To exhort means to encourage, to speak truth urging the listener to take action. Exhorters are talkers! They are also incurable optimists. Exhorters don’t see difficulties, they ignore them. This can make them seem naïve or pollyannah-ish. They want to encourage everyone to be their best and can see the potential in people.

Both their talkative nature and penchant for seeing the good in folks are part of their God –given giftedness and is vital to the body of Christ for building other people up and encouraging them to fulfill their call. When the gift is un-polished, in its immature state, it looks like a child who talks more than they listen, and who who rushes into new adventures without considering the possibility of risks or dangers.

Exhorters take all of the positive, blessing scriptures to heart and tend to ignore verses that speak of judgment or consequences for disobedience. They simply don’t take those seriously. This would be a useful area to focus on for Bible lessons since exhorters tend to believe they should be allowed to get away with most anything, that the rules don’t apply to them. Repentance is not a strong suit.

Precocious children are usually exhorters. These are the kids who are very self-possessed, not afraid to tell adults what to do and are usually charming enough to get away with bossing adults around.
My friend’s daughter Katelyn is an exhorter. We were all together at a church lunch and she was right in the thick of things telling all the kids where to sit, running to the kitchen to get someone to bring more butter, making sure no one gave her allergic brother any peanut butter and talking up a storm to everyone as she flew around.

With a high need for acceptance, exhorters like to please and entertain. They dislike strife and discord. It is a unique calling on their life that they can bring harmony and joy into a room with them and this is to be encouraged. The flip side of this is a tendency to over look the truth if its going to cause a problem. They will lie to cover up wrong-doings if it means having a spouse or friend get angry with them. Exhorters have very very good language skills, a gift given to them to use in the lifting up and encouraging of others. However, they can also use that gift to be manipulative, talking their way out of difficulties. They will benefit from working on areas of honesty and integrity.

Descriptive Words:
Happy
Outgoing
Friendly
Non judgmental
Willing to please (even to the point of going along with something they know is wrong, just to avoid upsetting someone)
Very verbal (aka mouthy)
Good at relationships
Well balanced – not afraid to take a break from work to have some fun!
Making people like him is more important to him than telling the truth
Gregarious