Coming Together

Many different workers employed various skills in repairing different portions of the wall. As you work with groups, have you seen people with different gifts and abilities come together? Why is this important to successful group efforts? How can we recognize and engage the gifts of others? 

Yes, I have seen that in different groups, people with different gifts and abilities come together to accomplish the task. I’ve seen this in our staff – each person having different gifts and roles and working collaboratively to not only do their work but to help others as necessary. This type of collaboration is important because no one has all of the gifts and time to do the work. We not only need each other, but we need what each of us can bring to the work. It’s an illustration of the body of Christ. In order to recognize and engage the gifts of others, it is important to let people do their part – to recruit people and to delegate the work. Give them leeway to do the work the way they see best, and trust them to do it. Watch what they do with the eye to recognize their gifts. Encourage people in their work, praising the good work they do, even as sometimes it is necessary to provide constructive criticism.

Resources

One thing I have noticed about writing for this blog - and this November I’ll have been doing it for 19 years - the content inspiration from the posts comes from what I am doing at the time.  If I’m reading a devotional book (or any kind of book), if I’m taking a class, if I’m preaching or teaching - then these things fuel the posts.  If I’m not doing those things, it becomes difficult to produce any kind of writing.  That’s not surprising, right?  It makes sense.

Our most recent CLM class was about preaching, and the students spent several weeks learning about different ways to prepare a sermon to preach.  When I was first preparing the curriculum for this class, I read a book called Preaching Grace: Possibilities for Growing your Preaching and Changing People’s Lives by Kennon L. Callahan.  The author works through eight possibilities for ways preachers can grow their preaching and offer sermons that are more helpful.  I reviewed the book here.

One of the possibilities the author describes is resources.  When I think of resources as related to preaching, I think of commentaries and study bibles.  That’s not what Callahan means.  Resources are those activities you do - your involvement in the community.  He suggests finding a group that relates to your hobby, or going out and doing service work in the community.  Find something you enjoy that helps you build relationships with people. This will be a resource for your preaching.