Spiritual Gifts - Broad Areas of Ministry
Another part of re-simplifying our views of spiritual gifts (back to the original simplicity of Scripture) is recognizing the categories. 1 Corinthians 12 explicitly presents spiritual gifts as pieces of a larger whole (the members are pieces of the larger body). Yet, we usually consider spiritual gifts as a collection of neat idiosyncrasies (recognizing that our gifts make us special and different) but we don’t connect them to a larger whole to show how each piece relates to the others.
Perhaps this is because we don’t know how to understand the body metaphor or what it points to. But there is good news. There is a biblical church structure to be found. All the teachings about various spiritual gifts and all specific instructions to church officers should be understood in relationship to this biblical church structure. It emerges from the story of the early church as told in the book of Acts. The early church was driven to accomplish a simple but earthshaking mission so they structured their church around that goal. The mission was to take the gospel to the world (Acts 1:8) and the resulting structure was as follows:
- Fellowship: Some are called to oversee the social needs of the church (the biblical deacons; Acts 6:1-7).
- Guidance: Some are called to oversee the spiritual direction of the church (the biblical elders; Acts 14:23-15:1-6).
- Outreach: Some are called to expand the mission by reaching new areas (the biblical apostles; Acts 13:1-3)
Of course the references given above are only meant as samples of the larger picture (which can be easily deduced from a careful reading of Acts). But, the mission structure of the early church centers around the mission and is comprised of these three ministry areas: fellowship, guidance, and outreach. Those who are not called to lead in these areas are, apparently, called to help in one of them.
Let me suggest that the first task in identifying your spiritual gifts or how they relate to the church is identifying which of these three areas of ministry God had made you most passionate about.