What is Our Spiritual Potentiality?

If God is the giver of every good and perfect gift, then it would be unwise to keep the gifts of God hidden. Having been gifted and called to ministries as diverse as the persons who have received these gifts, it is incumbent upon us to discern the nature and purpose of these gifts in our lives. The place to start, as a community of faith, is to affirm in our own contexts the word that described the experience of the Corinthian church, which, according to Paul, was enriched in every way through gifts of "speech and knowledge of every kind." They didn’t lack any “spiritual gift as [they waited] for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Cor. 1:4-7). If the church grasps this message, then the next step is for God’s people to discern and discover the nature and use of their own gifts, so that they might join together as one body in service to our God.

Embracing our spiritual potentialities, our giftedness, is to affirm that we are created in God’s likeness, with a mandate to love and serve God. The implications for churches, especially Mainline Protestant churches, of the people of God discovering their spiritual gifts are incredibly significant, for if the people of God will claim the sense of empowerment that comes with this discovery will be transformative.

The reticence that some may have in adopting such a quest is understandable, because it runs counter to the long held belief that ministry is something that ordained clergy do, while the laity benefit from such ministry. But the potential benefits to churches who embrace the possibility of their people discovering their spiritual gifts present are too great to ignore. Not only might the people who inhabit our churches grow spiritually, but churches might grow in their ability to engage in community transforming ministry that brings hope and healing to fragmented and broken world. Jim Wallis made the statement: “Religion is personal, but not private.” Wallis was speaking about the political implications of faith – of religion’s place in the public square. Gifted people are people who engage the world where they find it. Ministry in churches that embrace their gifts will touch not only the people within the church it will touch the world outside. The faith of the gifted will touch political, social, environmental, issues. There is no area of life that the church’s ministry does not touch, for gifted by the Spirit we are one body, with one purpose, to share the love of God with all people.

What are the possibilities? To what ministries might God be calling us to take up? Jürgen Moltmann speaks to the wondrous possibilities that lie before us as people of faith.

The person who believes becomes a person full of possibilities. People like this do not restrict themselves to the social roles laid down for them, and do not allow themselves to be tied to these roles. They believe they are capable of more. And they do not tie other people down to their own preconceived ideas. They do not imprison others in what they are at present. They see them together with their future, and keep their potentialities open for them. [Jürgen Moltmann, The Spirit of Life: A Universal Affirmation, Margaret Kohl, trans., (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1992), 187.]

As we trust God, ourselves, and our neighbors, our “charismatic potentialities are awakened” and we begin to join in a ministry that makes a difference.

[Excerpt from Gifts of  Love, unpub. mss.]

Embracing Our Spiritual Potential

If God is the giver of every good and perfect gift, then it would be unwise to keep the gifts of God hidden. Having been gifted and called to ministries that are as diverse as the persons who have received these gifts, it is incumbent upon us to discern the nature and purpose of these gifts in our lives.

The place to start this process of discernment is to first remember that we belong to a community of faith.  We're not lone rangers in this work of ministry.  From there we can begin to affirm in our own contexts the word that described the experience of the Corinthian church.  That community, according to Paul, was enriched in every way through gifts of "speech and knowledge of every kind." They didn’t lack any “spiritual gift as [they waited] for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Cor. 1:4-7). If the church grasps this message, that they do not lack any of the gifts, then the next step is for God’s people to discern and discover the nature and use of their own gifts, so that they might join together as one body in service to God.

Embracing our spiritual potentialities, our giftedness, is to affirm that we are created in God’s likeness, with a mandate to love and serve God. The implications for churches, especially Mainline Protestant churches, that the people who make up this church would discover their spiritual gifts are incredibly significant.  If the people of God would claim the sense of empowerment that comes with this discovery it would be transformative for the life and mission of the church.

The reticence that some may have in adopting such a quest is understandable.  That is because it runs against the long held belief that ministry is something that ordained clergy do, while the laity should see themselves as the recipients of such ministry. But the potential benefits to churches who embrace the possibility that their people might discover the spiritual gifts that are present within the body is too great to ignore. Not only might the people who inhabit our churches grow spiritually, but churches might grow in their ability to engage in community transforming ministry that brings hope and healing to a fragmented and broken world.  I have heard Jim Wallis make the statement: “Religion is personal, but not private.” In making that statement Wallis was speaking about the political implications of faith – of religion’s place in the public square, but that statement covers the entirety of the life of the Spirit. 

Gifted people are people who engage the world where they find it. Ministry in churches that embrace their gifts will touch not only the people within the church it will touch the world outside. The faith of the gifted will touch political, social, environmental, issues. There is no area of life that the church’s ministry does not touch, for the people of God are gifted by the Spirit so that they might be one body, with one purpose, to share the love of God with all people.

Excerpted from Gifts of Love (unpublished mss. alt.)

Ministry as a Shared Vocation

By recognizing that we are all gifted by the Spirit we find in this realization a call to ministry. This recognition also serves to narrow the gap that often exists between clergy and laity. Yes, clergy do ministry but they are not the only ministers. It is also inappropriate to assume that the work of the laity is any less a form of ministry. I don’t wish to negate the place of the clergy. Pastors serve a very important function in the life of the church, but what they do in church and community is not the totality of the church’s ministry. Another way of asking this question would be: What aspects of church life should be considered off limits to lay people? So, whether we teach Sunday school, visit the homebound, lead grief groups, serve meals to the homeless, march for civil rights, evangelize our neighborhoods, preach; what we are doing is ministry.

Whatever form ministry takes, it is by definition an act of service. The Greek word for ministry (diakonos) can be translated in a variety of ways, but its most important nuance is that of servant. Jesus offers us a very pertinent model of servant leadership when he bowed down before his disciples and washed their feet (Jn. 13).

There is a second defining image of ministry, that of priest. Traditionally a priest is a religious professional who acts as an intermediary between humanity and God. The message of the gospel is that in Christ we no longer need human intermediaries. Jesus, who is now our high priest, serves as our mediator and point of access to the throne of God. However, even as Jesus is our high priest, each of us has been made a priest of God who is called to intercede not only for ourselves and for our neighbors as well (Heb. 10). Because we are part of the royal priesthood, a form of priesthood eloquently defined in 1 Peter 2:5-9, eliminates the clergy as necessary, priestly intermediaries, and empowers each person to join in the priestly service of intercession. Therefore, as one of the founders of my own tradition once wrote, "whatever constitutes the worship of God is the common privilege of all the disciples as such." [Royal Humbert, ed., Compend of Alexander Campbell's Theology, (St. Louis:  Bethany Press, 1961), 175.] As disciples of Jesus, baptized by the Spirit, we are servants and priests for all people, and thereby we are freed to join in the full ministry of God.

There is one caveat that I should add. To say that all are servant ministers and priests does not mean that we all have the same roles and callings. There is the need for freedom because freedom is the catalyst for change and new opportunities to serve. There is also a place for order – chaos and anarchy are not necessarily helpful to the cause of Christ. The gift lists themselves suggest that some are called to ministries of leadership. The ship needs a pilot if it is to navigate difficult waters. As we discover our gifts and join in the community of faith in service, it will become evident that some among us have specific gifts and callings for leadership roles. There is a place for the religious professional as well, as long as both clergy and laity understand that such a calling does not relieve the laity of their ministerial callings.

Excerpted from Gifts of Love (unpublished mss.)

Fearfully and Wonderfully Made

When is a "natural talent" a spiritual gift? That isn’t an easy question to answer. If you limit yourself to the Pauline lists, you quickly realize that you can’t offer an either/or answer to the question. Could they be natural talents with a supernatural add? Could they be transformed natural talents, where once they were natural but if they are used for sacred purposes we should consider them to be spiritual gifts? It is probably best not to make a sharp distinction between gifts and talents and recognize the mystery of the Spirit’s engagement with our lives. In the mystery of creation, we can recognize that what we call talents are in reality divine gifts of grace. We can use them for our own purposes, or in gratitude to the creator use them in the work of God’s kingdom. A gift’s usefulness to the community faith is rooted in our appreciation of the one who is the true source of all talents and abilities, the Creator.

The biblical discussions of creation witness to the mystery of human life. There is a strong sense that humanity is created for a relationship with God and gifted with abilities that relate to that calling. Hear the implications of the Psalmist’s affirmation of God’s attention to the details of our formation as individuals.

For it was you who formed my inward parts;

you knit me together in my mother's womb.

I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made

(Ps. 139:13-14).

We do not have to take this passage in a deterministic or literalist manner to appreciate our calling by God to stand before God as people who are "fearfully and wonderfully made." This passage helps us affirm that each of us, no matter our backgrounds, skills, intelligence, social class, have something to offer to the world. Who we are and what we do does make a difference. No one else can do what I do like I do it and no one can do what you do quite like you do it. It’s not just a matter of talent; it’s also a matter of personality and temperament. Who we are is somewhat of a mystery, but the call to use our talents and abilities to create a community of faith that will witness to the love of our God, that is not a mystery.

Excerpted from Gifts of Love (unpublished mss.)

Charismatic and Progressive too?

The word, charismatic, has a somewhat dubious ring to it, at least in Mainline churches, but I want to claim it for progressive and moderate mainline communities of faith. I want to be able to say: I’m a charismatic and you are too! Of course, if you are going to accept this label, we’ll need to define the word.

Since the Greek word charis, from which we derive the words charisma and charismatic means grace, the simplest way of defining the word charismatic is to say that we are charismatics because we have tasted God’s favor or grace, which eventuates in wonderful gifts (charisms) that enable us to experience God’s love and in turn love our neighbors. We call these gifts “gifts of grace,” because they’re not something we’ve earned, but they simply come to us as a result of God’s abundant love for the world.

The greatest gift of God is life itself. In the opening chapters of Genesis, God fashions humanity from the dust of the earth and then breathes life into this creation (Gen. 2:7). The word for breath is the same as the word for Spirit, so in essence, God breathes into us the Spirit, which makes it possible for us to experience life. If life is the result of God’s breath, then in essence God is present within each of us. As a result, the seed of the Holy Spirit is within us, so that, as Buddhist writer Thich Nhat Hanh writes, we “have the capacity of healing, transforming, and loving. When we touch that seed, we are able to touch God the Father and God the Son.”  [Thich Nhat Hanh, Living Buddha, Living Christ. (New York:  Riverhead Books, 1995), 15.]   Having received the gifts, the charismata of the Spirit, we are prepared to share the life that God has invested in us. Thus, we are all charismatics.

As signs of grace, spiritual gifts are not personal acquisitions or even marks of personal holiness. Grace is the foundation of the church’s giftedness, and grace, as Philip Yancey writes, is the “last best word,” because no matter how the word is used in the English language it “retains some of the glory of the original.” [Philip Yancey, What’s So Amazing About Grace? (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1997), 12.]  Anne Lamott says that while she does not understand the mystery of grace, she knows “only that it meets us where we are but does not leave us where it found us. It can be received gladly or grudgingly, in big gulps or in tiny tastes, like a deer at the salt.” [Annie Lamott, Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith, (New York: Anchor Books, 2000), 143.]  Grace gives us freedom to explore, to try, and to fail, and then to try again. It is forgiving and empowering love that heals the shame, which suggests that our lives don’t have value. Grace, according to Lewis Smedes, “stands for gift; it is the gift of being accepted before we become acceptable.” [Lewis Smedes, Shame and Grace, (San Francisco: Harper San Francisco, 1993), 108.]  That is, grace is a state of being for which we do not have sufficient words, but it is a state that allows God’s people to step boldly out into life and live lives of redeeming and healing relationships with their neighbors. Whatever it means to be spiritually gifted, because they are signs of grace it means that we are blessed, even if undeserving, recipients of God’s grace.

Excerpt from Gifts of Love (unpublished mss.)

Experiencing the Power of God

The explosiveness of dynamite should help us grasp the biblical understanding of the power of God’s Spirit. The Greek word for power is, of course, dunamis, from which we get the word dynamite. As the “Power of God.” the Spirit does the unexpected, going wherever the Spirit wills (Jn. 3:8). This is not a form of power that we can control. Think of the hurricane or tornado: both storms have great power that cannot be controlled. Such is the nature of God’s power, not that it is destructive, but that it cannot be tamed by us.

Barbara Brown Taylor picks up the sense of the power of the Spirit’s presence in her reflections on the Pentecost story.

This is the Spirit, who blows and burns, howling down the chimney and turning all the lawn furniture upside down. Ask Job about the whirlwind, or Ezekiel about the chariot of fire. Ask anyone who was in that room on Pentecost what it was like to be caught up in the Spirit, and whether it is something they would like to happen every Sunday afternoon.

[Barbara Brown Taylor, Bread of Angels, (Cambridge, MA: Cowley Publications, 1997), 67.]

Could we be comfortable with a Pentecost like experience every Sunday? With Taylor, I’m not sure any of us is quite ready for such a demonstration of power. But, Pentecost underlines the biblical picture of the Spirit being that energy of God that cannot be domesticated, possessed, or even harnessed. Yet, the Spirit freely enters the community bringing to it energizing power. We might not be able to harness the power of the Spirit, but the Spirit remains present, infusing our lives with life changing energy. When coupled with the gifts and abilities God provides the people of God, world-changing ministry is truly possible. Thus the church can be a force that brings to the world God’s transforming love through both word and deed.

An excerpt from Gifts of Love (unpublished mss.)

Being in the Presence of God

God, in Christian theology, becomes present to humanity in the person of Jesus. In the words of John, “the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth” (Jn. 1:14). In Jesus, God has walked in our shoes, tasting life as we live it, tasting death as we do. Even temptation did not pass God by, but Jesus remained faithful though having tasted life as we live it. Yes, in Jesus, God faced temptation as we do, but did not sin (Heb. 4:14-15). In the words of Paul, God humbled God’s self, in an act of self-emptying revelation. Not even death itself was withheld (Phil. 2:6-8). What transpired in the life of Jesus, God becoming manifest to humanity, is extended to us by the Spirit who makes the God known in Jesus present to all humanity.

Our assumption of God’s universal presence through the Spirit is humanized by the Christian belief that God became present to us in a person: “The Word became flesh and lived among us” (Jn. 1:14). The question remains: How is God present to me as a child of God? Scripture gives us at least two important ways of understanding God’s “particularized” presence with us. One means of the Spirit’s presence is corporate – in the church – but this does not mean the Spirit is not present to us as individuals. Help can be found to understand both the corporate and individual dimensions of God’s presence in the image of the Temple.

Ancient Judaism believed that God’s presence dwelt in the Tabernacle/Temple. The Ark of the Covenant was understood to be carrying God’s presence, God’s kabod or glory. This kabod or glory is what made the Temple holy. In Rabbinic Judaism the concept of the Shekinah emerged to describe God’s specific, self-willed presence in the world (immanence). Taking this understanding of the particularized presence of God, the kabod or the Shekinah to heart, we can better understand the New Testament concept of the church being the Temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 3:16-17; 2 Cor. 6:16; Eph. 2:21-22). They also help us understand the image of the human body being a “temple of the Holy Spirit. Paul wrote to the Corinthian church, saying: “or do you know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you were bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body” (1 Cor. 6:19-20). Although this particular passage speaks to the issue of sexual morality, the idea that the body is a temple of the Spirit suggests that God’s Spirit is present in the world wherever God’s people are present. Therefore, even as the Ark of the Covenant provides blessing to those who faithfully came into contact with it (1 Sam. 5:1- 7:2) -- and a word of judgment on those who seek to deny the Spirit’s presence – when the Spirit indwelt people of God are present, blessing is possible. This means that the Spirit’s ministry takes place not just within the church walls, but wherever the “temple” (the body) is present.

An excerpt from Gifts of Love (a book in process).

A Church Moved by the Spirit

The keystone story of the Christian pathway to spiritual transformation is found in the Pentecost story. Having been told by Jesus to wait upon the Spirit before taking up their calling to carry his good news to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8), a small band of Jesus’ followers wait patiently until the day of Pentecost, when the Spirit falls upon them like “a mighty wind.” At that moment, as the Spirit of God falls upon this gathering of God’s people, it is quickly apparent that this room cannot contain the presence of the Spirit. Soon, the whole city --a city that’s full of pilgrims -- begins to hear the message that the Spirit has come to give witness to the risen Lord, Jesus the Christ (Acts 2). In the moment that the Spirit blows through this community of disheartened and fearful disciples, they find new resolve and purpose, giving birth to a new movement of God in the world. It is through them, and all who follow in their footsteps that Jesus Christ is present to the world.

If one takes a journey through the Book of Acts, one will watch as the Spirit empowers and guides this new movement of ordinary people who took up extraordinary callings. The result of this movement of the Spirit is that the people who would come to be called Christians would leave an indelible mark on the world. The Spirit drew these first disciples together, empowering and gifting them, so that they could go to their community with a word of healing. As Peter said to the man sitting in the city gate: “I have no silver or gold, but what I have I give you; in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, stand up and walk” (Acts 3:6). This has been the message of the church, when the church has truly understood its calling: God will not leave your life unchanged.

When that earliest community of faith gathered for worship and prayer, they comforted each other and gave generously to those in need. At our best, we continue this tradition. We serve meals to the hungry and provide homes for the homeless. We lift up the downcast and bring healing to the hurting. Such a church, to quote Fred Craddock, is “going out and serving other people who are not even grateful, hurting when anybody else hurts, emptying their pockets for other people’s children, building a Habitat house when their own house is in bad need of repair and the paint is peeling, going to the woman’s house and mowing her lawn when their own grass is twelve inches high.”  [Fred B. Craddock, The Cherry Log Sermons, (Louisville: Westminster/John Knox Press, 2001), 69.]

The message of Pentecost is simple: when the Spirit begins to move in our midst, expect things to change. When the Spirit is moving our hearts begin to focus on the needs and concerns of our neighbor. We begin to practice the ancient art of hospitality. We advocate for justice and for peace. With the coming of the Spirit, the call to change the world begins to resound. It’s important that we understand that the point of Pentecost is not the spectacle of tongues of fire, but is instead the transformation that occurs when the Spirit moves in the midst of the church. As the church opens its doors to this refreshing wind of the Spirit one should expect to find a community that is learning to live out the two great commandments: love God and love neighbor.

An excerpt from Gifts of Love (unpublished manuscript)

God is in this Place?

The movement of the Spirit that is stirring moderate and progressive congregations, whether they have historically identified themselves with evangelical or mainline Protestantism, is taking form as emergent and missional communities of faith. These terms denote the reality that empowered and guided by the Holy Spirit, parts of the church are bursting through old boundaries, emerging from their shells so that they might engage in world transforming ministries. As this happens, these communities are looking again at their core identities and practices, to discern whether they can support this new work of the Spirit, so that both church and society might be transformed.

As the church adapts and moves forward, it will need to stop and engage in acts of introspection. In the course of this work of self-study, the church might be well-served by considering what the stranger might see in our communities? Consider what the person, who doesn’t know much if anything about the God church folk claim to worship, sees and hears if they should walk into the typical mainline Protestant church. Will they feel welcome and safe? Or, will they find the culture and the environment of the church to be foreign and strange? Beyond the person who has little exposure to the church’s theology and practices, we might consider other persons who venture into the community. There are any number of boundary issues that need to be considered -- gender, age, ethnicity, language, socio-economic, and cultural differences that impact one’s experience of God and the church.

When the stranger enters the community of faith, does what they hear and see suggest that the denizens of the church are, in the words of Paul, “out of your mind?” Or, do they hear and experience a message that discloses the secrets of their hearts, so that in response to their encounter in this place they fall before God in worship? Or to put it a bit differently, is it possible, that the stranger might enter into the church and declare: God is in this place (1 Corinthians 14:20-25). For many progressive/mainline churches this might seem like an odd expectation, but why is that? Why can’t we expect God’s Spirit to move in such a way that lives are changed dramatically due to their encounter with God?

This is the question that haunts the church in an age of wars and rumors of wars, an age of hate speech, drive-by shootings, growing intolerance, terrorism, bombings, and kidnappings. How do we bear witness to God’s grace and love and presence in this context? The questions become even more daunting because religious people seem to be stirring up much of the heat, while more moderate and progressive voices seem to get lost in the shuffle. Indeed, the news that is heard from pulpit and pew isn’t always good. Whether it’s “fire and brimstone” or bewailing lost influence, it often seems as if the church has lost sight of its mission. And yet the church possesses good news. This is news that if it is shared will resonate with the hearts of people who face such a wearying barrage of negativity. There are people out there, some who will enter and some who will never enter – at least not without a gentle invitation – into our houses of worship, who are looking for words of hope and peace. They want to worship a God who will open up the secrets of their hearts so that might find in God a source of healing grace. And so the question remains, if the stranger walks into the church what will she or he find? What will it take for them to say: God is in this place?

Excerpted from The Gifts of Love (unpublished mss.)

THE CHURCH ALIVE IN THE SPIRIT

Prefatory Note:  For many years I've been writing and rewriting a book on spiritual gifts.  The book itself is part of my journey, and it has been revised as my own thinking and experiences have developed.  So, from time to time I'll be sharing bits and pieces of the manuscript as a way of encouraging a conversation and also to help me refine and develop an idea that drives my own thinking about church and ministry.

**********************

Love of God and love of neighbor are the foundational principles of the Christian faith - even when we fail to abide by them. It is the love of God, which Jesus embodied, that defines the church that is made alive in the Spirit. Without love, all that is done in the name of Christ is for naught (1 Corinthians 13:1-3). Thus, the mark of a church that is moving in the power of the Spirit is that it exhibits the kind of love that Jesus lived and taught.

A living and vibrant church is one that is marked by love and is committed to justice and mercy for all. It is one that is hospitable, gracious, compassionate, and committed to serving others. It is also marked by vibrant worship. Indeed, it is a community that looks beyond its own walls and sees fields ripe for harvest, fields in which the Spirit is already present and at work. We hear the question, "where can I go, that the Spirit is not already there?" In the words of the Psalmist, we pray:

Where can I go from your spirit?

Or where can I flee from your presence?

If I ascend to heaven, you are there;

If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there (Ps. 139:7-8).

Knowing that the Spirit is present, the church's vision is not limited to "religious work." Our work as the Spirit endowed community encompasses all of life's experience, from politics to family life to popular culture. It is, admittedly, the goal and not the reality. But guided by the Spirit we can envision a time when the church, empowered by the Spirit, will not be cliquish, inward looking, protective of turf, or suspicious of new people and new ideas.

We start from the premise that the Spirit of God is already present in the church and in the world. That is the message of Pentecost. Although some might take from Pentecost the idea that when the Spirit moves it is with loudness and spectacle, such an interpretation would miss the point. We do not experience the presence of the Spirit as either loudness or coerciveness. The Spirit may come as a mighty wind, but the Spirit also comes as a gentle breeze inviting us to share in the Spirit's gifts of service to the world. Discovery of spiritual gifts leads to the realization that every person in this world has God-given purpose. With the Spirit present, all things become knew, including our relationships with our God and with our neighbor. No longer will we look at life from a human point of view (2 Cor. 5:16).

What then is the nature of this Spirit that animates and empowers the church and enables both vertical (divine-human) and horizontal (human-human) relationships? What is this life giving force that is present in our churches and in our lives? God is, we confess, spirit. God is without material form, and yet God is something more than an ephemeral wisp of smoke - as if to say, God is there and yet not there. Mindful of the limits of human images and metaphors, we confess that God is more than an impersonal force that can be manipulated for human benefit. That is, God is something more than the "Force" of the popular Star Wars sagas. However we understand personhood, the biblical portrayal of the Holy Spirit is that of an intimate presence of God in human life. This Spirit is a divine presence that is both personal and free from human manipulation; as the immanent presence of God, the Spirit remains a transcendent "determining subject" who is free to act. With regard to the Spirit, we cannot merely say the right words or perform the proper rituals and expect the Spirit to act. When we experience the Spirit's presence and activity, we do so with openness to the unexpected. But, when the Holy Spirit acts in our lives, we are awakened to new possibilities for life and we are energized to carry them out.