Plow
Creek Mennonite Church
Sunday
Meditations
Disclaimer - meditations are the personal reflections of the worship leader, not official church doctrinal statements.
Gifts
Louise Stahnke
Disclaimer - meditations are the personal reflections of the worship leader, not official church doctrinal statements.
Gifts
Louise Stahnke
Twenty
seven years ago, Mark and I left the secure, structured life of being a
United Methodist minister and wife in California. It was a
position that gave great job security, a respected role, provided
housing, and people to relate to in a certain way. We left it
because we sensed that the traditional church was wrong to depend on
its professional Ministers, giving them in effect the job of being the
“paid Christian”, responsible to carry on the greater amount of work
for the entire church. This many years later, I am even more
convinced that the professional ministry is a very inadequate
model.
This is because it clearly limits the expectations on all the others in church body. It is as if all the gifts needed for church growth and ministry are supposed to reside in the one who is leading the church. One result of this is that relatively few Christians in traditional churches have encouragement and opportunity to discover what gifts for ministry the Holy Spirit has given them. A good gift discernment book I used recently has a wonderful collection of identified gifts, not all of which we might consider “gifts of the Spirit.” It included artistic creativity, craftsmanship, helper. The criteria is that the ability is used to build up the Body of Christ.
I deeply value having the freedom here and want to encourage each person who is a part of our life to actively seek to know what his or her gifts are and how to develop them. I have grown tremendously in our time here. The Lord has given me opportunities to learn many new things about who He made me to be. I have had encouragement to try new experiences and learn new skills. Leading worship is a fun one for me. I’m learning the Lord seems to be giving me gifts in this area and can use me in this way. Giving leadership in general is an area I went into with fear and trembling, yet it has been a positive experience for me. It has surely improved my prayer life, because leading around here requires a lot of prayer for wisdom. I am growing in learning to walk with people in times of trouble; I want to keep growing in that. Being involved in Donna’s care for so long has taught me a faithfulness I would not have learned otherwise. It has also deepened my understanding of how faithful the Lord is to us. And while it is not directly related to church life, I am becoming, have become a manager of a small business. They don’t teach you anything about that in nursing school!
We are a small group here. We don’t have professionals to do the work of this church. It is crucial for us as a part of the Body of Christ to be open to finding and sharing the gifts the Lord has given to each one of us. They probably will not be the same throughout our life. New ones will come, older ones may mature or even fade away.
That’s ok. As we do so, we will be greatly blessed ourselves and become more and more a blessing to others, both here and all we are connected to.
There are good tools available to help people discover their gifts. Asking the Lord to show them to us is the best way to start that I know. Please feel free to talk with me and we can pray together.
This is because it clearly limits the expectations on all the others in church body. It is as if all the gifts needed for church growth and ministry are supposed to reside in the one who is leading the church. One result of this is that relatively few Christians in traditional churches have encouragement and opportunity to discover what gifts for ministry the Holy Spirit has given them. A good gift discernment book I used recently has a wonderful collection of identified gifts, not all of which we might consider “gifts of the Spirit.” It included artistic creativity, craftsmanship, helper. The criteria is that the ability is used to build up the Body of Christ.
I deeply value having the freedom here and want to encourage each person who is a part of our life to actively seek to know what his or her gifts are and how to develop them. I have grown tremendously in our time here. The Lord has given me opportunities to learn many new things about who He made me to be. I have had encouragement to try new experiences and learn new skills. Leading worship is a fun one for me. I’m learning the Lord seems to be giving me gifts in this area and can use me in this way. Giving leadership in general is an area I went into with fear and trembling, yet it has been a positive experience for me. It has surely improved my prayer life, because leading around here requires a lot of prayer for wisdom. I am growing in learning to walk with people in times of trouble; I want to keep growing in that. Being involved in Donna’s care for so long has taught me a faithfulness I would not have learned otherwise. It has also deepened my understanding of how faithful the Lord is to us. And while it is not directly related to church life, I am becoming, have become a manager of a small business. They don’t teach you anything about that in nursing school!
We are a small group here. We don’t have professionals to do the work of this church. It is crucial for us as a part of the Body of Christ to be open to finding and sharing the gifts the Lord has given to each one of us. They probably will not be the same throughout our life. New ones will come, older ones may mature or even fade away.
That’s ok. As we do so, we will be greatly blessed ourselves and become more and more a blessing to others, both here and all we are connected to.
There are good tools available to help people discover their gifts. Asking the Lord to show them to us is the best way to start that I know. Please feel free to talk with me and we can pray together.