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======Spiritual Gifts 4 - Using Spiritual Gifts.======
Thursday, Sept 24, 2009. God's idea of our community is the idea of many
gifted individuals, who use their gifts and talents to work and live together.
Gifts are blessings to the person who has it and to the others around. God's
idea of community is that of a loving and open environment, where people are
reliable, where they tell each other the truth with eyes of love and where
you get all kind of support, appreciation, help and fun.
Human community needs many talents on different levels. We need practical talents
to build things and to provide for food and the needs of life. But we also need
spiritual food, we need to learn about God and about life. We need wisdom and
advice to conduct our life and our community. The gifts given to the Christian
church have a further dimension, they are there to carry out God's universal plan
for mankind: to give everyone the chance to find to the eternal source and
become a part of God's kingdom.
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We need the gift of leadership on many levels. A group of people needs some to
coordinate and lead the activities. Experience with groups quickly proves: if
no-one stands up and shows leadership, the group will not go anywhere. Leadership
is needed. It does not mean that the leader imposes his own ideas onto all others,
but that he incorporates the ideas of everyone and makes the group move towards
the goal. A leader might use tools of teamwork and sometimes giving directions.
But the key role of a leader is to bring everything together, to coordinate and
to serve such that the group can move forward. It is the same in spiritual
leadership within a church or in some christian project or institution. Spiritual
leadership has further dimsions, though. The leader is supposed to guide the
group in the spirit of the Lord. He is supposed to be the first servant, as Jesus
had come to serve and to give. The leader needs to search the Lord and his wisdom
every day. Leaders need to know God's heart in a deep way!
Everyone of us has his or her spiritual gifts. Some carry out leadership in groups
for children of some particular age on Sunday mornings or some afternoon during
the week. Some coordinate and manage these groups and their leaders. Others have
operational gifts, they run the finances of the church or some institution. Further
people with the gift of serving do the many things which seem to be little, but
are very important: serving coffee, cleaning the rooms, setting up microphone and
speakers for the music team etc etc.
Others do not seem to be directly involved in church life - they have a little
company and they are very busy. It could be that their spiritual tasks is to live
and show faith in the middle of a busy economic life. They might have the gift
of giving, which here means that they earn more money than others and then strongly
support the community. It is spiritual, to earn and to pass on what has been earned!
It is a spiritual gift to be a responsible earner and carer.
The people with evangelistic gifts will put most of their efforts into the communication
of the gospel. They want to tell people the facts and stories around Jesus, such that
they can discover the living God themselves. This can take place on different levels,
personally, by projects and activities within a church (for example by an open small
group or an alpha course) or by working externally, for example on the internet. It can
be great fun to explore the gospel in more depth, to be with the Lord when he is
there to invite our generation to faith.
In all these tasks we need to complement each other. Not everyone has every
gift. Some can do this, others can do other things. We should use our gifts, this
will generate joy. Joy for us, and joy for the others around us. We should collaborate
intensely with our gifts, put them into the greater framework and be a blessing
to everyone. And in all our activities we should never forget that it is the Lord
who started it all. It is the Lord who gives the gifts. It is him who is the
center and the goal.
[R.W.E.P., jesusnetwork.eu]
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