AN EXPERIMENT IN MINISTRY

or

RETHINKING YOUR SPIRITUAL GIFT

or

MINISTERING ACCORDING TO THEIR NEED RATHER THAN YOUR GIFT

or

IT DOESN’T REALLY MATTER WHAT YOUR SPIRITUAL GIFT IS



I’ve been doing quite a bit of pondering lately. Pondering about how I should pursue ministering in our church.

Over the years, I have heard dozens of lessons and sermons on “How to Determine Your Spiritual Gift”. I’ve been fairly confident that I have correctly identified my particular gift. But I could be wrong.

I have always enjoyed teaching, so I’ve typically pursued teaching ministries in the various churches I’ve attended, usually teaching adults, rarely teaching children. That is where I have long believed I’ve been given my spiritual gifting.

Or has teaching actually been a natural gift for me instead of a spiritual gift? After all, I did enjoy teaching long before I ever came into the fold.

Anyway, I have spent nearly four decades working on this assumption that God has gifted me to teach His Word, specifically to grown-ups. While in college, my friend Bill and I drove from Sacramento to Stockton each Sunday to teach a small, struggling missionary church. After Bill moved on to other things, I stuck it out for another couple of years before moving on to other things myself.

Bill and I sit in front of the church at the beginning of the service.

Bill remains seated as I step to the pulpit.

I taught a Bible class at a college retreat one year at a Christian Conference center. I taught a college Sunday School class in Galt. I frequently preached on Sunday evenings for a couple of years in Fort Dick.

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I taught an adult Sunday School class for several years in Brookings. I taught a weeknight Bible study for single parents in San Jose. I taught a singles Bible study in Medford before marrying Debra.

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After we got married, Debra and I led a study group for married couples who were seeking to build and strengthen their marriages around the Word.

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I have not taught for about two years now, except on a couple of occasions when I’ve been asked to share a devotional for the over-fifties group that Debra and I attend.

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But I have pondered.

Debra and I have considered and discussed having a Bible study in our home but, frankly, my heart just hasn’t been into it. Maybe it’s because our church hasn’t expressed a need for more home Bible studies. Maybe it’s because I get up very early for work and need to get to bed too early to be staying up for a Bible study in our home. Maybe it’s because it’s time for me to serve where the need already exists, regardless of my perceived spiritual gift or my personal preferences.

The current need in our church, often announced during services, is for people to work with the children. But I’ve only taught adults. I don’t teach kids. I’m not good at it.

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Or am I?

I do all right at reading stories to my grandchildren and playing with them. So, my pondering has led me to think something like this: Maybe I should give this children’s church thing a try.

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So, next month I will begin ministering in a totally new way for me. I will be venturing into foreign territory. I will be working with the four- and five-year-olds in our children’s church.

And the more I think about it, the more I’m looking forward to it.

Teaching the Bible to college students at a college retreat.

Sharing the Word barefooted along a river near Stockton during a baptismal service.

Our unbelieving next door neighbors asked if I would conduct a "christening service" for their baby. I had no idea what a christening service was, but I said "Yes" anyway and used the occasion to share the gospel to a roomful of their friends and relatives.

Our then family-of-four hovers around the piano at a church in Galt where Barbara played piano, I taught a college Sunday School class, and Bethany and Belinda continued their journey from being little girls to becoming the godly women they are today.

Last Thanksgiving, I mixed scripture with my testimony as I spoke to our over-fifty group.

The over-fifty group asked me to speak again just two months ago, this time adding some harmonica and guitar to my presentation.

I suppose if I can grasp my four-year-old grandson by the hand and take him to church, then I can certainly invest myself into the lives of other four-year-olds who need to learn about Jesus.