Nurturing Spiritual Gifts: in Ourselves and Others

By Audrey Stanton-Smith. Reprinted with permission.

This is the third of a series of articles that will help you learn more about spiritual gifts, how to discover yours, and how they might be used to benefit the church and community. 

We celebrate that we are each called and claimed by God. We have a better idea of why spiritual gifts are important. And using the assessment tools available, we know how to discover which gifts God has bestowed upon us. The next step as we grow as a disciple is to nurture our gifts to the glory of God and for the benefit of others.

And that’s something that requires help from a church family — not only to carry out God’s work within a church but to carry out his work throughout the world.

“Paul says in 1 Corinthians 12 that ‘the body does not consist of one member, but of many,’ ” said Kim Matthews, CLM, vice president of the United Methodist Foundation of West Virginia and chair of Lay Servant Ministries for the WVUMC. “So it is with spiritual gifts and the church. Spiritual gifts are important because, together, they equip us to BE the church in the world, and to do God’s work among God’s people.”

When one is baptized, a congregation promises to use  “prayers,” “presence,” “gifts,”  “service,” and “witness” to increase that person’s faith, confirm her or his hope, and perfect that new part of the body in love. The church enters into a covenant to help that person live into his or her spiritual gifts — or “grace gifts,” as writer Christine Harman calls them in “For the Common Good: Discovering and Using Your Spiritual Gifts.” 

“The granting of these grace gifts has a twofold purpose — one being personal and the other being corporate,” Harman writes. “On the personal side, the grace gifts we are given enable us to serve God through the uniqueness God granted at our creation. They enable us to live the Great Commandment (see Matthew 22:36-40) and fulfill the Great Commission (see Matthew 28:19-20). On the corporate side, the grace gifts enable us to work for the common good, to band together with others for the betterment of our congregations and the communities in which they are located — our mission field.”

In other words, the gifts of individuals work together to transform our broken and hurting world as well as our churches. “Studying spiritual gifts, learning to work with them, and letting them work for the church can open up and expand fruitful ministry,” Harman writes. 

It is the mature members of the body who help newer Christians recognize that being a believer and accepting that God has called them are linked, as stated in “The Call to Ministry of All the Baptized” in The Book of Discipline. Then, they may help one another grow into their various gifts. That’s how Shea James, director of Young Disciples and Outdoor Ministries for the WVUMC, began to grow into her gifts.

“I’ve been a part of different Christian communities over the years, and my teachers, church members, professors, coworkers, and camp supervisors identified my gifts before I did,” Shea said. “Once they told me, ‘you’re a gifted leader,’ I could see it. When they said, ‘you mentor others and help them grow as a disciple of Jesus Christ,’ I believed them. Christian community is central to understanding our spiritual gifts, we’re gifted for the benefit of the community, and others often see these gifts before we’re aware of them.”

It’s also important to recognize that those gifts may shift over time, Director of Leadership Formation Rev. Bonnie MacDonald pointed out. Her own gifts of administration and teaching, with a variety of additional closely aligned gifts, take turns coming to the forefront depending on her focus.

“God flexibly uses our spiritual gifts to equip us for the ministry to which we are being called at the present time, whether that be as a faithful engineer or a pastoral leader,” Bonnie said. “The specific use and framing of our gifts and calling may change throughout our lives and ask for new skill levels and learning. But our vocation as disciples of Christ will remain the same.”

She thinks of spiritual gifts as “natural abilities, given freely by God, that help us live out God’s purpose for us, for the benefit of others.”

“In one of my favorite descriptions of spiritual gifts, ‘Eighth Day of Creation,’ Elizabeth O’Connor describes the value of spiritual gifts for the individual and community,” Bonnie said.

“The Church is ‘a gift-evoking, gift-bearing community,’ Bonnie said, paraphrasing O’Connor. “Through our giftedness, God is calling each of us into the fullness of our own potential. ‘No one enters into a fullness of being except in community,’ and ‘no community develops the potential of its corporate life unless the gifts of each of its members are evoked and exercised on behalf of the whole community.’ ” 

“By joining with God in discovering and developing our gifts and the gifts of others, we are joining in God’s ongoing work of creation, as growing disciples who participate in the transformation of the world,” Bonnie said.

Article source: www.wvumc.org/2021/10/nurturing-spiritual-gifts-in-ourselves-and-others/

Spiritual Gifts: How do We Discover Our Gifts? Why does it Matter?

By Audrey Stanton-Smith. Reprinted with permission.

This is the second of a series of articles that will help you learn more about spiritual gifts, how to discover yours, and how they might be used to benefit the church and community. 

As director of Young Disciples and Outdoor Ministries for the West Virginia Conference of the United Methodist Church, Rev. Shea James uses creative ways to challenge students and campers to grow in faith. Sometimes it’s a song. Sometimes it’s a game. At the 2021 Fall Workshop, she asked youth to complete a spiritual gifts inventory.

They answered a series of questions to help them determine which of the 20 spiritual gifts — named in the New Testament  — God has freely bestowed upon them to help them grow in relationship with God and fulfill their call to discipleship and ministry.

“Spiritual gifts are God’s generosity poured out,” Shea said. “They are diverse and unique to each believer, and best understood, expressed, and strengthened in Christian community. Spiritual gifts are how we respond to God’s work in our lives, enabling us to be channels of God’s grace towards others.”

Leaders like Shea, whose spiritual gifts are leading, teaching, and shepherding, help others grow, explore, and utilize those gifts for the building up of the body of Christ.

After the youth took their inventories, they met virtually in small groups to discuss and explore their gifts, Shea explained, clarifying that the Spiritual Gifts Assessment is merely a good starting point from which a Christian community can help young disciples grow.

A spiritual gifts assessment is only a step toward the development of those gifts, not only for youth but for all Christians at all points in their faith journeys.

“Once you know your spiritual gifts, you should turn to your community (church, family, friends) and share your results,” Shea said. “Ask them: do they see those gifts in you, can they think of examples when they witnessed you using your gifts, and what opportunities are there for you to do more? You cannot fully understand your spiritual gifts outside the Christian community, so find people you trust to process your results.”

Ken Willard, WVUMC director of Congregational Vitality, agreed.

“One of the best ways I know of to help people discern their own spiritual gifts is through intentional conversation,” said Ken, who has been gifted in leadership, teaching, and faith. “One way to do this is what I refer to as discipleship coaching.

“By asking questions about where they are drawn to in ministry, where they have felt most at home, where they have seen and felt God at work with them, what are they most passionate about, what breaks their heart, where have they served and it did not feel like work, etc. Their responses will usually point out where they have been gifted,” Ken continued. “Another way is to have someone who might be new to the faith to test out some areas in order to best find their fit. Spiritual gifts assessments can be helpful, too. But I have found there is no substitute for a one-on-one conversation.”

It’s important to know and explore spiritual gifts because “we need to honor what we have been given,” Ken said. “We need to grow those gifts, and the Kingdom of God needs us to use our gifts in order to produce a more fruitful harvest.”

But first, these gifts should be discovered, then nurtured.

“We help people to discern their spiritual gifts when we follow one of the commandments that Christ called the most important — to love each other,” said Kim Matthews, CLM, vice president of the United Methodist Foundation of West Virginia and chair of Lay Servant Ministries for the WVUMC. Kim’s spiritual gifts include teaching, serving, administration, and leadership.

“When we listen to each other, we can help others to discern their calls to ministry,” Kim said. “When we encourage each other, we can help others to recognize their own spiritual gifts. Both listening and encouragement are acts of love, and when we help people discern their spiritual gifts, we give them the possibility of another gift: the joy of using that gift in ministry.”

To take your spiritual gift assessment, and to learn more about Spiritual gifts please follow this link.

Article source: www.wvumc.org/2021/10/spiritual-gifts-how-do-we-discover-our-gifts-why-does-it-matter/

Spiritual Gifts: Called and Claimed by God

By Audrey Stanton-Smith. Reprinted with permission.

This is the first of a series of articles that will help you learn more about spiritual gifts, how to discover yours, and how they might be used to benefit the church and community. 

Held by her parents in her long white gown, little Nora Grace splashed her tiny hand into the baptismal font as her grandfather Rev. Greg Godwin and Bishop Sandra Steiner Ball laid their wet hands on her head.

“Eternal God, by Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, you gave to your apostles many excellent gifts,” the bishop had just prayed at this Service of Baptism and Ordination during the 2020 West Virginia Annual Conference. “Give your grace to all servants of your church, that we may, with diligence and faithfulness, fulfill our various ministries.”

In those precious moments with water and spirit, a family celebrated the Holy Spirit’s gifts to Nora Grace, and the priesthood of all believers became responsible for helping her grow into those spiritual gifts. They promised to nurture her and pray for her to be a true disciple, giving the act of baptism both a personal and a corporate purpose.

“We revisit that moment a lot,” Nora Grace’s mother, Rev. Lauren Godwin said just over a year later. “We look at those pictures. … It was super special as a parent, but also as a pastor.”

Knowing that biological family and church family — Nora Grace’s own plus an entire conference — was participating made it “a moment of true celebration,” Godwin recalled.

“It truly was a celebration of the giftedness that God has given each of us,” she said. “And as she grows, we will remind Nora that her baptism is not just a day we celebrate, but a day that is about the promise we make.”

While all of life is a gift from God, 20 gifts are lifted up within Scripture as the gifts of the Spirit, given specifically for the upbuilding of the body of Christ. They are healing, discernment, serving, tongues, teaching, apostleship, giving, faith, interpretation of tongues, prophecy, wisdom, leadership, evangelism, compassion/mercy, administration, working miracles, knowledge, shepherding, helps, and exhortation. 

Exploring spiritual gifts — part of growing in discipleship — begins with remembering baptism, just as Steiner Ball asked witnesses to do at the baptism of Nora Grace and as all pastors do at baptisms throughout the conference.

It doesn’t mean literally recalling the details of a baptism event, but recalling that you were marked as Christ’s own. It means remembering that God has a purpose for your life, and it impacts the church — the body of Christ — as a whole. Remembering baptism fits hand-in-hand with the church’s mission is to discover, develop, and deploy passionate spiritual leaders who make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.

As the Baptismal Covenant states: “As members together with you in the body of Christ and in their congregation of The United Methodist Church, we renew our covenant faithfully to participate in the ministries of the church by our prayers, our presence, our gifts, and our service, that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ.”

“Speaking as a pastor and a mom, the promise the congregation makes is such an important piece,” Godwin said. “As a pastor, I remind the congregation how critical that is. … This is a serious promise that we’re making, especially at an infant baptism. We are promising to take care of this child however we can, whether that means sliding them a piece of candy on Sunday morning or nurturing them into their giftedness and ministry.”

Participation in ministry begins with baptism, whether it happens with infant baptism or at some other point in life, and remembering it is another important piece. In her book “Liturgy of the Ordinary,”  Tish Harrison Warren writes, “Baptism is the first word of grace spoken over us by the church.”

Harrison goes on to say that baptismal fonts are often placed where people will pass them as they walk into a church to worship. “This symbolizes how baptism is the entrance into the people of God. It reminds us that before we begin to worship — before we sit down in church — we are marked as people who belong to Jesus by grace alone, swept up into the good news, which we received as a gift from God and from believers who went before us.”

Christine Harman, in her book, “For the Common Good,” writes “Baptism begins the work of salvation, and from this point on, the work of sanctifying grace begins. Growing in that grace requires a partnership between the individual and that community of faith.”

So baptism concerns much more than a new sister or brother in Christ. As a new part of the whole body of Christ, each person baptized, regardless of age, is told that God has given her or him gifts. And each member of the congregation who welcomes that new part of the body vows to use “prayers,” “presence,” “gifts,”  “service,” and “witness” to increase that new Christian’s faith, confirm her or his hope, and perfect that new part of the body in love.

“You are uniquely created by God. God has given you significant gifts. God has a plan and a purpose for your life. As a Christian, you have been called to serve,” Carol Carmel and Yvonne Gentile explain in their book, “Serving from the Heart: Finding Your Gifts and Talents for Service.” 

For Rev. Godwin, the assurance of her child’s uniqueness and giftedness is something to celebrate daily.

“Part of my prayer life is that whatever Nora is called to be, that she’ll remember those moments, that experience, and live into her giftedness and call,” Godwin said.

Article source: wvumc.org/2021/09/called-and-claimed-by-god/