If you remember the sermon from January 10th, it, in part, highlighted the importance of Spiritual Gifts in the local church body. One of the points of the sermon was that God has already given us everything we need to be successful and a major element of that is your Spiritual Gifts. As experience and awareness of Spiritual Gifts can vary widely, the Elders wanted to follow-up with a chance to go deeper on this topic. So we invite you to join us February 17th, 7:00 – 8:30pm via Zoom (details below) to discuss Spiritual Gifts, concrete steps we can take, and a first look at some of your possible Spiritual Gifts. Even if this topic is not new to you, we encourage you to join to share your perspective and experience.
There are many, many tools and resources out there on Spiritual Gifts, but perhaps the most powerful is to draw close to God. Pray for His guidance as you seek, for an open heart as He reveals, and for opportunities. Some of the key passages on Spiritual Gifts may be found in 1st Corinthians 12, Romans 12, and Ephesians 4. Please read at least one of these in advance of our time together. Additionally, we think this article by Tim Keller is succinct and insightful, but one perspective on a sometimes complicated topic. I particularly like his approach of affinity, ability, and opportunity. Lastly, we encourage you to participate in an evaluation (it took me ~15 minutes) that can highlight someareas where you may be gifted. Don’t be overwhelmed as it is 80 questions – the intent is to answer quickly with the first response that comes to mind. At the end based on your responses, you will be given a short list of Spiritual Gifts that can indicate some areas where you may be gifted. Every single assessment is flawed and incomplete, so don’t put too much stock in the results. In preparation for this, I took 4 different assessments and none gave the same results! We encourage you to record your results and if you are comfortable, to share them with the rest of the group in our discussion on the 17th. It could be a fun and exciting time to corporately see our giftings. https://www.umcdiscipleship.org/spiritual-gifts-inventory/en
We hope this is an encouraging time for growth, discovery, sharing, and drawing closer to one another. This is a big topic, so we’ll see where God leads in this time and if we should pursue this further together. The result is important, but the journey is full of blessing as well.
Thanks and God bless,
Mark, Jonathan, and John
Join Zoom Meeting