Spiritual Gifts & Talents: God-given Capacities for Strengths-based Leadership
Unique and Everyday Leaders
Sometimes the mention of spiritual gifts triggers assumptions about far-away holy people or out-of-reach retreat places. So, too, talk of talents might cause us to imagine extraordinary individuals or Olympians in training. But these times require a vision that is more true and closer to home—that every person is created in the image and likeness of God (Genesis 1:27) and each one is gifted in unique ways for the good of the whole community (Ephesians 4:12). That means you. That means us. That means claiming who we are and what we are gifted to do as unique and everyday Christian leaders, all of which makes me passionate about encouraging ministry leaders to exercise their gifts in ways that build up communities.
It can seem like a heavy lift to exercise our gifts and talents without getting to know them a bit first, which points to a stroke of genius common to both Scripture as it speaks of “spiritual gifts” and CliftonStrengths as it describes “talents.” What’s important here is helping people find the language they need to describe who God has created them to be. Only then can we turn to discerning how to embrace them and step forward meaningfully. We’ll use a handy framework from CliftonStrengths to unpack this further—Naming, Claiming, and Aiming.
Naming
Finding words for something is empowering. Most folks go about their days living from patterns, characteristics, and capacities that are so assumed or obvious that they are essentially invisible. I laughed out loud the day someone pointed out to me that I use a task list—even on weekends. Later, I would learn to call that Discipline in CliftonStrengths lingo.
To name a pattern out loud is to break the spell of invisibility. So too, naming a spiritual gift or talent means that some of the best aspects of who we are and what we are capable of doing in the world can no longer go entirely unnoticed. Language empowers us to more accurately describe ourselves and how we move through the world.
Within Christian contexts we use the language of spiritual gifts to describe how God has graced us with unique capacities to exercise some kind of “ministry” in the church (like preaching, teaching, healing, etc.), or to participate in “building up the Body of Christ.” That language is beautifully biblical and historically meaningful for those within faith-based communities. However, our collaborative partners from the wider community might not name their gifts in quite the same way.
Talents, then, is the language used by CliftonStrengths to provide accessible language across differences. Communication, Restorative, and Includer, for example, offer handles for patterns and characteristics we can talk about together, whatever our intersectionalities.
Claiming
Naming our God-given capacities together is a powerful beginning—but naming alone doesn’t produce transformation. The next movement is claiming, which is to befriend the gifts and talents we’ve identified. To really own them is to practice believing they are not just true in theory, but essential to how we’re called to show up in life and ministry.
Claiming is spiritual work. It involves reflecting seriously on the image of God in you, and coming to trust that your way of seeing, responding, building, or creating matters. As simple as it sounds, many leaders struggle here. We might minimize a gift because it feels “too ordinary” or “not spiritual enough.” Or we may have received messages that our way of leading wasn’t the “right” way. But when we begin to claim what is most naturally and meaningfully ours, we start to lead with greater authenticity, energy, and faithfulness.
One person I coached had a beautiful combination of Belief backed up by several Relationship Building strengths. While others might assume her work in advocacy required bold marching and megaphone speeches, she claimed the unique ability she had to cultivate the long, slow impact of relational changes. In her own way, she was winning hearts and minds over to her convictions about a just world. She accepted this pattern of presence and care as part of how God works through her. That shift allowed her to live and lead more freely, rather than comparing herself to others.
Claiming spiritual gifts also means recognizing that our gifts are given for a reason: not for personal achievement, but for the sake of others. This is echoed in Ephesians 4:12: “to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ.” Claiming our gifts is not prideful—it’s an act of faith and responsibility.
Aiming
Once we’ve named and claimed our gifts, the next movement is aiming—the intentional practice of using our strengths in specific, meaningful ways.
This, too, is a place where leaders can get stuck. They know they have gifts. They may have taken an inventory or received encouraging feedback. But they’re unsure how to apply what they’ve discovered in a way that feels integrated with their call, their context, or their community.
Aiming is about alignment. It’s about discerning: “Where does this gift meet a real need? How can I lead with this strength in a way that reflects God’s love, justice, and creativity?” It may involve adapting our roles, shifting how we approach team dynamics, or reimagining how we plan, preach, teach, or organize.
To practice aiming our strengths, it can be helpful to root our experiments and reflection in our everyday experiences. Identify a living, breathing situation or responsibility from real life. Whether it’s launching a new initiative, re-energizing a small group, or navigating staff changes, this situation or responsibility becomes a living laboratory for aiming your strengths. Through processes like these, I myself have, learned to resist the urge to “go it alone” that sometimes comes with Strategic and Achiever and instead use my Learner and Relator themes to gather people and move forward with more prayerful collaboration.
Aiming also helps prevent burnout. When we aim our gifts intentionally, we do less out of sheer obligation and contribute more deeply in places our presence adds the most value. That shift—both spiritually and practically—can renew our energy and deepen our impact.
Ongoing Discernment
Naming, claiming, and aiming are not one-time steps to check off. We are constantly learning and discerning with communities that help us see more clearly how God is inviting us to grow, adapt, and serve in each season.
Ongoing discernment requires space for reflection. That’s why continued experimentation and reflection benefits from practices like prayerful interiority, peer conversations, and personal coaching. Especially in connection to spiritual gifts and talents, these moments allow leaders to pause and ask:
Where is God at work in this situation?
What gifts are being called forth now?
Where am I being stretched or invited into something new?
This kind of reflection deepens our capacity to serve from our gifts rather than our fears, to lead with clarity rather than comparison, and to stay grounded in who we are in Christ even as circumstances shift. In short, ongoing discernment keeps our leadership rooted—not just in a tool or framework, but in the living presence of the Spirit among us and the beautiful God-given capacities we need from one another.
Conclusion: A Spirit-Led Strength
Strengths-based leadership doesn’t ask leaders to choose between spiritual gifts and talents. Instead, it invites us to see these gifts and talents as deeply intertwined—gifts given by God, refined through practice, and lived out in community.
Spiritual gifts speak to our divine calling. Talents help us name the patterns through which that calling often expresses itself. Together, they offer a language for sustainable, authentic leadership in a complex and rapidly changing world.
And so, we return to the core conviction: We are already gifted. We are already called. The invitation is for us to see what God has planted, to cultivate it faithfully, and to offer it freely for the good of others.
This is the strengths-based ministry we share.
Sam Rahberg is a spiritual director, CliftonStrengths coach, and founder of STRENGTHSFORWARD. Learn more at www.samuelrahberg.com.
