• 10/20/24

Together in Serving

MAIN IDEA
The church has a mission to accomplish and it can be only accomplished if the people in the church come and serve together as we are all part of one body in Christ. While we may have different gifts, personalities, and talents - we ought to cultivate them to ultimately edify the church with a humble heart to give God all the glory and to see lives transformed through the gospel of Christ.


Here at GCC Canvas we have several ministries that are available to serve in:

  • Welcoming Team

  • Worship Team

  • Levites

  • Livestream

  • Media (Slides and Audio)

  • CanvasNow (Announcements)

  • Finances

  • Administration

Paul gives 3 considerations on how we can serve together in the church.


THE CRITERIA TO SERVE
We must have sound judgment and mind as to the spiritual gifts God has given us in accordance with the faith. The gifts that we possess are given to us by the grace of God and we must not compare ourselves to one another. We must not over think highly about ourselves nor should we think of ourselves in such a lowly manner. 


THE CAUSE TO SERVICE
We are all members of one body. Yet while we are all members, we are not of the same kind and have different functions within the body of Christ. Each person plays an important role in accomplishing the mission of the Christian life which is to give glory to Christ and to preach His name in the gospel. It is like a B-17 Bomber which includes 10 crew members, all with different roles and responsibilities, but in the same bomber plane with the same mission objective.


THE CULTIVATION OF SKILLS
Each one of us has been distributed a gift from the Lord. We must pray and recognize the gift then we must cultivate the gift that He has given to us. The spiritual gifts according to Paul comes as follows: 

  1. Prophesying: a calling from and equipping from God to preach His Word.

  2. Helps (Serve): a desire to serve and help God’s people

  3. Teaching: the ability to teach and help people understand and apply God’s truth.

  4. Encouragement: the ability and desire to encourage others in the Christian life.

  5. Giving: the ability and desire to give generously to God’s work and God’s people.

  6. Ruling (Admin): the ability to lead and administrate part of God’s work.

  7. Mercy: the ability to feel the pain of others and help them during trials. 

We must persevere in self-control and discipline in cultivating these gifts to help edify the church body as members. What are some ways we can learn about our gifts and/or which areas we can get involved in serving?

  • Praying and asking God to give discernment and wisdom from the Holy Spirit.

  • Spiritual mentors and guides in our lives that will help us discern which area we are gifted in and best suited to help serve.

  • Spiritual gifts test: while not objective, it will certainly help guide us where we feel most gifted or aligned with (click here for the Spiritual Gifts Test)

  • Humility to serve in different areas to find out where you are gifted. 

Summary and Application:

  1. Criteria: We must be humble and recognize gifts are from the grace of God.

  2. Cause: We must recognize our gifts are used to edify the church for His glory.

  3. Cultivation: We must develop and grow our spiritual gifts distributed to each.

DISCUSSION QUESTION
What do you think are your spiritual gifts (share results from the Spiritual Gifts Test) and how will you use these gifts to edify the church body?