Spiritual Gifts
Marty Sweeney / 20th November 2005
/ Theology
Karen's recent post got me thinking about spiritual gifts. Christians in America are obsessed with spiritual gifts. Churches give out books, advertise seminars, and run group assessments all about spiritual gifts. The discovery of one's spiritual gift has become the Holy Grail for the Christian.
As good as it is to encourage someone to use his/her spiritual gifts, there is still much to be cautious about:
- The heavy emphasis of gifts of the Spirit is out of balance with Scripture. Paul's letters devote little space in discussing these gifts.
- Scripture places more emphasis on cultivating the fruits of the Spirit—love, kindness, humility, meekness, patience, etc. To most Christians, these things are old hat. They want something new and exciting. There is little enthusiasm and devotion for any training in righteousness. As such, there is no deep concern for sincere piety.
- The thought of suppressing one's gift for the sake of the community (as Karen suggests) is unheard of here. There is such intensity in cultivating one's giftedness that it would be considered cruel and oppressive to suggest that a person not exercise their God-given gift.
- Ecclesiastical hierarchy is rejected by younger generations of Christians. However, it seems to be reintroduced, in a different form, through the backdoor by over-emphasizing spiritual gifts. A church can survive without someone having the gift of woodworking (as one spiritual gift inventory book suggests there is) but it can't go on without the gift of music. Thus, music ministers and those who can teach about such spiritual gifts are elevated to the level of spiritual gurus.
- There is a culture of laziness and complacency bred by such an emphasis. People easily dismiss their need to help out with behind-the-scenes activities for the church because they don't have the gift of ‘help’ or ‘administration’. On the flip side, good behind-the-scene workers tend to reject their responsibility in helping with the teaching and outreach programs of the church. They brush off their need to be involved with regular serious Bible study and prayer because they lack such gifts.
These observations may be nothing new for some CHN readers. However, hardly anyone is pointing this out in America, and it is a much needed reminder that sometimes the topic of spiritual gifts should be left unopened, for the sake of the gospel.