Realistic personalities like to work with their hands. They can enjoy working with plants or animals; activities involving the precise, ordered use of objects, tools and machines; and/or activities involving some element of physical risk. Outdoor work is often desirable.

Sample career areas: landscaping, gardening, horticulture, botany, farming, forestry, zoology, veterinary medicine, animal training, law enforcement, security, emergency response, sports; skilled trades such as electronics, carpentry, equipment operation, and construction

Sample activities: helping with church’s landscaping; camp settings that include activities in nature or with animals; activities that include farming, ranching, or animal husbandry; training animals for service activities; working with plants (including food-producing plants, flowers, trees, shrubs, lawns, etc.) or animals (breeding, tending, training, etc.); maintaining and repairing buildings and machines of church or nonprofit organization; new con­struction or remodeling; driving a van or bus; teaching hands-on skills to others in a ministry/service context; running audiovisual equipment at church; directing traffic and crowd control at large events; sports and outdoor activities at a camp; providing emergency medical care in disaster settings; using tool and machinery; building things.

Problem Solving: They like to solve problems that have practical solutions, are concrete and not abstract. 

Church Job Titles and Volunteer Titles: Custodian, Janitor, Facilities Manager, Property Manager, Buildings and Grounds Supervisor, Housekeeping Director, Housekeeping Supervisor, Maintenance Supervisor, Multi-Media Setup and Operations Technician, Landscaper, Free Car Repair Ministry, Bus Driver, Work Day Facilitator

Working Environment: They like working environments that are product-driven, organized, stable, outdoors and with well-defined lines of authority.

Keyword: Doer

Find Realistic jobs and set up job alerts at ChristianCareerCenter.com and ChurchJobsOnline.com.

Investigative

Investigative personalities like to analyze, discover and understand information and the world around them. They like activities that involve the exploration and examination of physical, biological and cultural things to understand and control them; this often includes scientific and mathematical activities. They are curious which can lead them to be original and creative in their thinking. They tend to be task-oriented.

Sample career areas: science, engineering, inspection, research, technical, and computer-related. 

Sample volunteer activities: writing computer programs; setting up or maintaining Websites of a church or nonprofit organization; tutoring youth in science, math, computers; helping others understand the relationship between science and Christianity; solving abstract problems; and conducting research.

Problem Solving: They like to solve problems by analyzing, inquiring and researching.

Working Environment: They like working environments that are project-oriented, scholarly, scientific, research-oriented, and unstructured.

Church Job Titles and Volunteer Titles: Information Technician, Technical Specialist, Media Engineer, Healthcare Educator, Webmaster, Database Administrator, Strategic Planner, Data Analyst 

Keyword: Thinker

Find Investigative jobs and set up job alerts at ChristianCareerCenter.com and ChurchJobsOnline.com.

Artistic

Artistic occupational personality types are the most creative of all the types and tend to focus on self-expression through various forms/mediums: images, materials, music, words, movement, as well as systems and programs. They can see possibilities in various settings and are not afraid to experiment with their ideas. They like variety and tend to feel cramped in structured situations.

The artistic personality has a high interest in being creative using physical, verbal or human materials often within the areas of music, art and writing. Overall, this area involves people who like to be creative seeing possibilities in various settings. They are not afraid to try new ideas and they like variety. 

Sample career areas: music, art, writing, and drama

Sample volunteer activities: using drama or music in worship or evangelism; writing press releases, articles, curriculum for church or nonprofit organization; using arts and crafts as outreach event; conducting camp to develop artistic abilities of youth; composing and writing music; decorating a home or office; playing a musical instrument; creating artwork

Problem Solving: They like to solve problems independently using their intuition and creativity.

Working Environment: They like working environments that are unstructured, flexible, artistic and that allow for self-expression.

Church Job Titles and Volunteer Titles: Worship Pastor, Pastor of Instrumental Worship, Instrumental Worship Assistant, Pianist, Creative Consultant, Photographer, Devotion Writer, Communication Director, Staff Writer, Video Editor, Graphic Designer

Keyword: Creative

Find Artistic jobs and set up job alerts at ChristianCareerCenter.com and ChurchJobsOnline.com.

Social

The Social occupational personality type is concerned with people and their welfare. Social types make friends easily and tend to have well-developed communications skills. They enjoy working with groups or individuals, using empathy and an ability to identify and solve problems, and tend to be high achievers and good leaders.

The Social personality type has an interest in helping other people one-on-one or groups of people. They want to help people by using empathy and by using their ability to identify and solve social welfare problems. 

Sample careers: education, ministry, social welfare, counseling, customer service

Sample volunteer activities: teaching classes at church or a nonprofit organization; hosting a neighborhood Bible study; serving in a lay counseling ministry; participating in medical ministry; facilitating small group or social activities. In general, they enjoy activities that allow them to inform, train, develop, encourage, cure, educate or in some other way help people in a direct way.

Problem Solving: They like to approach and deal with problems through understanding feelings and the use of empathy. They also tend to like a flexible approach to solving problems.

Working Environment: They like working environments that are supportive, collaborative, helping oriented, collaborative and changing.

Church Job Titles and Volunteer Titles: Senior Pastor, Pastor of Congregational Care/Senior Adults, Pastor of Students, Pastor to Single Adults, Youth Pastor, Healthcare Educator, Lay Counselor, Licensed Counselor, Youth Mentor, Missions Coordinator, Sunday School Teacher, Vacation Bible Teacher, Adult Education Teacher, Nursing Ministry 

Keyword: Helper

Find Social jobs and set up job alerts at ChristianCareerCenter.com and ChurchJobsOnline.com.

Enterprising

Enterprising personalities enjoy persuading or influencing others usually in a business context. They may also have entrepreneurial and political interest. They enjoy working directly with people one-on-one or in groups. Their emphasis in working with people is to persuade them on ideas, products or services and/or leading or managing people. They are goal-oriented in producing results. They tend to have a high level of energy, are goal-oriented and focus on producing results.

Sample career areas: sales, management, leadership, legal, political, and self-employment

Some of the activities they enjoy include: selling/purchasing; convincing/persuading others; giving speeches and presentations; discussing business; developing publicity materials for church or nonprofit organization; raising funds for church or nonprofit; leading a church board or committee

Problem Solving: They like to solve problems with leadership, delegation and decision-making skills.

Working Environment: They like working environments that are business-oriented, entrepreneurial, competitive and focused on profits.

Church Job Titles and Volunteer Titles: Director of Preschool, Director of Child Development Center, Director of Children’s Ministries, Director of Elementary Children, Director of Childcare and Administrative Assistant to Minister of Children, Director of Women’s Ministry, Director of Outreach, Guest Relations Pastor, Executive Pastor of Ministries, Media Production Associate, Executive Director of Communications, Book Store Director, Business Administrator/Chief Financial Officer, Food Service Manager, Facility Manager, Food Service Manager, Branding and Advertising Manager

Keyword: Persuader

Find Enterprising jobs and set up job alerts at ChristianCareerCenter.com and ChurchJobsOnline.com.

Conventional

Conventional personalities enjoy activities that involve precise, ordered use of data: keeping records, calculating, managing an office, organizing numerical and written data, and working with finances. They often are focused on completing tasks that have been initiated by others. They are responsible, dependable, follow the rules and function best when they know what is expected of them.

Sample career areas: financial, computer-related, and clerical

Some of the activities they enjoy include: organizing people, events, data and information; managing an office; record keeping; producing business reports; collecting data and making charts/graphs; organizing information using a computer; taking minutes for boards and committees; organizing church activities and events; helping others organize their homes or finances; keeping financial records for church or nonprofit organization

Working Environment: organized, structured, indoors and predictable.

Problem Solving: They prefer to solve problems that are of a practical nature and are resolved by using a prescribed set of rules and procedures.

Church Job Titles and Volunteer Titles: Administrative Assistant to: Senior Pastor, Executive Pastor of Ministries, Pastor of Students, Pastor of Congregational Care, Singles Pastor, Worship Ministry, Preschool Ministry, Director of Communications; Accountant, Receptionist, Security Officer 

Keyword: Organizer

Find Conventional jobs and set up job alerts at ChristianCareerCenter.com and ChurchJobsOnline.com.

Summary

While it can be good to identify your primary theme, as Holland observed, most people are a combination of two or three themes (Realistic, Investigative, Conventional or Artistic, Social, Enterprising) and most church jobs and ministry opportunities are going to be a combination of two or three themes. Working in a church setting (whether paid or volunteer) that uses your personality and interests will results in greater satisfaction and joy as you help build up the church and bring God glory.

If you would like to take an accurate Holland assessment that is based on your top transferable, personal and content skills we encourage you to complete the CareerFitTest.com. This assessment will also help you to explore the right options, make better decisions, conduct a successful job search and more.

If you are interested in career counseling and professional career testing to help you discover the work God has called you to do, you are invited to explore our career counseling services and schedule a career services consultation.

Editor's Note: The views expressed in this article belong to the Christian Career Center. These views do not necessarily reflect official opinions for Crosswalk.com.

©Copyright by Kevin and Kay Marie Brennfleck, ChurchJobsOnline.com and ChristianCareerCenter.com. All rights reserved. The above information is intended for personal use only. No commercial use of this information is authorized without written permission.

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