How would you answer the question, “Why does the Church exist?” Many people will say things like, “It’s for the betterment of the community,” or, “It’s a place for Christians to gather and worship,” or even, “It’s where you go to learn about God.” Whether you grew up going to Sunday services or just visited one for the first time, it’s important to know why the Church exists.
In 1 Corinthians 12, it says the Church is the Body of Christ, made up of individual members who have different gifts. Those gifts are designed to help us proclaim the excellencies of Him who redeemed us out of darkness and into His marvelous light (1 Peter 2:9). The Church is not a social club or a building you go to on Sunday.
Discovering Your Role in the Body of Christ
Ephesians 2:10 says, “For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works,” so we can contribute to God’s mission. This raises the bar for every Christian and begs the question of how we discover our role in the Body of Christ.
Going through the book of Acts as a church, we heavily profiled the church in Antioch, which I call “the church on fire.” Antioch became the first sending church. They had a combination of three things happening at once: revival/activity of the Holy Spirit, spiritual disciplines, and spiritual gifts.
The problem when you talk about individual personalities and giftings and talents is we’ve gotten really good in America at equating individual calling with some type of personality profile. I’m all for personality tests—Myers-Briggs, Enneagram, Strength Finders. Learn about yourself.
But none of that is in the Bible. What is in the Bible is spiritual gifts. The Holy Spirit endows people with individual things that we don’t talk about because we’re not really comfortable with how that functions in a local church context.
The No. 1 thing you have to remember about the gospel going out is it always originates with God sending it out. The gospel never bears fruit where humanity makes a good plan and does a good job. It is always the sovereignty of God.
When God is willing, He will pour His Spirit out. That’s step one. Step two is spiritual disciplines—when you’re becoming more like Jesus and practically working out deep discipleship, such as praying, reading the Word, doing meals together, practicing Sabbath.
Identifying and Using Spiritual Gifts in Ministry
When it came to spiritual gifts, no one really knew what gifts they had or how to express them. So, we took a shot, sent everybody home on a Sunday to take an assessment and sit through a teaching. About 3,500 people did the assessment.
Once you understand spiritual gifts, you understand it’s not a talent. It’s a part of you that’s not you. For instance, anybody can be generous, and everyone should tithe. But somebody with the gift of giving is somebody whose God’s hand is on that man or that woman as they write that check, and they love it.
The intersection of your gifts and the purpose God has for your gifts happens when you get burdened and bothered by what bothers God. God is individually burdening people related to his mission. And if we can carry our burdens together inside of these giftings, then there’s a fire attached to it.
You need to stop apologizing for what God has bothered you for. So we start asking God, “I got this gifting, and You got this mission, but where have You broken my heart to participate in what You’re doing?”
The Even You Podcast
On the Even You podcast, we want to empower ordinary people to say, “Yes!” to extraordinary purpose. Hear how everyday believers are using their gifts to have an eternal impact on people’s lives around the world. Learn more, share, and listen to the podcast now!