Thoughts On The Path Ahead - Mission & Spiritual Gifts

There is a connection between the work of ministry and the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer to fulfill the Great Commission mandate. The Spirit energizes His people and His church with the gifts. It is our responsibility to be in active partnership with the Spirit to identify and understand these gifts. Each person is given at least one gift, but there are times when there is a  lack of evidence of a gift/s because of adverse circumstances. God expects a return on His investment with each believer becoming fruit-full. These gifts are important both individually and corporately. Within the church, the top three gifts (based on importance in accomplishing God’s purposes) are (1) The Evangelist/Apostle – He or she will pioneer the cause; (2) Preaching; (3) Teaching. It is important that every church devotes resources to gift identification, development and deployment. This is why Paul told Timothy not to “neglect the gift” within him (1 Timothy 4:14).

Another key component of the church is the role of Prayer. Robertson McQuilkin said it well as he referred to the Holy Spirit as “the One with the knowledge of all factors involved in any situation. He alone has the wisdom to make the right decisions and the power to carry through the decision” (101). Why then would not the church/individuals pray? After all, there is a promise behind the command to seeking God – He promises that we will find Him. Christ through His Spirit aloe provides salvation, sanctification, renewal, guidance, provision and power (102).

Of course, the gifted believers have an awesome task of sharing God’s message with the world. God’s desire is to redeem mankind and creation unto Himself. Through Evangelism, we “persuade men and women to accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior” (114). God’s goal is creation. He expects us to reach people both near and far. He has called us to be ‘witnesses’. Within the church, McQuilkin describes three evangelism related levels of gifting:  All believers are called to be witnesses – share God’s message in their sphere of influence. Then there are those who go out with the message – the ‘sent ones’. But then there are those who have the gift of evangelism – these are the closers who lead people to make that commitment. We need all these gifts working in unity within the church.

Tied very closely with the material by Mike McDaniel, the Incarnational missional strategy is mentioned as the model for effective outreach. The church has engaged in missions over the years, but the trend toward short term, non-committed missions trips can be ineffective. The message may be shared, but there needs to be an Apostolic gifting to pioneer the mission. This means giving of time and resources within the culture. Paul’s adaptation of the Incarnational model was mentioned – He spent enough time within a community learning the culture, their language, establishing churches, organizing leadership and giving oversight. Short term missions can be short-sighted and may not result in the goal of getting church plants to become self-sustaining, self-governing and self-propagating.

 In the work of ‘sending missionaries’, Prayer plays a key role. We are encouraged to pray for doors of opportunities to open up, opportunities to make the mysterious Gospel understandable (they will not understand unless God gives light to their hearts), for courage, for faith and for the fruit of the Spirit to be evidenced in the missionaries’ lives. The leadership of the church should encourage strategic prayer for missionary support, after-all, they are engaged in spiritual warfare. Psalms 2: 8 was a key text worthy of memory for a missional focus: “Ask of Me, and I will surely give the nations as Your inheritance, And the very ends of the earth as Your possession”. Closely tied to missional engagement is the need to be aware of Conversion rates. The GCQ model is a great tool to gauge effectiveness. As a rule, we should strive for at least 5% conversion growth per year.

Lastly, I am humbled to learn more about giving to God and His work. McQuilkin described 5 levels of giving. My biggest takeaway is that the work of the kingdom is best achieved through Faith. God’s kingdom is not advanced through fleshly methods and channels. His is a spiritual kingdom and requires the application of spiritual principles. Not the least of which is the commitment to giving and the management of God’s resources. My relationship with my possessions is a clear indicator of my faith, love and spiritual maturity (151). I have some work to do here.

Ref:

Study based upon Robert McQuilkin, The Five Smooth Stones: Essential Principles For Biblical Ministry, B&H Publishing Group, 2007.

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Written by Kevin A. Hall.