100 Days to a Healthier ChurchSample

Day 30 (Sunday)

Today’s Big Idea: Love and the spiritual gifts. Now that we’ve addressed what we do and why we do it, it’s time to start looking at the tools available to help us tackle the issues the church faces. Starting with the greatest resource any church has, the human resource, under the guidance and power of God’s Spirit.

Today, we’re looking at the spiritual gifts. Unfortunately, this topic has often been a huge point of theological contention. Different theological traditions have vastly different understandings about what the gifts are, who is called to operate in specific gifts, which gifts are still in use, even how many gifts there are. Regrettably, these debates have stirred up a lot of anger, dissension, and conflict in the church, which, ironically, but not coincidentally, is exactly the opposite of what the spiritual gifts are designed to do.

When we spend too much time debating the gifts, we get confused, divided, and neutralized. This is why I say this dissension is ironic, but not coincidental. When a church body operates under the gifts of the Spirit, we’re engaging in a spiritual battle, and that battle has an enemy who wants to short-circuit our effectiveness whenever possible. So if our attention can be turned from using the gifts to debating and fighting over them, the enemy wins. But when we’re able to stop debating the gifts and start using them, our mission becomes clear, our hearts are united, and our impact is increased exponentially.

This week we will not be engaging in debates. I have no interest in changing or challenging your church’s understanding of the spiritual gifts. I just want to see them used for the blessing of the church, so the church can be a blessing to its community and the world.

Key Verse: If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing (1 Corinthians 13:2).

Thoughts to Consider: Wait a minute! I thought we were looking at the spiritual gifts today! Isn’t the Key Verse from the Love Chapter? Yes, it is. The Love Chapter happens to be right in the middle of the longest teaching passage about spiritual gifts in the entire Bible. It’s there for a reason—not as a step away from the spiritual gifts, but as an essential, central part of them.

In the Key Verse the apostle Paul reminds us that even if we’re utilizing the spiritual gifts to such a degree that miracles are occurring as a result, if we’re not acting in love, they (and we) are nothing. That is why this chapter is purposefully written right in the middle of some very thorough, even harsh teaching about the spiritual gifts—as a constant reminder for all churches at all times that the gifts must be used in a spirit of love toward one another.

The spiritual gifts are powerful. Because of that, they can bring great blessing or cause great damage. To bring great blessing, they have to be used with proper understanding and the right attitude—and that attitude is love. Love doesn’t weaken the gifts, it turbocharges them, coordinates them, and releases them for a torrent of blessing on the church and the community that church ministers to.