Friday, 07 November 2008
-
Serving at Church: Based on Spiritual Gift or Heart?
1 Corinthians 12:27-31
Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, helping, administrating, and various kinds of tongues. Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? Do all possess gifts of healing? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret? But earnestly desire the higher gifts.As a body of believers, we should seek to serve God using the gifts he's given us. As we discover our own gifts, we can help direct others to do the same. And if you're a leader in a church, you have the opportunity to find specific ministries in which believers can serve according to their gifts. When we serve using our own gifts, I believe we can serve with excellence, thus propelling the entire church towards making Jesus' name known everywhere.
This is a great idea, but it doesn't always happen so smoothly. It can be difficult to figure out your gift(s) or maybe the church isn't structured enough to create serving opportunities for everyone. In any case, one area that I've experienced a lot of mismatching of gifts is within worship music ministries. I realize that worship leaders have to be more than just skilled musicians, they have to be humble, servant-hearted, and anointed in order to lead people into an intimate meeting with God through music. However, I really believe they should be skilled too, and yet I've encountered many different people who serve through music ministry (or desperately want to) and yet cannot hold a tune!
While I'm all for acceptance and giving people a place within the church, I sometimes wonder if worship ministry leaders (in my church, specifically) are actually acting cruelly by placing people who lack musical talent within worship ministry. By "acting cruelly," I mean that they may be giving some of these people false confidence in their abilities and/or keeping them from discovering their true gift and finding a ministry to suit it.
I also wonder if this happens in other ministries? Are church leaders making excuses for their volunteers because they're so desperate for help? Or is serving really more about the heart and less about the gift?
-
recommend
- recs 0
-
share
-
email
- sent 0
Related Posts
Post a Comment
- Back to revelife's Revelife Site!
- Note: your comment will appear in revelife's local time zone: GMT -05:00 (Eastern Standard - US, Canada)
Comments (12)
Some of the most beautiful songs I have heard sung in church have been by people with not so great voices because they sang from passion and conviction in his heart. Everyone should have the right to praise God.
In my community, people volunteer, they are not placed there by anyone but of their own free will. Granted, they don't have great voices, but like what izakura said, it's the passion and conviction that they have.
I think in general serving doesn't matter on the gift. If there's a need within the church, you should step up to fill it even if you don't necessarily have the gift to do it. But at the same time if you have a certain gift, why ignore it and not make use of it to serve? I think we should focus on why the people are serving, not how good they are at it :)
i think there is a balance of both... a matter of the heart in that it is a servant's heart that just wants to serve Jesus... but also there are giftings needed in a person...
find out what your gifted at and/or passionate about and find out where the need is...
i think assessment is needed in trying to figure out where to place a person in service of a local church...
some serve becuz they want to some sevre becuz they want to... some serve becuz they are forced to...
it is a beautiful ideal to serve becuz you want to... but only 10% of the ppl in church do 90% of the job... i dont know about you but, if your the 10%... lets see how far the "hand of kindness" will last before you give up and quit
i think all of those spiritual gifts surveys out there are worthless.
I can hear what you're saying, and I have had difficulty when there are people leading worship (or doing solos, etc.) that are not as "talented" as others (not that I am one to talk--very few musical gifts here). But I do think we need to be careful here..I like what @izakura@xanga wrote.
I think we've become so performance oriented and forget we are there to worship God and not to entertain one another. The Church is looking to how the world does things, that we forget that God values first and foremost the songs of the humble and contrite heart...God is looking for those who will worship in Spirit and truth, and often those songs won't necessarily be polished but they will resonate with out spirits. Which does God value more: the professional musician's song or the off-tune voice of a little child?
We need to be careful we're not putting up stumbling blocks for people and are loving them as they seek to serve in the Body. I don't think there are any really easy answers to the questions you've posed.
I do think we've gotten sucked into the performers-audience set-up in our churches, rather than having a worship that resembles Ephesians 5:19 and I Cor. 12, 14. The people in those churches were actively engaged and all bringing something to worship. How much of our worship is truly like that?
I do agree people can get stuck in ministries for which they are not gifted often for the case that there's no one else to do a particular task. That's a real disservice to those people and is also dishonoring to God. Christ has given each of us at least one gift to be used for His glory and to build up the Body. When we aren't helping people to discover their gifts and use them, God isn't glorified and the Body is dysfunctional.
I without a doubt believe we have spiritual gifts.....
I without a doubt believe that God can give anyone the grace and strength for any task the calls them too.
I get a little worried these days with all the spiritual gifts talk and inventory's (and believe me I have done my fair share of them)... because some people NEVER do anything their list doesn't say.
All of a sudden the gift of helps and doing things like cleaning bathrooms and restocking toilet paper is not being done, because it is just NOT my spiritual gift... when really anyone can clean a toilet too the glory of God.
I think maybe if we were meeting in a NT type setting, we would all be bringing psalms, and spiritual songs to share at worship time, and their would not be specific leaders and positions.
Just a thought.
x
I think service should be based on both gifts and heart. Both need to be present for serving to be worthwhile and fulfilling.
I truly believe that we are created for a purpose- solely for the glory of God. God can truly be worshipped regardless of the quality of sound.
However, worship leaders need to be able to lead, just as pastors need to be able to preach. The verse you mentioned talks about how everyone is gifted differently. Not all will be gifted with the ability to sing- they can worship God without leading by singing their heart out in the pews. I'm not trying to be harsh- it's just apparent to me that if you have someone singing out of tune on stage, that many will be distracted from a heart of worship, and be more focused on what is going on up front. I truly believe, as one who is up front on a Sunday morning helping lead worship, that we as a worship team should be as invisible as possible- it is not about us, but about the worship and glory of God. And, if someone feels upset that they cannot lead worship due to their voice, then I would hope that the leadership might encourage that person to question their motivation for why they want to serve, and whether they are satisfied in how God created him or her. They may be gifted in another way, and may be distracted by their own desire to be on worship team, rather than serving the purpose to which they were created. We must remember that God is the creator, and the creator knows what each of his creations were intended for. Should the grandfather clock be upset because it was not made to be a piano? Or a violin?
It's about both, I think. Maybe the person's spiritual gift is service and thus their heart is to be where they are needed, and God is telling them that they are needed there...? Ex. A person who sings out of tune, may have a heart for music, and God is actually using them to teach the person beside them who has perfect pitch humility... It is tough (I know, I often am struggling with this), but I don't think we should be the ones who should deligate and or tell people(nor should we think it) where they should or shouldn't be serving. Yes, we may see something that they don't and we can tell them our oppinions and suggestions, but the decision ultimately belongs to that person and should be based on where God is leading them. God looks at the heart when it comes to worship. Everyone is gifted differently and all of the gifts work together and work alongside a talent. Our gifts were given to reinforce and metamorphasize the talents that God had already bestowed on us. I think that we often allow the talent to overshadow the heart and the gift, but our talents and gifts are received from the Creator, and if our hearts are not right, God doesn't accept them as worship anyways. So they work together, in true worship!