Tag: missionary

Discovering how we are formed

Dancing in the Kingdom- Table of Contents

Dancing In the Kingdom – Part 3 – Dancing in the Kingdom– Chapter 15 – Reforming our Souls

Discovering how we are formed – for each other

[Bible references: Romans 12, 1 Corinthians 12, 13:1-3; Ephesians 3:6-8; Ephesians 4, 1 Peter 4:7-10]

Once we have centered ourselves on Christ and have learned to submit to God and to one another, we are in a good place to evaluate the unique ways in which God has formed us.[1] One of the more holistic tools developed by Saddleback Church provides an evaluation of several aspects of how we are formed: the spiritual gifts, the desires, the abilities, the personality, and the experience God gives us.

The reality is that much is life is filled with, “I just gotta do what I gotta do.” Parenting is like that, housekeeping is like that, etc. Diapers need to be changed, the house needs to be cleaned, the bills must be paid, grocery shopping needs to be done, etc. Much of life is filled with responsibilities that need to be done regardless of what capacity we think we may have. There may be no luxury of just doing “what I think I am best at.”

But where it is possible, when we gather in a sharing community, there is the opportunity to allocate different tasks to those people who are best equipped for it. God has intended that we be in such communities, so described in scripture as “the body of Christ,” where different people serve in different functions. At such times, there are opportunities for us to discover in what unique ways God has designed us so that we may serve each other in the best way possible.

Scripture reveals that all who are in Christ are indwelt by the Holy Spirit, and that the Spirit has given us various gifts that we can use to help build up other members of the body of Christ. A few Bible passages give us an idea of the kinds of gifts of some of these gifts, but the lists are not exhaustive: exhortation, giving. leadership, mercy, prophecy, service, teaching, administration, apostle, discernment, faith, healing, helps, knowledge, miracles, prophecy, teaching, tongues, tongues, interpretation, wisdom, evangelism, pastor, teaching, celibacy, hospitality, missionary, voluntary poverty.

One way to discover what gifts we may have, is by serving in our community. As we serve in various ways, we may discover that God has particularly blessed our service in various ways. Sometimes others may point out those abilities or gifts to us. Another way to discover our gifts is to read about those gifts and certain gifts may become apparent to us that way. Another way is to take a questionnaire and the results of that questionnaire may reveal certain gifts to us. It may be helpful to take such a questionnaire with someone else because they may have different insights into the questions.

As we mature and encounter different life experiences, we may discover that different gifts emerge or that God has provided differently for us in our different circumstances. God knows us and our circumstances and may provide differently as we change, and our circumstances change.

[1] Links to various assessment tools: Spiritual gifts: Carver, Jeff. “Spiritual Gifts Test – Adult Version”Spiritual Gifts Test spiritualgiftstest.com/spiritual-gifts-test-adult-version ; Granger Community Church. “Spiritual Gifts Test” Granger Community Church spiritualgiftstest.com/spiritual-gifts-test-landing; Ministry Tools Resource Center. “Take Online Spiritual Gifts Test Inventory Assessment” Ministry Tools Resource Center mintools.com/spiritual-gifts-test.htm; Rock Church, “Gifts Test” Rock Church giftstest.com. Personality test sites: Hayes, Robert. “The Best Free Enneagram Tests You Can Take Online” Tech Junkie www.techjunkie.com/best-free-enneagram-tests; Truity Psychometrics. “The Enneagram Personality Test” Truity Psychometrics www.truity.com/test/enneagram-personality-test; Barkers, Ewald. “Eclectic Energies Enneagram Tests (Free)” Eclectic Energies www.eclecticenergies.com/enneagram/test; Shape test: Hill, Kevin M. “S.H.A.P.E. Test” Free Shape Test www.freeshapetest.com; Saddleback Church “You Were SHAPED for Serving God” Saddleback Church www.ministryideas.com/doc/shape_discovery_tool.pdf

The Spirit and the scattering

Dancing in the Kingdom- Table of Contents

Dancing In the Kingdom – Part 2 – The Kingdom Revealed – Chapter 12 – Launching the church

The Spirit and the Scattering

[Bible references: Acts 5:12-16; 6:1-15; 7:1-60; 8:1-3, 14-24; 10; 9:1-19; 13:16-47; 17:16-31]

Since Jesus focused his effort almost exclusively on the Jewish population, it was natural that in the early years of the church, nearly all the believers were Jewish. It also happened that the apostles started off by focusing on the area around Jerusalem. So, while the believers were Jewish, the opposition to the believers was primarily Jewish as well; particularly, the Sanhedrin which was heavily controlled by the non-resurrection-believing Sadducees. It was difficult for the Sanhedrin to control the apostles because their miraculous healings made them exceedingly popular among the people. Even the deacon, Stephen, who was performing signs and wonders was creating a problem for the Sadducees. So some men created a conspiracy against Stephen, creating lies that resulted in Stephen becoming the first recorded martyr for the faith. Stephen was quite eloquent in defending the faith before the Sanhedrin, laying out the history of Israel and then accusing the Sanhedrin of continuing the persecution of God’s prophets. This enraged the Sanhedrin so much, that even after Stephen was put to death, the persecution of the church began in earnest, causing the first scattering of the church, although the apostles remained in Jerusalem.

With the scattering came new opportunities and challenges. When it was discovered that the Samaritans had received the gospel, the apostles gladly received the news. But when some of the Samaritans received the Holy Spirit, there were some kinds of signs (we aren’t told what they were) that excited a magician, who was one of the ones who received Christ. The magician then offered money to the apostles so that he could get the power to lay his hands on people and give them the Holy Spirit. The apostles had to strongly rebuke him. He repented – but this was a sign of how things could go astray.

After sending the gospel to the Samaritans, the next step was to reach out to the Gentiles. This step was initiated by God who first worked with the apostle Peter and a devout Gentile man named Cornelius. God had given visions to both Cornelius and Peter to create a reason for them to meet. When Cornelius visibly received the gift of the Holy Spirit, Peter was convinced that the gospel was meant for the Gentiles as well.

To further spread the gospel among the Gentiles, God called Saul, a well-educated man who was familiar not only with the Jews but also with the Gentiles. Saul was a zealous Pharisee, whose zeal originally caused him to participate in the persecution of the church, but God used that same zeal to make Saul (also called Paul) not only one of the primary missionaries to the Gentiles but also a writer of half of the documents that comprise the New Testament. Even though Saul became converted after the ascension of Jesus, it was Jesus himself who encountered Saul who was on his way to persecute the Christians, making Saul a direct witness to the ministry of Jesus.

Whether the gospel was shared with the Jews or with the Gentiles there was a story to tell. The Jews needed to understand how the story of Jesus fit into their history – their story – and the Gentiles needed to know how it fit into their story. We all have a worldview – a story of the world that we use to interpret the world around us – and the gospel is most effectively shared when there’s a way to reach inside the others’ worldview.

Observe

Read Acts 13:1647; 17:16-31. What was the difference between how Paul told the gospel to people in the synagogue vs. the people in the Athens marketplace?