Leadership Training - Session Three Part 1 (The Church)

Five Devotions: Church

We’ve got two more devotions to cover. These are very horizontal in nature, that is, they deal with our relationship with others. They are a devotion to the church (stated “the fellowship” in Acts 2:42) and the mission (taken from Acts 1:8). There is a lot that could be said about how one is to devote them self to the church, but I think the best place to start is talking about spiritual gifts.

We want a new disciple to be thinking about the church as a place to serve, not a place to consume goods and services. Our culture is steeped in consumerism and unfortunately that has affected the church as well. A great place to start in discussing spiritual gifts, is Romans 12:

3For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you. 4Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, 5so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. 6We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. If a man's gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith. 7If it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach; 8if it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously; if it is leadership, let him govern diligently; if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully.

The Apostle Paul begins by speaking of humility – an accurate view of oneself. Thinking too highly of yourself or too lowly of yourself are both examples of thinking too much of yourself. Humility is the ability to see our strengths and weaknesses. The confidence to step up and make ourselves available to serve others according to our strengths and to rely on others according to our needs and weaknesses. This attitude of humility is a nonnegotiable in order to obtain the vision that God has for the church – which is that it would work like the human body.

Reflection Question: How does the human body serve to illustrate the church?

The human body is a perfect illustration for the church. The two things that Paul is wanting to draw attention to are encapsulated in the phrase “one body with many members”. On one hand, the human body is unified, working together to accomplish a single purpose like hitting a tennis ball with a racket. On the other hand, the human body is made up of many specialized parts that are working together to fulfill the purpose. It takes legs, arms, fingers, shoulders, heart, blood, etc. to hit the tennis ball.

The church functions in essentially the same way. A group of people who all have specialties (gifts) who are working together to accomplish the same purpose. That purpose is to be the physical presence of Christ on the earth. That takes humility in order to have the confidence to step forward in faith to fulfill your particular role as well as let others do the same. So what are these specialties?

There are 3 places in the Bible that speak of spiritual gifts. 1 Corinthians 12, Ephesians 4, and Romans 12. I believe that Romans 12 is the place to start. These gifts are very simple and straight forward. Here are some starting definitions for each:

Prophesy – Foretelling and Forth telling. Think of an old testament Prophet. They always have good news and bad news. Their bad news is always some sort of convicting message from God to His people about how they are messing up and it cuts to the heart. The good news is usually some sort of vision of the future that God has for his people once they repent.

While someone with the gift of prophecy is not delivering the very words of God that will one day become scripture, they are performing a very similar function. They have the ability to confront with the truth in such a way that it pierces to the heart . This can be done in a sermon or in a one on one conversation over coffee.

Their good news, much like the Old Testament prophet, is a vision of the future. The vision casters of the church are typically prophets and can really energize the church to move forward even when the road ahead seems very murky. In a one on one setting, the prophet can cast vision for someone’s life and be a powerful source of encouragement to that person.

Notice that the prophet is one of the three gifts that contain a footnote. That the church should let the prophet exercise their faith according to the measure of faith that they possess. Prophets are by nature very vocal and they always have an opinion about everything. If they are not careful, they will get way ahead of what they have earned the right to say and put people off instead of having an influence in the lives of others.

Serving – See needs and meet them. The servant is on the opposite end of the spectrum from the prophet which I think is very fitting. If the prophet is the mouth of the church, a servant is the hands. These folks can see needs (typically task oriented) and are energized in the meeting of those needs. These are the folks that get things done, often times even when they are not asked. They don’t have to ask, “Is there anything I can do to help?” They see what needs to be done and will hop right to it. Servants have to watch out that they don’t get frustrated with others who don’t see the needs and don’t naturally gravitate toward getting them done.

Teaching – Make the truth understandable. Teachers in the church know how to build a bridge, using explanation and illustration, from the truth of the Bible to the rest of the church. Things in the Bible that once seemed unclear and inaccessible to the church, become clear and applicable through the ministry of the teacher. Teachers have to watch out for focusing just on the transference of truth and forgetting that they actually have to relate to the people that they are teaching.

Encouragement – Move people forward. A person with this gift can’t stand to see anyone standing still. They are the people who come alongside others in the church and cheer them forward. They can do that by pointing out the strengths that they see in the person or confronting the person about things in their lives that are holding them back. People with this gift have to watch out that they don’t burn themselves out encouraging everyone else while they themselves are wondering if they are of any value in the church.

Giving – Conduit for God’s resources. Givers hold the resources that they have been given in an open hand. They joyfully release those resources into God’s kingdom’s work which can benefit both organizations and individuals. They typically don’t attach strings to their giving because the reason they give is to worship God and not get some sort of glory or control. Givers have to be careful that they don’t use their giving as an excuse not to also invest themselves relationally in the lives of others as well.

Leadership (or administration) – Systematize and Mobilize. This gift is less about vision casting (see Prophecy) and more about creating infrastructure. People with this gift are the organizers of the church. They create systems that make opportunities for using ones gifts available and help to place people in those opportunities. The caveat in Romans 12 for this gift is that they do so diligently. It’s an exhortation to maintain the system once it has been put into place so that the church does not become a series of monthly emphases and is instead a faithful execution of church basics over the long haul.

Mercy – Feel the emotion of others, empathy. People with the gift of mercy are the feelers of the church. If someone is hurting, the person with the gift of mercy hurts with them. If someone is joyful, the person with the gift of mercy is rejoicing with them. They are a tremendous source of comfort and encouragement for people in the church. They too have a footnote, to exercise their gift cheerfully. The person with the gift of mercy has a tendency to take on too much of people’s pain and end up depressed. The remedy is to see themselves as a temporary carrier of another’s pain that they quickly dump onto Jesus.

Reflection Question: What gifts have been entrusted to you?

Looking at these starting definitions for the gifts, which ones have been entrusted to you? You have a mix of these that God has placed in you and they do not belong to you. They belong to the church. If you don’t know, then ask someone else who knows you what they think. Even if you think you do know, ask someone else what they think. None of us can clearly see ourselves and need others to be an accurate mirror (remember the humility discussion) to tell us who we are.

If you are still not sure, then just start serving. One of the ways we discover what our gifts are is by trying on different roles in the church. Set up chairs, comfort someone you see that is hurting, secretly give some money away. Every Christian is called by God to exercise these different areas of service at some level so go for it. What you’ll find is that some of things that you try will really energize you and will come natural to you. These are most likely your gifts. Some may also scare you to death which is often times an indicator that you are getting close to one of your gifts as well. You are afraid because the Spirit is calling you toward that particular area, otherwise you probably wouldn’t even give it a second thought.