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One of the buzzwords from the pulpit when I was growing up was “full-time” ministry. It was the call at nearly every altar call. And every altar call was as much an attempt to fill the pulpits and mission fields of the world as it was to call sinners to repentance. In fact, it was so intertwined that you almost felt like a sinner in need of repentance if you weren’t called to preach or to the mission field in every service. By the time I was in my early twenties, it was starting to frustrate and anger me, not motivate me to surrender to a full-time call to ministry of some sort. I surrendered my life to Christ in my mid-twenties. Yet, in spite of having the gifts of teaching, leadership, and administration, God never called me to lead or pastor a church. If he had, I would have answered the call. Instead, what I heard God saying day after day was "get up and go to work...in the trucking industry." It didn't take long to realize that I have a "full-time" ministry in the trucking industry. I have had countless opportunities to mentor, disciple, and yes even pastor people in the trucking industry over a thirty-year career and I continue to get these opportunities daily.
Two things typically happen in the church as they surround spiritual gifts. First, leadership in the church, and often other believers, project their spiritual gift onto other believers. I mentioned this previously with my experience of always being called to "full-time" ministry growing up. Just because God called you to draw a salary from the church doesn't mean he's called me to that. Second, believers get "gift envy" as it relates to other believers. They see the singers, the speakers, and the high-profile leaders and wish to be like them. You can read more about both of these issues in Larry Osborne's book Accidental Pharisee. My point here is simply to say that both gift projection and gift envy wreak havoc on unity in the church. God broke the mold when he made you. He broke the mold after he made me. We all have our own unique gifting and place within the body of Christ that equips us to not only build up the church but grow the Kingdom of God in our own unique ways. Paul said this in Romans 12 in regard to our unique gifting...
History repeats itself in the world, and often in the church. The believers in Corinth were struggling with spiritual gifts and asked Paul to clarify their use and purpose. Paul did so in his letter to the Corinthian church. He clarifies that spiritual gifts were given as tools for building not weapons for destroying. In I Corinthians 12, Paul gives us three reasons why God gave spiritual gifts to believers.
Spiritual Gifts Are for Building Up Other Believers
There is this amazing thing that happens when we become believers. We are immediately transformed by the Holy Spirit and empowered with a very specific spiritual gift. The Layman’s Bible Commentary puts it this way, “The Spirit of God infuses natural skill with a new spiritual dynamic to empower the person to be productive in the work of Christ.” So, God gifts us as his people in extraordinary ways. Paul says it this way in I Corinthians 12…One of the main purposes of our unique spiritual gifting is the building up of other believers in the church. We use our gifts within the church to help each other. Our lead pastor is a visionary. He might also have what Paul calls here a gift of great faith. He has a giant vision for the church and believes God can see it through. But he isn’t going to be the process guy who administers the plan for getting it all done. He has a vision for the type of people needed to accomplish the work and speaks that vision over their lives but he is not wired to flesh out the details and processes involved in his plan. It is how God gifted him. And this is where I get to come along side him and use my gifts. Not only was I equipped by the Spirit to teach, I also have gifts of leadership, discernment, and administration and he and I work beautifully together. Through it all, he helps build my faith in the big things that God is doing in and around us and helps me as I teach with casting vision around the details of a particular plan or process because he’s so well gifted by the Spirit in this area.
Your gift is unique to you. Paul said here in verse 11 that the Spirit alone decides which gift each person should have. In other words, the Spirit of God made an intentional decision to give you the very gift you have to serve others in a very specific way. And God doesn’t make mistakes. Which is why all spiritual gifts should be celebrated in the church because they were distributed purposefully by the Spirit of God. I would encourage you today that if you don’t know what your spiritual gift is, take this assessment and see how God has uniquely equipped you to serve and build up others inside and outside the church. The second thing Paul teaches us here in I Corinthians 12 about spiritual gifts is…
Spiritual Gifts Build Unity in the Church
In other words, Paul is saying here that we are all united by the Spirit of God and while we all may have different gifts that manifest themselves in different types of ministry service, we are all serving the same God. And don’t miss the beauty of our gifting here in verse six. Paul says that God works in different ways within the body of Christ using the various gifts we all have, but it’s the same God who does the work in all of us. Paul goes on to say in verse 12…
I think too often we forget that the church is a living breathing organism made up of believers all over the globe. I think we forget because physically we spend so much time in our respective church buildings we forget that the church is not a place, it’s a people. A people ordained by God to make the name of Jesus famous all over the globe. And every member of this living organism has been given supernatural gifts by the Holy Spirit. Each member of the church serves a unique function and role just as each part of the human body is dependent on all the others. Paul equates the church to the human body here in chapter 12…
I don’t know that I can communicate that any more clearly than Paul. We see the church as many denominations and many people who worship Jesus in different ways. This is not how God sees it. If you call Jesus "Lord," we all function as one. Just as my body has many different parts but all function to move the body forward. So, it is with the body of Christ. Paul tells us this in Ephesians 4...
Spiritual Gifts Build the Kingdom of God
As I said previously, our entire being and the gifts God has given us that make us unique are for one purpose and one purpose only, to make Jesus famous. As Paul winds down his teaching on spiritual gifts in chapter 12, he says the gifts God gives to people are unique, and should be celebrated, but he says there is an even better way to live and serve others. You love others and love them unconditionally like Jesus loves you. Jesus himself said that all the law and all prophets are summed up in this, love God and love other people. Paul says in I Corinthians 13...What Paul is saying here is that no matter how gifted you are, if you fail to love others around you inside and outside of the church, it’s all for nothing. If you don’t love those around you like Jesus loved us, you’re just making noise. You are just giving lip service to religion and not actually making a difference in the lives of those around you by the power of the Holy Spirit. Why does this matter and how does it help build the Kingdom of God? Because the love of God is infectious and it’s out of the ordinary in a lost and dying world. The world is about self-love, self-promotion, and self-service. The love Jesus showed us is about serving others, caring for their needs, and sacrificing for others around us. When we love like that, the world sits up and takes notice. When we get this right as the "big C" church, the Kingdom of God advances and we take more ground for that Kingdom every day.
I thought it fitting to end this post on Paul’s words from Romans 12 because it so beautifully ties all this together and commissions us at the same time. Paul says,
Amen, and amen...Praying for you to find how God has uniquely equipped and wired you to serve him and serve others. It will bring meaning, passion, and purpose to everything you do. If I can use my gifts (leadership, teaching, administration) in any way to help you find and use yours, let me know! We will both be better for it. Cheering for you!
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