Dear Friends,
A member of a church of 400 in regular attendance was asked by a friend
how many ministers does your church have? His friend was jolted by the answer.
“Four hundred but only two of them get paid.”
One writer expressed it this way. “Some folks may believe the
church is a place for solace rather than for service. But the New Testament
church teaches every believer is a minister.”
The apostle Peter wrote. “As every man has received a gift, even
so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of
God” (1 Peter 4:10).
Peter says each of us has been given a gift to be used to minister
to one another. No one has been shortchanged or left out. God has no nobodies
in His church.
We are shaped to serve. God formed each of us and uniquely
designed us to do certain things. Before He created us, He decided what role He
wanted each of us to play on planet earth. He planned exactly how He wanted us
to serve Him, and then He shaped us for those tasks. We are the way you are
because we were fashioned for a specific ministry.
In Ephesians 2:10, Paul writes, “For we are God’s workmanship,
created in Christ Jesus to do good works which God prepared in advance for us
to do.”
Our English word poem comes from the Greek word translated
workmanship. We are God’s poem; we are His handcrafted work of art. We are not mass
produced, or some assembly line product. We are custom designed, one of a
kind, an original masterpiece, and as it has often been said, “God don’t
make no junk.
Not only did God shape you before your birth; He planned every day
of your life to support His shaping process.
Not everybody has been to seminary, and few have been officially
ordained, but all of us possess a bag of tools that God has given us to be used
in fulfilling our vocation as ministers. These tools are called spiritual
gifts, and each of you has one or more of these gifts, and they are meant to be
“employed, not just enjoyed, shared not shelved.”
If you are not using them, or you
never knew you possessed them, than I encourage you to do a spiritual gift
study. Look up the following verses: Romans 12:6-8; 1 Peter 4:10; Ephesians
4:11-16; 2 Timothy 1:6-7; 1 Corinthians 12:1-31. Take a moment to google
Spiritual Gifts, or check out the many excellent books on the subject. My
favorite, and a classic, is Discover Your Spiritual Gifts by Peter
Wagner.
Paul says to the Corinthian church
“I do not want you to be uninformed (ignorant) about spiritual gifts,”( 1
Cor. 12:1), so get busy and learn about them, discover them, and enjoy and
employ them, as a faithful steward of God wonderful grace.
And in the words of the late radio
pastor, Bob Cook, “Have a good day and a godly one for what lasting value is a
good one unless it is a godly one.”
Yours in faith and friendship,
Tom
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