Everywhere in our culture, we are taught to measure ourselves by what we can do, how we have achieved. Our church lives are not immune to this pressure to try to distinguish ourselves by our activities and accomplishments. Because of this, we can feel overly ashamed of failure—especially failure that comes from not maintaining the standards of the generations that have come before us.

All of this means that we can end up feeling trapped by the pressure to keep up appearances or not let other people down. What if we put our focus not on what we have done or can do—but instead really think about what God desires that we do and be in the world?

Scripture teaches us that we are all uniquely gifted—we are not all the same as each other, and even as a collection of believers we are not meant to be the same as the people who came before us. How might sincerely trying to discern our own present giftedness end up in us doing and being church differently?

Come join us in worship to reflect on these exciting possibilities with us.

With hope,

Hardy

If you're worshipping with us online, please join us immediately afterward for the virtual Coffee Hour.

“The key to ministry: knowing what not to do and not doing it.”

  Rev. R. David Steele

Now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers and sisters, I do not want you to be uninformed. You know that when you were pagans, you were enticed and led astray to idols that could not speak. Therefore I want you to understand that no one speaking by the Spirit of God ever says “Let Jesus be cursed!” and no one can say “Jesus is Lord” except by the Holy Spirit. Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. To one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the discernment of spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. All these are activated by one and the same Spirit, who allots to each one individually just as the Spirit chooses.