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Book Review: Your Spiritual Gifts Can Help Grow Your Church

Your Spiritual Gifts Can Help Your Church Grow Book Cover Your Spiritual Gifts Can Help Your Church Grow
C. Peter Wagner
Religion
Chosen Books
June 20, 2017
288

Bestselling, Easy-to-Use Spiritual Gifts Resource for Group Use This trusted spiritual gifts resources has been helping individuals and congregations learn about their unique giftings for generations. Your Spiritual Gifts Can Help Your Church Grow is the quintessential group resource. Comprehensive and easy to understand, this guide includes the questionnaire and will help you and your group identify the gifts God has given you. More than that, you will discover how each gift works so that you and your group or congregation can use your unique gifts to help your church and community flourish.

Revision as of 3/6/2018.

Spiritual gifts are a topic that I hadn’t heard or read much about. Sure, they’re laid out in the bible. I’ve heard about people learning to speak in tongues, and have met people claiming to have visions. I’ve heard the stories of people casting out demons. In the back of my mind, I knew had gifts of my own, but didn’t think of them outside of the things I seem to be good at.

Out of a recommendation that I take a spiritual gifts test, I began looking for a good book on the topic. That is when I came across Peter Wagner’s “Your Spiritual Gifts Can Help Grow Your Church”. A book more than just learning how to grow a church. It takes you through an in-depth study on all of the spiritual gifts, along with a good history lesson on various groups throughout history.

I appreciated his history lesson when it comes to the Pentecostal movement. I’ve always been leery of people who claim they can speak in tongues. I don’t quite understand the point of trying to learn a gift that you don’t have. I also never understood why its limited to 1 or 2 things. This gave me a new perspective and a background to associate those questions with. Wagner also gives you a look inside other groups to compare them too, and a good biblical challenge to read and study the bible.

As you journey through what he has broken out to be 28 spiritual gifts, you’ll be met with real-life stories from him and other people he met along his life. He’ll use real-world examples to help you understand each spiritual gift, how to identify the ones you have, and how to understand ones you don’t have.

I didn’t always agree with his definition of a specific spiritual gift. He talked a lot about gift projection, and I felt sometimes he was stretching into that arena. He tried to be biblical about it, and I didn’t feel that he was inventing them, but I found a couple to be a little bit of a stretch. Then again, I am not the one giving out gifts, so maybe his feelings were valid.

From an attention span and ease read angle, this book was perfect. I couldn’t put it down, and found it smooth and easy to understand. Like all writers, he used some words that I considered “big” and had to refresh my memory on, but overall he didn’t try to sound intentionally intellectual for the sake of fancy literature.

The “Can Grow Your Church” section is good for anyone, but specially, he talks to Pastors. Not being a Pastor, I found it valuable from my own perspective. It gave me great insight into how a Pastor might approach the arranging of his congregation in different tasks around the Church. This was a perspective I appreciated.

Something to take with a bit of skepticism is his definition of apostleship. Wagner believed he had this gift, and broke down the difference between holding an office and having the gift. While I agree with him in that sense, apostleship comes with three very specific rule. You must have witnessed Jesus Christ. You have to be appointed by Jesus Christ. You have to prove your apostleship with signs and wonders. You can read all about these requirements throughout Matthew, Mark, and Acts. Wagner believed he was good at planting and growing Churches because he had this gift, but not the office. I would have simply told him “You’re just good at administration.”

Another thing that gave me the willies was his wife’s gift of healing. Although he doesn’t go into detail, his criticism of the Pentecostal movement made me wonder a little bit what he was talking about. I am not sure if he ever took to a stage to perform mass healing, or if she simply sought out sick people and prayed over them. Still, I think the only one that has the true gift of healing these days is God. We as the body of Christ are to always be praying, especially for our sick. I just have to wonder why anyone would misread the writings surrounding the Holy Spirit, and think they can summon him on their command and heal people.

Because of these two points, I have chosen to take the rating down to a 3/5. This will most likely spark some discussion some day in my court, and that’s ok.

I would recommend this book to anyone who is looking to begin exploring spiritual gifts. If you’re curious about your own spiritual gifts, this is a good book for you. You’ll learn to identify your gifts, including his spiritual gifts test at the end of the book. Wagner does a nice job with the layout of the book in that you have a boxed out section each time he explains what a gift is. Those boxes have biblical references, examples, and definitions. I found that piece of the book the most helpful.

All Christians have spiritual gifts. They are used to make up the body of Christ. They’re not limited to learn to speak in tongues, or putting on a show about healing. Some of them have not been given out since the apostolic age. Gifts are very real and dynamic. This book will teach you about them and how to find your gifts.

January 29, 2018by Dan
Bible, Spiritual Gifts

Romans 12:1-7, You and Your Spiritual Gifts

I was recently asked if I had ever taken the spiritual gifts test. Spiritual gifts are given to Christians after they accept Jesus Christ. Everyone has at least one gift, and some have more than one.

I hadn’t really heard much about them growing up. The only things I ever heard was “Everyone has gifts!” and “Charismatic people are wrong!” I found that both are a little bit true, and a little bit off.

Romans 12:1-2, “1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. 2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” (NKJV)

This tells me that I need to be living in a way that is honoring to God, and keeping my mind fresh and renewed from the things of this world that might drag me down. In doing so, I then open to doing the will of God, rather than doing my own will and wrong doings.

Paul continues teaching us that we need to stay in tune to God and that the body of Christ has many parts.

Romans 12:3-5, “3 For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith. 4 For as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function, 5 so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another.” (NKJV)

The analogy to a “body” is one that we can relate to as humans. Our body is more than just one arm, or two legs, or just a brain. Everything is attached, working together, to accomplish the tasks that we need it to do. If we break an arm or a leg, we’re hindered.

The same is true of the body of Christ. If one part isn’t operating properly, the rest will struggle. We all have different talents, roles, and gifts. In the sense of gifts, we should be using those unique gifts to operate our piece of the body.

Romans 12:6-8, “6 Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, let us prophesy in proportion to our faith; 7 or ministry, let us use it in our ministering; he who teaches, in teaching; 8 he who exhorts, in exhortation; he who gives, with liberality; he who leads, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness.” (NKJV)

Paul then takes us through the first few spiritual gifts. He’s intentional in his writing to us that we need to be intentional with our gifts. If we have the gift of teaching, we need to teach. If our gift is ministry, then we need to minster. If our gift is serving, we need to serve.

Stephen Covey’s 7 habits of highly effective people starts with being proactive. Dave Ramsey teaches that to get your finances under control you need to be intentional. So here does Paul teach through words that we should be intentional and go out and put our gifts to work, rather than waiting for them to come and get us. They’re already in you and part of your life. Why not make something happen with them?

As you start to explore your spiritual gifts, you first need to discover what they are. There are several tests and books out there to help you. My favorite author on the topic is C Peter Wagner and his book called “Your Spiritual Gifts Can Help Your Church Grow“. You need to get in word, and pray about them.

Once you start to discover what your gifts are, think about the things you’re drawn too. Do they relate? I found mine did, and it explained a lot about another “strengths” test I had taken for work. From there you can start to do your part in the body of Christ, and accomplish good things.

Discovering your spiritual gifts can be enlightening, but you have to make sure you’re not confusing gifts with your personal goals and desires. You aren’t going to have certain gifts just because you want them. Pray heavily asking the holy spirit to reveal your gifts. Read scripture. Talk to your Pastor, friends, relatives, etc. Take a spiritual gift test. In the end, you may even need to fast on it. Ask God to help you recognize your gifts, and where he wants you to use them.

Spiritual Gifts are just that. Gifts. Take then without question and put them to work.

For more on the Spiritual Gifts, see 1 Corinthians 12, Romans 12, and Ephesians 4.

January 16, 2018by Dan

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