"Spiritual gifts are special abilities given by the Holy Spirit and distributed to every believer according to God's design and grace for the common good of the body of Christ."  this is a working definition of what spiritual gifts are.  When we talk about using spiritual gifts in the church what were talking about is giving God glory with the special abilities that he gives us and helping other people.  The intention is to help people find their ministry fit based upon their natural gifts and spiritual gifts.

Unfortunately many churches look at spiritual gifts inventories as a recruiting tool for the church staff to use in gathering church members to fill church jobs.  While this may be an appropriate use of spiritual gifts that certainly isn't the only one.  I think that we should be finding out what our spiritual gifts are so that we can be more effective in making an impact on our community.  Using the spiritual abilities that God has given us to transform our neighborhoods and our workplaces seems to me to be a more effective use of our God-given abilities.  As a church we are committed to helping people find their ministry fit both inside and outside of the church.

This is going to require a refocusing or rethinking of the way we do ministry.  It will require us to release church members to do ministry in their communities and their workplaces.  If you have the gift of serving and your passionate about feeding people who are hungry than as a church pastor I should encourage people to pursue their ministry passion and giftedness whether thatfinds them serving for my church or someone else's church or for that matter... some other agency that feeds the hungry.

Many of the old beliefs held by church leaders and congregations read as if they are self evident, irrefutable truths-if you build the perfect church they will come... growing your church automatically makes a difference in the community... developing better church members will mean better evangelism... time has failed to produce the evidence of these claims.

Although I haven't finished the book all the way yet it provides a very provocative thoughts.  So far it's been a very good read.
Chapter 2 on the shift from church growth to Kingdom growth says that we as churches need to shift our target of ministry efforts from church activity to community transformation.

It's always been my hope that we at discovery church are passionate enough in our Christian faith and deep enough in our spirituality to transform our community not just our church.

Jeremiah 31:33, 34 "this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time," declares the Lord.  "I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts.  I will be their God, and they will be my people.... I will forgive their wickedness and remember their sins no more."

My journey with Jesus encourages me to obey.  Not because I have to, but because I want to.  I want Jesus to be happy with me, to be proud of me, to forgive me.  Although sometimes it seems like rules to me... most of the time it isn't.

This is exactly what being a member of the local church is all about.  It may sound more formal but in reality it's nothing more than what I just explained.  At discovery church we ask people to commit to being a member.  What we ask of them is nothing more than what the Bible already asks of us.  Some people have hang ups around becoming a member or they've had bad experiences at a previous church so this will never be an option.  You may never feel ready to sign a piece of paper saying that you will be a member.  That's okay.  But recognized that what the Bible asks of us is regardless of whether or not we are a member of a local church.  Here's what I mean...

1.  I Will Protect the Unity of My Church

Just about every Christmas we've taken some time to sing some Christmas carols together.  So my son got out his guitarand we enjoyed a time of singing.

It wasn't so much the quality of the music or the place in which we sang, but it was.  The songs that we chose and the meaning that they have a was so wonderful.  It brought back a lot of memories from Christmas is gone by, family gatherings, parts of my journey of faith and of our family.  Music has a way of doing that.

This Sunday in going to be preaching on Isaiah 9:2-7 in these words are captured by Handel in his great masterful piece of music called the "Messiah."  Every time I read those words I hear Handel's Messiah.

A friend of the great composer, put the words of the Bible into a story dialogue using parts from the Old and New Testament to describe the work of God and the reason why Jesus came.  They say that when Handel first read those Scriptures as they were put together by his friend he started to hear the music dancing in his head.  He went immediately into his workshop and 24 days later came out with the first draft of this three hour long Symphony. Beethoven said of Handel, "Here is a different fellow" and proceeded to play the most interesting looking passages. On another occasion he is said to have remarked, "Handel is the greatest composer that ever lived."   Beethoven was so moved by the words of Handel's Messiah that when he was on his deathbed, and there was no hope for recovery he is quoted as saying, that if there were a physician that could help him "His name shall be called Wonderful".

Music as a way of getting deep inside you.  It's that way with me!

The movie is about a man who is the answer to prayer of the group and nuns who want to build a chapel.  This group of nuns has escaped from the growing influence of Hitler prior to world war two.  They don't know much English and so this man, Homer Smith, teaches them English and helps them to build a chapel.

This is such a touching reminder to me that church is not about bricks and mortar, steeples, pew's or buildings.  It's about the relationship between God and his people.  Here the nuns pray for someone to help them build the chapel and in answer to that prayer God sends a Baptist, Homer Smith, who helps them to build a chapel but more than this he builds a relationship with these Catholic women and does church with them every day.

Amen, Hallelujah.

AJ (my wife) and I were privileged to be a part of a three-day retreat hosted by the author of this book called Emotionally Healthy Spirituality.  We were so impressed by the content of this material that I wanted to integrate it not only as a sermon series but also as a small group series as well.  Starting in January we will offer several small groups on this subject as well as an eight week Sunday sermon series.The following is a book review from a fellow preacher blogger.

"The book is written by Peter Scazzero pastor of New Life Fellowship in New York City, who has developed The Center for Emotionally Healthy Spirituality. At the heart of this book is the story of his own struggle as a Christ follower to grow up emotionally. He noticed he was regularly angry, had a poor marriage, and managed his emotions poorly inspite of years of following Jesus, regular quiet times, and intentional discipleship. Pastor Scazzero was discovering that he couldn't possibly consider himself spiritually mature if at the same time he was emotionally immature.

He started to see this pattern in other Christians around him. Folks who were very "spiritual" but who handled anger, stress, anxiety, etc. poorly. This started Pastor Scazzero on a journey to emotionally healthy spirituality.

Throughout the book Scazzero argues that emotional maturity and spiritual maturity cannot be separated. You cannot achieve one without the other. So how do we mature emotionally and spiritually? Scazzero believes it is through two ancient practices that most modern Christ followers do not practice: the Daily Office and Sabbath." (http://preacherkoops.blogspot.com/2007/08/emotionally-healthy-spirituality.html)

Although, I do notice a difference over the last couple of days.  There has been more communication and time spent with the Lord.  I think that I have been more aware of his presence in the last couple of days.

and I craving more presence?  Yeah!  But it's a journey.  How is your journey going?

It's a nice nice thought... to crave more of the presence of God in your life, but how do you do that?  I found this quote from Brother Lawrence I think it gets close to the idea of what it means to crave more presence.

In continuing the practice of conversing with God throughout each day, and quickly seeking His forgiveness when I fell or strayed, His presence has become as easy and natural to me now as it once was difficult to attain. (Brother Lawrence)

The Bible talks about Jesus being Immanuel, God with us... (Isaiah 7:14) it's part of the idea that Jesus is still present with us... I guess I'm looking for a feeling of the closeness of Jesus in my life too.

I think I'm going to take the advice of brother Lawrence.  I'm going to try and start each day this week with a prayer for God to be with me throughout every aspect of the day.  To go throughout my work believing that Jesus is right beside me and having a conversation about everyday things like coffee, parking spaces, temptations, conversations and other stuff...

At the end of the day I'm going to ask Jesus to reflect with me on how things went and asked for forgiveness when it didn't go so well and give thanks when it does. 

It almost sounds too simple.

Have you been impacted by the economy?  How do you deal with this financial crisis?  How does your faith help you?

One of the safest places to be in these economicly uncertain times is to be free from debt.  I had a conversation with a couple from church who recently was able to get completely out of debt with the exception of their mortgage.  This happened shortly before the economic meltdown of the past two months. I imagine that they are really happy that they're out of debt.

Proverbs 22:7 "Just as the rich rule the poor, so the borrower is servant to the lender."

Getting out from the burden of debt may be the best choice in this uncertain economic climate.This requires that we recognize that everything I owned belongs to God and he has put me in charge of his money.  That's the first place to start.  The next one is to stop using your credit cards until all existing debt has been paid.  Do everything in cash from now on.

Any more suggestions?