Book Review: Rediscovering our Spiritual Gifts

Information about the book

Rediscovering our Spiritual Gifts; Building up the Body of Christ through the Gifts of the Spirit by Charles V. Bryant.  Upper Room Books, Nashville.  1991.  (Cokesbury link)

Summary

The book identifies 30 spiritual gifts and shows their value for the church (per Cokesbury).  The author states, "In this book, I propose ____ study of the extraordinary powers God gives people who receive the Holy Spirit."  He explores what spiritual gifts are and what they are not.  He provides an in depth look at 32 spiritual gifts and how they are used to build up the church.  The book ends with an assessment to discover what the reader's gifts.  For those interested in using this book as a resource for group study, John I. Penn offers Rediscovering our Spiritual Gifts Workbook as a companion piece (Cokesbury Link).  I think studying the book in a group would help alleviate some of the concerns I list in the Impressions section of my post.  (Note: I do not have and have not read the Workbook)

Impressions

I appreciated the beginning chapters of the book more than the litany of spiritual gifts.  I found that there were times when I did not agree with the author.  His statements sometimes seemed black and white or difficult to support.  For example the idea that we receive spiritual gifts when we receive the Holy Spirit (and only then) and that the gifts never change seems to limit God's action.  If spiritual gifts are gifts of grace from God, then why would we assume that God can't give a new one later if it serves God's purposes?  The idea glosses over the thought that we may not be in a situation presently  that requires a particular gift - it's not disobedient to not be using a particular gift right now.  Also, some of the characters he lists that people demonstrate who have a particular gift seem too narrow.  Do people with the gift of leadership ALWAYS step up to lead? Do people with the gift of hospitality ALWAYS prefer short term relationships?  Most of the gift descriptions contain these types of statements.  I may be sharing my reaction to the writing rather than the author's intention, however.

I do appreciate the definitions of each gift and the exploration of the word origins for each.  Very helpful.  Also, as I mentioned, the first few chapters were very good, and I appreciated his insights.

If there are any other posts on my blog that refer to this book, they can be found at this link.

Book Review: Each One A Minister

Information about the book

Each One a Minister: Using God's Gifts for Ministry by William J. Carter.  The book is published by Discipleship Resources.  2002. 

Summary

The book is an exploration of the gifts from God for ministry.  The author begins with a section dedicated to the study of the book of Ephesians.  Part two explores the idea of gifts for ministry - discovering them and deploying them.  Part three is a very practical guide to ministry, and it explores a dozen "types" of ministry and ideas of how to explore them if they are where you are called.

The book is used as the curriculum for the United Methodist Advanced Lay course entitled "Discover Your Spiritual Gifts"

Impressions

The author's goal or theme is not to provide a "test" the reader can take to discover spiritual gifts, but instead to help the read explore the idea of how the gifts can be used for ministry.  The approach is a different one than I expected, but that doesn't change that it is a well constructed approach to something all lay people need to explore as they grow in discipleship.  He makes an important link between the gifts we have received from God and the imperative to use them in ministry.  This is scene in how he refers to spiritual gifts: gifts for ministry.

A few quotes that I especially liked:

• Charistmata are gifts of grace by which people are prepared to do ministry  Those who have been saved by grace are prepared by grace to serve God.  It is all connected.
• We are not only expected to do good deeds but were actually created to accomplish them.
• The absence of good works may be a sign that our faith is not yet fulfilled
• ...gifts are unlimited.  No one has named them all, and perhaps no one should.  Each of us may have the potential for a unique gift simply because each is unique.
• ...that it is the very variety of gifts that makes the body powerful.  Unity does not mean conformity; it means solidarity within diversity.  We all do different things within a single mission.  Oneness is of the overall purpose, not the details.
• To discover the mission of any church, we must discover the gifts of its members.  ministry must be based on the gifts, rather than the gifts forced to fit the ministry defined by a council or denomination.

Posts related to this book

Kindness

Kindness.

Have you ever heard of the practice of choosing a word for the year and making that word your "focus?" I've heard of it, and I always thought it was a little - I don't know - not silly, not odd - but something. Limiting? Would I only focus on peace for a whole year? Let's just say that it has never been something I wanted to try.

This year, however, a word has been hounding me. At the beginning of the year, I was hearing it everywhere. Sometimes, for me, that is a sign that God wants me to pay attention. That word for me was "kindness."  

I had heard it often enough as the year started that I thought I needed to give it some extra thought. Kindness. I wrote in my bullet journal that I think I was being pushed to think of ways to think and speak with more kindness.

And then one day, I was complaining about someone to a friend. (So much for kindness). The friend said, "smother her with kindness." My response? "I don't want to." I didn't want to, but that was what I tried to do. 

As I thought about it later, I was reminded that kindness is a gift of the spirit. A gift from God. We don't have to depend on ourselves to be kind. We can depend on God to grant us the ability to be kind. When we don't feel like it, when we don't want to, when we know we can't, on our own, be kind, God will give us the grace of kindness - a gift that we can offer others because we have been equipped to do so through the actions of the Holy Spirit.

I'll try to remember that this year as I strive for kindness.

Music

Whereas painters work with space - the croquet players on the lawn, behind them the dark foliage of the hedge, above them the sky - musicians work with time as one note follows another note the way tock follows tick.

Music both asks us and also enables us to listen to certain qualities of time - to the grandeur of time, says Bach, to the poignance of time, says Mozart, to the swing and shimmer of time, says Debussy, or however else you choose to put into words the richness and complexity of what each of them is wordlessly "saying."

We learn from music how to listen to the music of our own time - one moment of our lives following another moment the way the violin passage follows the flute, the way the sound of footsteps on the gravel follows the rustle of leaves in the wind which follows the barking of a dog almost too far away to hear.

Music helps us to "keep time" in the sense of keeping us in touch with time, not just time as an ever-flowing stream that bears us all away at last but time also as a stream that every once in a while slows down and becomes transparent enough for us to see down to the stream bed the way at a wedding, say, or watching the sun rise, past present future are so caught up in a single moment the we catch a glimpse of the mystery that at its deepest place time is timeless.  (Buechner, Wishful Thinking)

Have you had that experience - the experience where music brings you to a transparent place. For me, sometimes, that place offers glimpses of the holiness of God. Glimpses of the eternal, where time is timeless.

I have no musical talent of my own, so I am eternally grateful to those who bring music into my life - people like my son, Josh; our music director, Bruce; the choir, the bells, and even those who have written music that we are blessed to sing in worship.

That's how gifts are - when they are shared, God is seen more clearly.

Fruit from Effort

Over and over I discover the relationship between reading and writing.  When I don't have time to read, I find the writing doesn't flow - it doesn't exist or flourish in a vacuum.  Writing without reading takes longer, and the fruit isn't very good. Changes in work and in life have made it difficult to find time to read or to write.

I'm telling you this to explain why I'm in and out of the blog, and why the blogging has become sporadic. I'm not stopping, but I'm not here as much as I was before.

All that said, I started reading a book this morning for a book discussion I'm a part of.  The book is Rising Strong by Brene Brown.  It's not a book about faith, but as I read the first chapter, blog posts about faith and life in church keep jumping out at me.  It was fun to highlight them and anticipate the post that the snippets would feed.

I'll start those tomorrow, but for now, my thought for today: fruit requires effort. We have to choose what fruit God is calling us to cultivate at any particular time, and put the effort we have into it - and then experience the joy of the work as we do it. I pray blessings on the fruit of your gifts, and your nurturing and caring of them.

Claiming who we are

By claiming whet we already are, we best prepare ourselves for what shall be.  (Henri Nouwen)

Who are we?  John in 1 John 3:1 says, "See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and that is what we are."

We are children of God, blessed and beloved. What does that mean in our lives?  It means we are forgiven.  No matter what.  It means we have been given grace, and that grace (the love of God) transforms us.  It means that we have been given spiritual gifts to discover and utilize.

Claiming all of that prepares us for what God wants us to do, where God wants us to go, and how God is calling us to serve.

Today, how can you claim who you already are?

Spiritual Gifts Inventories

I attended a Spiritual Gifts Class a month or so ago.  It was a great class - great teacher - much discussion.

As part of the class, we took a spiritual gifts inventory test.  That's not the first time I've taken an inventory; I completed one as part of my training to be a Certified Lay Minister.  The results of the two test were basically the same, although there were some differences.  I attribute the differences to the fact that the tests were different. Some of the gifts measured by one test were not included in the other one, etc.  Anyway, my results didn't surprise me.

What did surprise me was looking at the test results other people shared with me.  As part of the post-test process, we came together in small groups and discussed our scores and gifts.  The highest score that was possible was 20.  One of the women in my group had 8 gifts for which she scored 20 and 6 for which she scored 19.  That means out of 25 gifts, the test says she is highly gifted in 14 of them.  She considered a "really low" score to be 14.  Another person in my group, who I consider to be gifted, scored low in some areas and is discouraged by that.

It just makes me wonder if one of the influences on a gift assessment survey is your own opinion on your giftedness. One of my motivations were taking a test like that is to remove the bias I have about my gifts, but I wonder now how effective it is in doing that.  I think it goes to show that the spiritual gift assessment is just one tool for determining your gifts, and that it must be coupled with other assessment tools.

Discover, Claim, Utilize

I read the following in an article on the website Photofocus:

I once interviewed an extremely tall and lengthy NBA basketball player.  In the midst of a press conference outside of his locker room, he jokingly muttered a quote to me off the record that I’ll never forget. “God sure didn’t put me here to be a horse racing jockey.  I know what I’ve got, I know my skills and I’ll use them to my advantage.”
Do you know what you are good at?  Exploit the passions and skills that were implanted in you and use them.  Put them to work and utilize them to your advantage. Photofocus / by MelissaNiu

Do you know what you are good at?  (as Melissa would say)  If we were in the same room, and I asked you that question, could you tell me?  Would you tell me?

If I gave you a birthday present, would you open it?  Or would you ignore  it and say, "I don't have any birthday presents?"  Do we sometimes say, "I don't have any gifts?" while not seeking to discover our gifts, or ignoring them?

If I gave you a new book for your birthday, would you hide it, and not speak about it, in the fear that someone would say you are bragging?  "Look at me; how great I am someone gave me this book for my birthday!"  No, you wouldn't do that, and yet we won't speak of our gifts, as if doing so is to brag on what we have earned.  It's a thin line between celebrating what God has given us and claiming credit for it, but I think if we discover our gifts, and have confirmatory opinions about them, then to say, "God has given me the gift of ..." is not bragging.

So, discover, claim and utilize -- could it be that this is part of our calling?

Science and Art

I read an article written by Stephen Beal called Turn STEM to STEAM: Why Science needs the arts.  His premise is that science and the arts are intertwined - they have similar purposes and processes and that advances in one will require the illumination from the other one.

I passed the article onto my younger son, the trumpeter.  He read it, and we talked about it.  I don't think he was as convinced as I was in the truthfulness of what the author wrote about, but I may have changed his mind.

I am a living example of how science and art can interact and enhance each other.  When I worked in the lab, doing very "scientific" work, with procedures and strict experimental design, I saw the value of creativity -- it's an inescapable component of problem solving.  In my life now, as I work in a less scientific field, I find that I use my analytical skills very often, in order to describe and understand the world in which I am working.

I wonder, though, if we get stuck in the idea that the skills and gifts we need for a particular mission are from a small subset of what is possible. Do we forget that value of metrics when we do the work of evangelism?  Do we believe that our Finance Committees can't benefit from creative ministry?  Do we think God draws lines around what we are to do?

A friend, who serves on our Church's Board of Trustees, said the other day, "I don't know why I'm a member of this Committee.  I don't bring any financial gifts at all."

Have you served on a lay leadership committee in the church?  Do you find that only the "accounting" type people are appointed to the finance committee?  Do you see that only the people involved in childhood education are asked to serve on Christian Education Committees?  What would happen if an artistic person served on Finance?  Would he be frustrated or would he enhance the work being done?  What if the neighborhood accountant was asked to do visitation?  Would she like it, and would she expand the vision of the committee?  Or not?

I'm glad my friend serves on the Board of Trustees, because I think the Committee needs the other gifts she does bring.  I think this line of thought opens up two opportunities for us.  I wonder if our work is narrowed because we draw boxes around it.  We need to open ourselves to the possibilities of asking people to serve in areas of church leadership where they don't have traditional expertise, and we need to listen to what they have to say.

Backwards?

I was reading this morning from the Daily Feast.  The meditation was based on I Corinthians 12 -- a variety of gifts but one body.

The author, Raewynne J. Whiteley, says, "Gifts are not merit badges for holiness or signs of approval from God, but God's response to the needs of our communities."

So often we think - if we think about gifts in our churches at all -- that we need to find ministries in which to plug people so that they can use their gifts.  You are a gifted teacher?  Then here is a Sunday school class for you.  Could it be that we are doing it backwards? 

Should we be assessing what gifts God has given our community and then building the ministry based on the gifts we possess?  Could it be that if God has graced our community with certain gifts then he has done so because he knows we need the gifts to do the work he has planned for us?

Perhaps a better way to plan ministry is to determine our gifts and then see how those gifts can be used in the work God has planned for us -- so that the gifts lead the way to the ministry.

Growth

We visited with a potential donor couple today who would like to start a scholarship.  She told us that it was God's money and that she prayed for the wisdom to do with it what God wanted done.  She said if he wanted it to grow, it would grow.

I've thought about that.  I hope that if she placed it at the Foundation, it will grow in value.  If they create a trust to fund a scholarship, then the scholarships will help the recipients to grow in knowledge and wisdom.

If we are a church, and we pray for wisdom for what to do, and act in obedience, then if God wants the church to grow, it will grow.  The people we reach will grow.  We will make disciples for Jesus Christ.

Our gifts and talents belong to God.  We pray for wisdom to use them.  If God wants our ministry to grow, it will grow.

An Annoyance

The lectionary reading for last week was Luke 10:38-42 -- the story of Mary and Martha.

What is your reaction to this story? Something about it has always bothered me, and I've tried to ignore that annoyance in the light of different interpretations of the scripture.

Here's one -- Jesus was in the house. Mary is listening to him while Martha is busy -- too busy to hear what he has to say. We are too busy in life to really listen to God, to put down what we are doing and sit at his feet. We should find this time to "be" with God.

I don't disagree with that. I know I should find more time to spend with God. It's a good way to look at the story and a good lesson to learn. But it doesn't answer my annoyance.

Here's another one -- We all have our gifts, and we should use them as we are called to use them. Martha was using her gifts and graces in the kitchen to supply hospitality. Mary was using hers. Why should Martha have been bothered by that? Do the work you have been given with joy.

While I don't think this is the main lesson of the story, I can see that it is a lesson in life we should learn. Why be envious of a person who can sing? It's not a gift God has given to me. I have my own gifts and should use them with joy. That interpretation, however, still doesn't answer what bothers me about this passage.

One more -- Martha was fulfilling the traditional woman's role in the society of the time (and ours?). Mary was being boldly non-traditional by even being in the room with the men. We should follow Mary's example and not allow the dictates of society to stand between us and what God wants us to do and who he wants us to be.

Amen. I totally agree with that, but it still doesn't answer my question about this passage.

And then I read a blog by Songbird this morning. She is a UCC pastor, and it was her post A Softer Edge that I read this morning.

Jesus says, among other things, "Mary has chosen the better part." Songbird suggests this could have been his response:

Martha, Martha, haven't we been over this before? I don't care about the food, I'm just glad to be here with your family. I didn't come to insist you adhere to our rules of hospitality or to abandon them, but to give you a new way of living them altogether. Take the pot off the boil and come, sit down. We love your cooking, but we love you more.

Where is the invitation in Jesus' response? Could it have been that Martha's real issue was not that she was doing all of the chores, but that she was feeling excluded? If Mary has chosen the better part, could Martha's hurt have been soothed by Jesus inviting her to sit with Mary?

We're missing what might have gone on in the household prior to this visit. Perhaps Jesus has been through this conversation with Martha before. Maybe he has invited her, several times, to come close and listen.

I hope so. I hope she has been made to feel welcome and affirmed and loved. I wish she would have taken him up on the invitation.

Image: From Hermanoleon, a great source for biblical clipart.

Ministry with love

Another question from Disciple last Sunday:

The 12th and 13th chapters of I Corinthians speak of spiritual gifts and the "more excellent way" of love. Sometimes we miss that link just because they are in different chapters. What does it mean to exercise a ministry with love?

Sometimes we get so involved in carrying out our mission -- our ministry -- our calling -- that we ignore the Greatest Commandment -- love God and love each other. To exercise a ministry with love, to me, means that the person in front of us is more important than the ministry. The person in front of us is more important than the rules, than the organization, than the schedule. It means carrying out God's mission in a way that is kind and generous, loving and compassionate. it means that whatever you are doing, when you are finished, the person in front of you has been loved. The person in front of you should see God's love for him or her through you and through your acts of ministry.

Logos -- 1 Samuel 17

Our older son chose to play the trumpet in the band. Our younger son chose the same instrument. Our older son ran track in high school. Our younger son tried track, but until the moment he decided he didn't like it, I think he assumed, the whole time the older son was running, that he would run track, too.

At the beginning of last year, the younger son started piano lessons. He loves them, and loves to play the piano. I'm glad of that, for many reasons, but one of those reasons is that this is something that belongs only to J. G has never played the piano.

I was reading the lectionary reading this week from 1 Samuel. Read these verses (1 Samuel 17:38-39:

Saul clothed David with his armor; he put a bronze helmet on his head and clothed him with a coat of mail. David strapped Saul's sword over the armor, and he tried in vain to walk, for he was not used to them. Then David said to Saul, "I cannot walk with these; for I am not used to them." So David removed them.

We were talking in Sunday school a few weeks back about the armor of God. The teacher talked about how we support each other using this armor. We might link our shields of faith or use the sword of the spirit in support of another, but we each need to develop our own armor.

We each have different gifts. We each have different callings. Someone told me today, "He has a call of God upon his heart." Yes, he does. We all do, and for each of us, that call is different, praise God. I don't need to worry that my gifts are not the same as someone else's gifts. I only need to be Kim. My son only needs to be himself. God will use who we are and what he has given us to do the task to which he has called us.

If David had tried to go to battle in Saul's armor, he would have been defeated. Even though he was much less protected with his slingshot, he was armed as God wanted him armed, and he was able to go to battle using the gifts that were necessary for triumph.

That's all any of us needs to do.

Time for change

The communion meditation at our Emmaus Gathering this evening was about changes. God comes into our life, and changes us. That shouldn't be surprising -- there are times when we know that we have been changed. There are times when our transformation -- or our journey through transformation is obvious. Even to us.

God brings about changes in us, but he also equips us for change. He enables us to be flexible instead of rigid. In him we find that we are secure enough to accept and to even be excited about change.

Or so we say. Or so I say.

I am challenged by change. Sometimes. There are times when I can face change and find it exciting -- never looking back. Other times, not so much.

Over the past several months, there have been many changes in my life. Some of them have involved my work at church. I was telling a friend the other day that there had been many things at church that I had stopped doing. Change. I wasn't sure if I were still using my gifts as well as I could be or not. And I wasn't sure if there was something else that I should be doing.

I still haven't answered that question. I have very often found joy in doing the work that I do at church. I have seen God working through it. Now there is much of it that I am not doing anymore. At times I have wondered if there are other things that I should have picked up or if this is just a time that I am supposed to hang back. Sit on the sidelines.

Daryl said tonight that God doesn't love us and then throw us away. Don't get me wrong. I haven't felt thrown away -- not at all! As my role has changed, though, I have wondered if God had something new waiting for me or not.

It all sounds very strange coming from someone who has recently been employed by the church. I wonder if my "church work" has just changed focus, and I'm not seeing that. Perhaps this isn't a time of sitting out of using my gifts, but of adapting to a change in what and where I am using them.

I still don't know.

Image: Sky on the way home today.

Obligation?

Welcome to Jeff, a guest sandblogger. Jeff is a dear friend and a gifted writer. He has a great sense of humor, and he walks with God. Thank you to Jeff.



Kim is serving on the team of an Emmaus Walk this weekend, so she invited me to be one of the guest bloggers. Her invitation is a gift to me, and my response is “yes!” And in this context, I am thinking about obligations.

During my Wednesday morning prayer group, Ken asked us to consider whether our attendance and involvement in church was out of a sense of obligation. The easy answer for me was “no.” I went on to say that I go out of a sense of commitment. My parents led me to church but never once dragged me. When I got to the age where I could make a choice, they allowed me the freedom to stay home. Sometimes I took them up on the offer and slept in.

The question about obligation stuck with me because earlier in the week I had received an e-mail that closed with “Much obliged.” I think the sender of the e-mail meant her closing as an informal “thanks,” but it is more than thanks, isn’t it? It means, “I owe you” or “I am indebted to you.” So that idea was already on my mind when Ken asked the question about church attendance. What does it mean to do something out of obligation? It has a negative connotation to me for something that is forced on me that I do not want to do, like, say homework or preparing tax returns.

You might say that everything we have is a gift from God, and we owe it to God—we have an obligation to respond to God’s grace by at least showing up for worship once a week. I’m “much obliged” to God; I am indebted to God for the gift of life and everything else; I am obligated to worship God.

I love words, and there is so much power in words. You think you know what “obligate” means? Check out the etymology. It comes from the Latin root obligare which means, literally “to bind to.” Think about how a life in community with Christ binds us together with God and each other in love.

I have re-thought my misunderstanding of “obligation.” Yes, I go to church out of obligation. Not that I must go, but that I just cannot not go.

Blest be the tie that binds our hearts in Christian love; the fellowship of kindred minds is like to that above.

Taste of Infinity

This quote arrived in my email today:

One aspect of serving others is listening to the call within to express your gifts—those talents you have that make you feel infinite when you are doing them. When we express those gifts, the Holy Spirit works through us in ways we may never know directly, touching the lives, hearts, and minds of others. (Joanna Bates; Environmental scientist, dancer, and writer)

For a while now I've believed that using the gifts that God has given you in service to his mission in the world will bring joy. It infuses us with a lightness, and brings a satisfaction that is hard to match with anything else.

What I have never compared it to, though, is a feeling of infinity, but I like the comparison. I like the idea that using one's spiritual gifts is an invitation to the Holy Spirit. I like the idea that it makes us feel infinite. There is truth in that. We are infinite beings, made in the image of God. It is perhaps when we use the gifts that he has given us that we feel the closest to him, and become the most aware of our true natures. When we are guided by his gifts in the way we act, then we are beginning to live into the potential with which he has graced us. The spirit comes near.

It is a taste of the Kingdom of God. And when that is our address, we know infinity.

Light the fire
(light the fire)
In my soul
(in my weary soul)
Fan the flame
(fan the flame)
Make me whole
(make my spirit whole)
Lord, You know
(Lord, You know)
Just where I've been
(where I've been)
So light the fire in my heart again (Sonic Flood)