Discover Your Gifts

Faith Alive Christian Resources -

The Discover Your Gifts is an easy-to-use, interactive 4-week Sunday school curriculum for middle school students that will help them  discover and apply their spiritual gifts.

Key Features & Strengths

Session 1 "Naming Our Gifts" exposes students to the variety of gifts the Holy Spirit gives to believers to serve others. The centerpiece of the lesson is a Bible study that un-packs fourteen biblical examples of spiritual gifts. The excellent opening exercise helps students see the value of gifts by asking them what they would take with them if their house was on fire (hint: most would mention at least one thing given to them as a gift).

Session 2 "Observing Our Gifts in Action" helps students identify how spiritual gifts play out in everyday life. An effective exercise is used to illustrate this point: students are divided into teams and instructed to build something using index cards, communicating only with gestures (no words). Afterwards, students are asked to reflect on what gifts they saw in operation, setting the stage for a discussion on spiritual gifts.

Session 3 "Taking Inventory of Our Gifts" helps students identify what their particular spiritual gifts are. Adults may recognize the "spiritual gifts inventory" format in the Student Guide. Faith Alive did a nice job customizing the inventory statements in a way that connects with early teens (i.e. "I like to explain things to kids at school who don't get it yet.").

Session 4 "Using Our Gifts" challenges students to put what they've learned about spiritual gifts into practice. The Student Guide provides two important ways to accomplish that goal: 1) the group is asked to work through each of the fourteen spiritual gifts from their earlier Bible study and come up with practical ways that teens could use each of these gifts. 2) "Ready to Serve" cards ask students to fill in their name and identify three ways they could put their own gift in action.

As is true for all Faith Alive curriculum resources, the material is strongly rooted in the Bible and reflects a Reformed worldview.

The lesson plans are laid out in a "leader-friendly" way so that minimal pre-class reading and preparation time is needed. A helpful 2-page tutorial in the Leader's Guide walks teachers through the components of the lessons with clear visuals and instructions.

One of the really interesting and helpful features of the curriculum is how in tune the writers are with the different ways kids learn. The sessions include a wide range of activities that speak to children who learn best with words, with music, with numbers, with people, with pictures, etc.

The pocket-size Student Guide is the booklet students use throughout the 4-week series and is well-designed graphically and is inviting to use. The lessons are laid out in an easy-to-use format, with bonus material (i.e. Spiritual Gifts word search) woven in as well.

The Leader's Guide includes a "Reproducible Handouts" section that includes scripture memory and prayer guides for use in the lessons.

Things to be aware of

This series is a component of the "Walk with Me" Sunday School curriculum series by Faith Alive, but can be ordered separately.

Available at:  Faith Alive Resources                    Get a printable copy of this review