New Research on How Veterans View & Practice Their Gifts

Veterans Day acts as an important reminder to recognize and thank former military personnel for their service to our nation. For pastors, the acknowledgment of veterans need not only happen on the Sundays surrounding this national holiday—church leaders and congregants can continue to show their care and gratitude for veterans year-round by investing in their unique gifts and abilities.

This article offers a peek at some recent data—an extension of Barna’s Gifted for More study—exploring the types of gifts veterans say they have and their awareness and application of these skills.

Veterans Name Technical, Management & Teamwork Skills in Their Top Gifts
Gifted for More (2022)—a Barna report created in partnership with Lutheran Hour Ministries aiming to broaden and deepen research on personal gifts—explores 12 common skills, talents and abilities identified among Americans.

These gifts are defined as follows:

1. Technical: Performing specific tasks that require a specialized set of skills
2. Interpersonal: Interacting with, caring for and building relationships with others
3. Entrepreneurial: Identifying new opportunities, setting goals and designing strategies to achieve them
4. Financial: Planning, organizing, directing and controlling financial activities
5. Critical thinking: Processing data to problem-solve or make informed decisions
6. Artistic: Expressing oneself in creative and artistic ways
7. Intercultural: Relating to people from other cultures and social groups
8. Communication: Communicating with individuals or groups in a clear and engaging way
9. Leadership: Organizing people to reach a shared goal and effectively leading them toward that goal
10. Management: Managing both tasks and people
11. Civic: Making an impact as a citizen within an organized community
12. Teamwork: Effectively collaborating and working alongside others

Among veterans, the most common primary gifting is Technical, followed closely by Interpersonal gifts, then Management and Entrepreneurial gifts. Communication, Intercultural, Leadership and Civic gifts are least common as primary gifts.

Common secondary gifts include Management and Critical Thinking. At times, veterans are keen to say they possess skills among their top five yet are unlikely to select these same skills as a primary gift. For example, Teamwork often shows up among top five gifts for participants (43%) but is rarely selected as a primary (5%) or secondary gift (7%).

Comparing top five gifts across this survey of veterans and Barna’s previous study of giftings among all U.S. adults, we see just how much the Technical gift is associated with military service. There is a 21-point difference between the percentage of veterans (53%) and of all U.S. adults (32%) who see this among their top five gifts. Management is also a gift more likely to be selected by veterans than by the average U.S. adult. Meanwhile, the general population is more likely than veterans to identify personal gifts such as Communication or Artistic or Civic talent.

Nearly One-Quarter of Veterans Says They Know Their Gifts “Extremely Well”
Knowing and naming a person’s gifts is important. Still, if these skills and abilities are not being utilized or developed well—individually and in community—then the label or profile applied to personal gifts may not matter so much. It is paramount to understand how gifts are being nurtured and employed. As our partners at LHM say, everyone is a gift, with gifts to share.

Overall, we see veterans say they know their gifts “very” or “extremely” well (62%). Veterans are more likely than the general population to report awareness of their gifts. The biggest leap occurs among the 39 percent of veterans who know their gifts “very well,” something just 29 percent of all U.S. adults report.

Military service may consistently, and under a great deal of pressure, put veterans in a position of exercising certain gifts—perhaps more often or with more intensity than the average U.S. adult experiences. This in turn may allow for an up-close awareness of what a veteran perceives their gifts to be.

Faith is also an influence in this intentionality. Christian veterans who say their Christian faith is very important to them are more likely than other veterans to place high importance on knowing and understanding their own gifts and skills. In addition to a vocational leaning into gifts, these faithful veterans may be driven forward by scriptures (such as Galatians 6, Titus 1, 2 Timothy 1, 1 Corinthians 12 and 13, among others) that urge Christ-followers to know and grow in their spiritual gifts.

More So Than U.S. Adults Overall, Veterans Believe Their Gifts Are for Society
On the whole, veterans are pretty open-handed with their gifts. More than half (51%) say their personal skills are for anyone who could benefit from them, something just 43 percent in the general population affirms. Similarly, two in five veterans (39%) feel their gifts are intended for society as a whole (vs. 23% of all U.S. adults).

One profound difference: While half of all U.S. adults feel their gifts are for their family, only 18 percent of veterans share this belief. There may be a number of reasons for this; it is possible that, because of the nature of military service and the distance and personal cost it can require of veterans and their families, a service member doesn’t immediately associate their gifts as a “good” for their family.

It’s also interesting to note that a veteran is less likely than the average U.S. adult to say their gifts are meant for a divine purpose. Expectedly, this percentage climbs among Christian veterans who say their faith is very important to them; one in four (25%) says their gifts are for God’s purposes. Still, this faith-related option falls behind society as a whole, community or neighborhood, friends, employer and, generally, anyone else who could benefit.

The transition to civilian life can be daunting. However, as the research demonstrates, veterans return to civilian life with a large suite of gifts that can be used for the betterment of their community, their churches, their families or their new occupations.