JUST
DO IT
If
you have been a part of the Body of Christ for a reasonable amount of time,
there is a good chance that you have heard teachings on spiritual
gifts
and how they are used in the church. Particularly over the last two
decades, congregations all over the country have been reading books
and
completing written evaluations to uncover their spiritual gifts. Spiritual
gifts are very important to God and are quite crucial in our
service
within our local churches and every other aspect of our walk with
Christ. In fact, God made sure that spiritual gifts were adequately
covered
in the New Testament as He penned them through the Apostle Paul.
Chances
are also that you have heard the "80/20 rule"—that is, the premise that 20 percent
of a given congregation is doing 80 percent of the work. There could be many
reasons for this "80/20" scenario. Could one of them be because we
tend to overemphasize the gifts of the individual and overlook the need of the
whole, the Body of Christ? If we are not careful, we can make excuses to be
idle if the task doesn't exactly fit what we believe to be our spiritual gifts.
Here are some examples of thoughts that can steer us away from meeting very
real needs within our churches and in our communities:
I don't have the gift of service, so
I can't go with the team to serve food at the homeless shelter. I don't have
the gift of mercy, so I can't show mercy to the addict who lives in bondage to
a substance. I don't have the gift of giving, so I won't contribute more than
my 10 percent to the work of the Kingdom.
Let's examine some Biblical
principles to help us expand our thinking on this matter.
Understand the Purpose of Spiritual
Gifts One thing that can help us look beyond our spiritual gifts for ways to serve
is looking more closely at what the Scriptures say about them. The entire
chapter of 1 Corinthians 12 has much to say about the use of spiritual gifts,
but let's take a closer look at verse 12:
"For even as the body is one
and yet has many members, and all the members of the body, though they are
many, are one body, so also is
Christ." When Paul wrote this
particular statement in his letter to the Corinthians, he was emphasizing the
whole, not the individual. Human nature screams for us to focus on ourselves as
individuals and what we're "good" at doing. While it is important to
understand and use our spiritual gifts, we must look first to see how we can be
contributors to the Body of Christ and those she serves. Spiritual gifts were
meant to strengthen the church, not the individual. Next time there is a need, assess your ability and willingness over your personal
giftedness. Needs sometimes go unmet that several people are
"qualified" to meet.
Recognize Needs—And Meet Them Too often,
when we make excuses like those listed above, we are looking at our own
gifting—and perhaps our own preferences—rather than examining the needs of the
church body and the needs of those outside the body, whom we serve.
As believers and members of the Body
of Christ, we should first examine the needs, and how to meet them, rather than
the consistency of the needs with our spiritual gift sets. If this happened,
the "80/20 rule" would no longer be a problem. Do the unnoticed,
least publicly recognized jobs go undone because the service philosophy is more
gift-based than need-based?
Also, remember that God calls
people—whomever He desires—to fulfill His purpose. He doesn't always do so
according to gifting. For instance, there was a need for
By:
Pastor David Jones
with
excerpts from J.A.