Engaging Your Gifts for Ministry
1 Corinthians 12:27-13:13
Andy Eddington who was once the president of Shriner College in the state of Texas, was engaged in a prison ministry to men on death row in Huntsville Texas. One his way home to Dallas one evening he stopped at a greasy spoon restaurant. Andy loved sugar in his coffee so when his coffee arrived he put one, two, three teaspoons of sugar in the cup. He then said to the waitress, “Ma’am, I’m going to need more sugar for this table.” The large, Texas-sized greasy-spoon waitress replied, “Listen, bud, before I give you more sugar, you stir what you got.”
Just as sugar in coffee is tasteless until stirred, so our gifts and talents for ministry become useful and effective only when stirred, engaged, used.
During the Lenten season we have been reflecting on the gifts God has given us for ministry and service.
We are gifted by God.
The gifts God has given us are missional in nature – they are given to us so that we can participate in God’s mission of saving the world.
Our gifts are discoverable – they are like hidden treasure that, once discovered, brings blessing, joy and hope to ourselves and to others.
The Church Health Team is inviting us to participate in the study Serving from the Heart as a way to discover our spiritual gifts and talents for ministry and identify where we can best use the gifts God has given us in the work of the church and in the community.
Our gifts for ministry are only valuable to God, to ourselves and to others as we engage our gifts in the ministry and service of others.
Just as sugar sweetens coffee so God sweetens and enriches our lives and transforms the world as we engage the gifts God has given us for ministry.
Homeless Georges Helps the Homeless
The year was 1949. Catholic priest Abbe Pierre established the Emmaus Communities, a ministry to homeless men and women which later became a ministry to restore the dignity of homeless men and women.
One day a man named Georges showed up and asked Abbe Pierre for help. Georges was homeless. He had recently been released from prison. His family wanted nothing to do with him. He was unemployed, unloved and on the verge of taking his own life.
Overwhelmed with the need of the homeless Abbe Pierre asked Georges to help build shelters for the homeless. Georges became Pierre’s companion in ministry and turned his life around by serving the less fortunate. Georges turned his life around as he discovered and engaged his gifts and talents for building shelters for the homeless.
Years later Georges said, “Whatever else Abbe Pierre might have given me – money, a home, somewhere to work – I’d have still tried to kill myself. What I was missing and what he offered was something to live for.”
Like Georges, we find our reason and purpose for living as we engage our gifts and talents for ministry given to us by God.
“Shoe Bob” Raises $5,500,000 for Outreach Ministry
Bob Fisher, better known in his hometown of Wayzata, Minnesota as “Shoe Bob” because he owns a small shoe repair shop, is just an average guy.
In 1995, Bob was invited to go winter camping with some friends. There was only one problem – Bob had a fear of freezing to death since childhood.
Bob decided to face his fears and bought a pup tent, pitched it in his backyard and prayed he could stay in the tent all night. He didn’t sleep at all that night. He was cold and frightened, but he did make it till morning.
During the night a question began playing on Bob’s mind. Why not move the tent into the front yard, sleep outside and raise money for the needy in his hometown. Bob did his homework and discovered that in spite of Wayzata’s affluence there were many needy people in his hometown. He connected with a local interfaith outreach group that provides food, financial assistance and emergency shelter to those in need and discussed how he could help.
in November of 1996, Bob committed to sleeping in his tent on his front lawn until he could raise $7,000 to buy Thanksgiving dinner for one-hundred families. In fourteen days Bob had raised $10,000 for the needy in Wayzata. Since 1996, Shoe Bob has raised more than $5,500,000 for the interfaith outreach ministry simply by engaging his gift of compassion and help given to him by God.
Christmas in Action
Each year Christmas in Action of Spartanburg helps repair homes of those in the Spartanburg area who cannot afford to make such needed repairs on their homes. For the past two years they have held city-wide rebuilding days where they work on homes all across the county. This Saturday they have chosen to focus on the north-side of Spartanburg where men and women from churches and the community will come together to repair thirty homes.
St. Paul has a number of men and women who participate in the Christmas in Action projects and use their construction skills, talents and other gifts in order to serve the needs of God’s children here in Spartanburg. If you feel you have such gifts from ministry call the church office or Henry Calhoun. We will make sure you have the information you need to be a part of the Christmas in Action project his Saturday. This is one way people engage the gifts God has given them for ministry.
Just as sugar sweetens coffee so God sweetens and enriches our lives and transforms the world as we engage the gifts God has given us for ministry.
Holy Communion
The first Sunday of each month we at St. Paul celebrate the Eucharist. We come to the Lord’s Table, break bread and share in the cup of our Lord’s body and blood. In so doing we participate in this means of grace, the means through which God’s forgiving love and mercy is offered to us.
As Jesus said, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son . . .”
In Jesus Christ God engaged for the whole world God’s gift of divine love and forgiveness.
We honor God’s gift in Jesus Christ as we engage our gifts for ministry in the service of God’s kingdom here on earth. Amen? Amen!
