Discovering our gifts is not difficult. You will be able to recognize quickly the gifted ministry areas of your pastor and other key leaders in your church. All you have to do is observe what they are doing and notice how people respond to their ministry. However, it is another matter when it comes to … [Click to read more …]
To a certain extent a person’s spiritual gifts define his or her place in the local church. In other words, to discover spiritual gifts is to discover where the Lord wants you to function in the body. Have you ever been asked to be involved in an area for which you just had no passion … [Click to read more …]
If you asked the members of your church, many of them would have to think long and hard before they could conclude that they had any spiritual gift that the Bible lists, even though many of these people have probably already been exercising a spiritual gift. They have just not consciously recognized it as such. … [Click to read more …]
Read for This Week’s Study: 1 Pet. 4:10; John 16:8, 13; 1 Cor. 12:28–31; Acts 2:40–47; 13:4-5. Memory Text: “And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ” (Ephesians 4:11-12, NKJV). Key Thought: … [Click to read more …]
Choosing a Ministry in Which to Become Involved In Last week you were encouraged to consider all of the witnessing and evangelistic areas of church life in which you like being involved or in which you would become involved if asked. The challenge this week is for you to decide upon an evangelistic activity and … [Click to read more …]
Afet Afet knew she had found great truth at the small group meeting that she and her mother and sister had been attending. Within a year all three were baptized. Afet’s heart burned to share her faith with others, but it wouldn’t be easy. Most people in her country consider Christians infidels. Afet prayed for … [Click to read more …]
This week we have noted some important aspects of a believer’s work for God. We now can touch on the topic of “reporting” (we will look at this in more detail in week 12). Reporting to the church on witnessing and evangelism activities builds a climate of encouragement and blessing. Those reporting can receive the … [Click to read more …]
Yesterday we noted the importance of working together evangelistically as a church. We must also understand that we are working together to accomplish a divine objective. Therefore, when a church considers witnessing and evangelistic strategies, members must feel strongly that they are working together with God who motivates, directs, empowers, and gives the increase.1 Read Acts … [Click to read more …]
The local church is not simply a number of disconnected people who sit in the same building for a couple of hours once a week. According to Scripture, the church is a group of people who are as closely joined as are the parts of a human body. The possibility does exist, however, that people … [Click to read more …]
Sometimes we are sent to reap where others have turned the soil, sown the seed, and watered the crop. Although there may be the rare occasion where one person digs, sows, waters, and reaps all in one field, this is certainly not the rule. In our fast-paced modern world people move into and out of … [Click to read more …]
