Christian Leadership Foundations 4 - CropSample

KEYS TO A GOOD CROP 3: USE YOUR GIFTS

Leadership Devotion

Paul answers a question the Corinthians have raised about spiritual gifts in this passage. Some of the Corinthians thought having spectacular spiritual gifts indicated they were more spiritual and significant. This would have come from their pagan background, where ecstatic gifts were used in religious rituals and resulted in great prestige for the gifted person. So the question may have been, “Are our gifts an indication of our importance and significance?”

That’s a good question that sometimes crosses our minds. If we come from a Pentecostal background, healers and prophets may seem to be more important. If we come from a Reformed background, teachers of the Word may seem to be more important. Effective leaders may seem more important if we come from a church growth background. It’s easy to think our gifting has something to do with our significance.

You will have to read the next three chapters to get Paul’s full response, but you can see how he starts:

• There is a wide diversity of gifts freely given by God’s Spirit. They’re different, but the Spirit is behind every one of them. (1:4-6)
• The gifts are not given for the sake of the gifted person but for the sake of those who the gifts serve (“the common good”). (1:7)
• Each person has at least one gift. (1:11)
• The Spirit determines which gift(s) a Christian gets. It has nothing to do with their spirituality or capability but the choice of God’s Spirit. (1:11)

The issue for us is not to work out where our gift puts us in the spiritual rankings (there is no such thing), but to find what gift the Spirit has given us, accept our gift gratefully, and use it generously to serve God’s people. We can’t choose to do what we want in serving God, we have been gifted to provide a special contribution, and that’s what God expects us to do. That’s where our crop will lie.

You will do your best work for God and have the greatest influence in the area of your giftings and abilities. You will need to spend most of your time working with your strengths. This makes sense. If God has gifted you, he wants you to work with those gifts, not trying to do many things you have not been designed for. Recognizing your gifts and abilities is very important if you are to be effective in producing a good crop.

To Contemplate

Have you discerned any of your gifts yet? What makes you think these are your gifts?

Leadership Reflection

To be good stewards of God’s resources so that God can produce a great crop through our leadership, we need to be doing what God has created and gifted us to do. Here is some advice:

a. Know and accept your abilities and giftings. It is very difficult to be a more effective leader without understanding how God has made and gifted you. We have all been differently created because God intends for us to bring a unique contribution to his kingdom. He has given us special spiritual gifts, personalities, and abilities. So we need to understand how we have been made and gifted. The journey to self-understanding is exciting and painful, but it is essential for a leader. We need to both know ourselves and accept ourselves. Remember that God’s Spirit has designed you and given you gifts.

Many spiritual gift surveys may give you a start in discerning your gifts, but their usefulness is limited. Here is a process for finding your gifts.

1. Be available to God and serve others. Try lots of different things. The best way to find out what your gifts are is to have a go at using them.
2. Note what you enjoy and how God uses you. I realize we’re in a spiritual battle, and sometimes ministry will be really tough, but usually, there will be some sense of satisfaction, maybe even excitement, when using your gift. There will also eventually be some crops. Carefully note where God uses you most.
3. Try to put a name on your gift. Don’t feel you need to stick to the gifts mentioned in Scripture. Every biblical list of gifts is different, so there is no official, all-encompassing list in the New Testament. Try to discern the gift, not just the ministry.
4. Pray about it and put more time into using this gift. This is where you start to get intentional. Focus your energy on using this gift in a range of situations. See if it develops. If it does, you have your gift.
5. Look for a cluster of gifts. Most of us have several gifts, so don’t just be satisfied with one; look for more. Repeat the process described above. How else is God using you? Eventually, you may find a cluster of gifts.

b. Use your gifts. The most effective way to develop your gifts is to use them. Paul said to Timothy, “I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands” (2 Tim. 1:6). Timothy had a gift, but it needed to be set alight as Timothy used it. Gifts are like muscles. They grow through exercise.

Should we just use the gifts we have and avoid the things we are not good at? The answer is mainly yes. If you make your weaknesses the focus of your effort, you will waste a lot of your resources on minor improvements that will make little difference. This is not the way to produce a good crop. Invest in the areas of your gifts/strengths and let others who are differently gifted serve in your areas of weakness. This is the way the body of Christ does its best work.

c. But work on your limiting weaknesses. You will need to work on the following limiting weaknesses:

• Significant character weaknesses (like anger or dishonesty, or pride). Character flaws will eventually undermine or even destroy your leadership. Working on character weaknesses is a top priority.
• Weaknesses damage your influence, so your gifts are not producing the crop they should. These weaknesses include poor organization, insensitivity to people, not listening well, or pessimism. You may never be brilliant in these weaker areas, but you need to be adequate, or your influence will be stymied.
• Weaknesses in areas that are part of your role. While your ministry should revolve around your strengths, not your weaknesses, there will always be aspects of your role that don’t come easily. For example, I’m naturally an introvert. This is not a character weakness, and much of the time, it is actually a help. It’s good to be an introvert when my leadership requires a lot of reading, thinking, writing, and planning. But my leadership role also entails spending significant time with people. It’s an essential part of my ministry, so I have worked on it until I do it well. Sometimes I even enjoy it.

While God calls us to mainly use our gifts and strengths, we need to work on any limiting weaknesses.