Published on: 02/12/2025
1 Corinthians 12: 13-31 is a passage you may have heard spoken on many times throughout your church life. It’s a passage that draws out the diversity and variety of people within the church, along with the fact that we all bring something different to the life of the church.
When I’m asked, “What skills or gifts do you bring?” I sometimes struggle to tell people exactly what I am good at. Sometimes it’s because I see what other people are doing and think, ‘I could never do that, I’m not good enough as someone else could do it better than me.’ But this way of thinking isn’t the way I should be thinking about the gifts and skills I bring, as I know that even though my skills aren’t always the best in the group, they are worth being talked about and used.
I’ve worked for a couple of parish churches within the diocese and each time I have gone in very optimistically that I will be able to use my gifts to see people’s lives changed for Jesus and that I would see the church grow exponentially. In reality this isn’t quite how things have worked out. I did my best and did see a handful of people take steps closer to Christ and others bolder in their faith, however in both those jobs where I was working with children and families my skills didn’t quite match up to the job I was doing. I have always had the gift of administration, but it took my last role in parish ministry to see this. In my last role initially, it was a joy to work in a parish where I was building things from the ground up. No Sunday morning children’s group? Great, what things do I need to put in place to get something going? What administrative tasks need to be done? How do I make it as safe as I can for the children attending? I got the groups set up and enjoyed getting things together and ready. However, when sitting in front of my slowly growing children’s group on a Sunday I often felt quite overwhelmed and hoped and prayed for more outgoing and fun leaders to join my team of volunteers. I didn’t grow the team much, but I know that now, since I left, the group is now flourishing under a different Children and Families worker, and I’m often reminded it’s because of the administrative work I did to get the group going.
I could sit and write up all the skills and giftings that God has given me in the different work I’ve had over the years, but I won’t. Instead, I invite you to take some time to think about the skills and gifts you have. Are you great at hosting people, welcoming them into the church, maybe you attract other people who want to be led by you, maybe you are gifted at baking or cooking? Here’s a quick list of biblical spiritual gifts you can use to see if you match any spiritual gifts. You can also talk with your family, friends, people at church or anyone you spend time with regularly and ask the Spirit to help guide you to know what skills you could use to serve the Lord.
If you are interested in how you can use your gifts and feel a calling to being a lay leader in the church, get in contact with Beth Burras for a conversation.
This week’s Blog post was written by Rachael Williams, PA to the Lead Lay Ministry Enabler