Spiritual Gifts and Sociological Aspects

Part 1A: Outline some of the points in Gary Best’s and Peter David’s discussion of spiritual gifts in your notes that interest you most. Add in your own comments and thoughts on these points

Gary Best and Peter Davids, in “Theology for Spiritual Gifts”, produced sound points of the workings of spiritual gifts. The first important point in this message is the relevance of the message to the Corinth Church, one that is “largely Gentile with strong, recent pagan practice and ethics”; in 1 Corinthians Paul attempts to perform “radical surgery without killing the patient” to the Behaviour and attitudes of the Corinth community.

The first point that catches my attention, in “Theology for Spiritual Gifts”, is Gary Best and Peter Davids writings on the body metaphor that Paul talks about to the Corinthians. One point that I found significant in this is that Paul used a medium that was powerful to anyone hearing it: The Human Body. Paul uses the Body metaphor to impose the idea of “Diversity within Unity”, that all gifts are different but are “perfectly united” in the cause of Jesus Christ and extending the kingdom of God. Paul related this to the church by saying “A manifestation of the Spirit is given to each person to produce what is beneficial”[1]. This can be seen very easily in my own Youth group. For the past two years we have had interns that are great leaders within the church, however this year the intern is a great server for the church and has no will to lead. This shows that variety of gifts that God gives to the church. Paul also speaks of the necessity of diversity, for if all parts were identical there would be no body at all, this can be brought back to our intern; If the entire work force were leaders then there would be nobody to serve and the goal would not be achieved. The final point in chapter II “Diversity within Unity”, which grabs my attention, is point E which addresses the need of the Corinthians to “desire the greater gifts”[2] and that diversity should not discourage you to eagerly seek to gifts of God. This is very important within vibrant youth through which I work with; they desire new and more powerful experiences with God.

Another point that catches my attention is how the people of Corinth receive the spiritual gifts. Because there is two different views on receiving spiritual gifts: a) one member one gift, and b) gifts given in gatherings, the distribution of these gifts can range from manifestations of the holy spirit in a group (to assign different ‘roles’ in the group by sovereign choice of God), situation individual anointing (One-time gifts for the individual), and gifts resulting from ministries (gifts discovered and developed through ministry), this last one can be seen in my own life, as I discovered my gift for public speaking I developed it with God, through ministry, and have taken several sermons for our youth and communion at our Sunday evening congregation. It is important to note for each of these distributions there are three common factors that Gary Best and Peter Davids point out: Grace, “We have different gifts, according to the grace given to us”[3], Faith, “If a man’s gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith”[4], and Co-operation, our hearts should be set toward loving and serving God and others though our giftedness.

In Conclusion, Paul relates the workings of spiritual gifts to the human body, an easy relatable comparison. Diversity within unity is necessary to make sure the body runs as efficiently as possible, and although there are different views and actions that the Holy Spirit takes to deliver these spiritual gifts, they all hold three things in common: Grace, Faith, and Co-operation.

Part 1B: Describe various sociological models of the local church

Sociological models aim to describe the group dynamics of a community and how an individual would see him/herself within that group. These models, hopefully, give us a clear indication on the different aspects on church life and the functions surrounding it.

The first model is the “Fuzzy Set”. This model is a free-for-all environment, completely “laid back” and at it’s worst some-what anarchic and out of control. In these models the people each do their own thing, and pull in their own direction, leaving no defined goal for the group. In church life, this model can be reflected on a congregation that has no, or very weak, leadership. Therefore there is no direction, no cohesion and no structure. It can be associated with the description of Israel in the book of Judges: “in those days Israel had no king and everyone did what was right in their own eyes”[5]. These sorts of groups are often a reaction to an extremely autocratic church and while they might be appealing in comparison, they do not usually achieve much due to the lack of unity around a specific purpose.

The second model is the “Bounded Set”. This model represents the opposite of the “Fuzzy-Set”, it is strongly ordered, structured and control driven view of society, and because this model represents the way many churches are ‘run’, characteristics can be easily described. The leadership is centred on one leader, the pastors, whose style and ideas are usually dominant and often leads the congregation praising, and in extreme, idolising the pastor. Boundaries create an exclusivist policy, and everything is seen forma right and wrong perspective with low tolerance. This leads to a we/they and in/out mentality, inducing guilt and praising performance within the congregation. The Pastor and leaders of the church in this model have a parent child relationship where the children are to achieve the pastor’s vision. The people of the congregation (children) are identified from being in and right, the sense of wroth and value is from being a good member and hard worker within the church. This model places high value on numbers and statistics and not necessarily on the well being of the people within the church.

The final model is the “Centred Set”. This model is completely different form the previous two and is not a compromise in anyway, but a frame of reference that is responsibly liberating to the people. This model has no boundaries, rather a moving centre that people are either moving towards or away from. In a healthy church, the centre would be Jesus Christ. People are either drawn in by the values of the church or being repelled from them. The vision and value that is in the centre is lived out and not just spoken about. The leadership is a team effort not an individual approach, as

each leader leads by example, at the front lines, instilling the basic values into the church by modelling them. Relationships are adult to adult as the people are treated as individuals, whose identity comes from within, from his relationship with the Lord. This creates a relational environment from which evangelism can occur through friendship and relationship. This model is motivated by the love of the Lord, the acceptance of the people and nurturing the congregation in the Lord.

These three models each portray three different sociological models of community. The Vineyard Church takes pride in following the “Centred Set”, as we align Jesus Christ into the centre and are attracted by his values. We grow in the Lord as we take responsibility for ourselves, advancing as a church through simple acts of obedience to our Lord Jesus Christ.

---

[1] 1 Corinthians 12:7

[2] 1 Corinthians 12:31

[3] Romans 12:6a

[4] Romans 12:6b

[5] Judges 17:6

Arrival Of The Holy Spirit

Before Jesus ascended to heaven he promised the Kingdom to be restored to the world, and that the Holy Spirit would come upon all the believers. Joel, a prophet of the Old Testament, prophesized the arrival of the Holy Spirit in Acts 2: 16-17, and this highly anticipated event came in full force in the form of a great gust of wind, to empower the people and give them the gifts to go out into the world and bring the message to all the nations. There are mainly two points that can be recognized in this event: How the Holy Spirit came upon the people, and secondly, what happened as a result.

The arrival of the Holy Spirit in Acts was simply an expansion of scale, compared to the Old Testament empowering, the function did not change. According to Peter, the empowering work that happened to the Old Testament is to happen to all believers, as promised by Jesus in Acts, “You will be baptized with the Holy spirit not many days from now” [1]. And that the promised Holy Spirit would come upon them. However, to do this the disciples would need to be receptive and true to their faith. In Acts 2: 14-36 Peter delivers a sermon to the people of Jerusalem after the Holy Spirit has come upon the 12 disciples, after hearing this sermon the people ask “brothers what must we do?”[2]. Peter’s first response is “repent”. This order is the main command that God calls us to do to become a faithful follower. “Repent… And be baptized, each of you, in the name of Jesus the Messiah for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit”[3]. Here Peter directly tells the people that to receive the Holy Spirit they had to repent. This is needed because by repenting we draw ourselves closer to God and his Grace and Mercy, allowing us to receive more of his gifts. God needs us to repent to receive the Holy Spirit.

The arrival of the Holy Spirit in Acts was simply an expansion of scale, compared to the Old Testament empowering, the function did not change. It comes upon people in the same way it came upon the great leaders of Israel in the Old Testament. This can be seen through out the biblical history, going as far as back as Moses and the seventy elders who the Holy Spirit “rested on”[4]. This was a key part in the foundation of the nations around the Promised Land and played an important part for the rest of the biblical history. Then came the ‘Period of the Judges’, here God’s Spirit “came upon” the leaders of Israel, helping them defend the nation against her enemies. God’s Spirit was also at work in the rest of the Old Testament, founding the monarchy by giving Saul “power” and also “the Spirit of the Lord came upon David in power”[5] when Samuel anointed him with oil, the Lord’s spirit also empowered the prophets, whose works could not of been achieved with out the power of the Lord’s Spirit. All these empowering moments within the Old Testaments have been to individuals or specific groups, where as the empowering of the spirit in the book of Acts was for all believers, anyone who heard and received the message of God, had the Holy Spirit enter him/her.

The coming of the Holy Spirit upon people is a repeatable event. The very first believers, the disciples were “filled with the Holy Spirit” a the Pentecost in Acts 2:4, but they were further ‘filled’ again later on “When they had prayed, the place where they were assembled was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak God’s message with boldness”[6]. This shows us that the empowering of the Holy Spirit can be a repeatable event and that when the people in the books of Acts received the Holy Spirit they could then go forth and spread it around the world.

Now that we see how the Spirit came upon the people we can fully appreciate what happened as a result to the Holy Spirit coming to the people in Acts. One of the initial results of the Holy Spirit arriving was the overflow of some kind of prophetic response in the people. This includes praise and tongues, which are cousins of the broad term prophecy. This can be seen in Acts 2:4 where they spoke tongues and Peter preached converting three thousand, Acts 4:31 the Spirit came and the people began speaking the word boldly, Acts 10:46 the new believers began speaking in tongues and praising God, and Acts 19:6 People in Corinth were filled with the Holy Spirit and began speaking tongues and prophesying. These are all things that made a difference; they were effective at spreading the Word of God and getting the Holy Spirit moving around the region. What you’ll also find with the Holy Spirit coming to the people is that something observable happens. This again helps get the Word across that it is God doing this, and it attracts crowds of thousands to hear the message. The most common observable result would be verbal as that is the easiest gifting to manifest itself immediacy, and also the broad term prophetic, including tongues and praise. Yet this gifting was in general. The Spirit came to all believers, there is no such thing as ‘empowered’ versus ‘unempowered’ , all the believers in the given group or area were impacted by the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit came upon the people because the disciples listened to Jesus’ commands and stayed within Jerusalem to await the arrival of the Holy Spirit and once it arrive they were willing to receive the power and take it too the streets to draw the crowds. Once the crowds heard what had happened the result was an overflow in prophecy, praise, tongues, healings, and ministries. The Holy Spirit enables us to receive the gifts of the Kingdom and is a crucial part to linking up with the supernatural workings of Lord Jesus Christ. This is the only way we are going to spark the flame which will become the bush fire of revival within New Zealand.

---

[1] Acts 1:5

[2] Acts 2:37

[3] Acts 2:38

[4] Numbers 11:17,25,29

[5] 1 Samuel 16:13

[6] Acts 4:31

Spiritual Gifts

Spiritual gifts are God’s tools that enable us to participate in the supernatural workings of God. By sending Jesus down upon the Earth, God allowed us the privilege of relating to the living Christ, the Messiah, someone we live by and someone to follow the footsteps of. Jesus will guide us and lead us along the path that God wants us to journey down. The miracles that Jesus performed were the works of the Holy Spirit, and Jesus appointed these gifts to us all, thus allowing us to start the revival within the cities.

Spiritual gifts are first and foremost gifts. A true gift cannot be earned; it is a show of the givers generosity. This is the same with God; his spiritual gifts are not earned through how many years you have spent in the Church or how old you are. Spiritual gifting is a result of Gods’ unearned favour and is his supernatural tools to release Gods’ supernatural power upon the world. That is where many people, I believe, go wrong. They believe that they can earn spiritual gifts, where that is untrue. God will gift people who he feels fit to gift and who he knows will be able to use these gifts in their personal situation. In Paul’s letter to the Corinthians we see that Paul speaks of waiting on the Lord or spiritual gifts “so that you do not lack any spiritual gift as you eagerly wait for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ”[1]. The people of Corinth didn’t lack any spiritual gift for the waited on Jesus; they did not try to earn it. But God saw their willingness and receptivity and gifted the people with the tools of the Kingdom. God’s spiritual gifts are first and foremost gifts of the Kingdom.

Gifts can be categorized into two different types: Ministry and Situational gifts. God uses both of these types of gifts to enable us to unlock the kingdom here on Earth. Ministry gifts are a gifting to a person so that someone can recognise and use his/her gift for the rest of his/her life. It dwells within them and can be brought forth with the help of the Holy Spirit. God uses these types of gifts for people that can handle them, for the most of the time, ministry gifts are a proportion of our faith, and the higher we climb in our faith the more powerful and effective our spiritual gifts will become. I personally have been gifted with the ability to prophecy over people and when I wait upon the Holy Spirit I am able to see words and pictures for people. An example of this would be one time at youth group we were all deep into a ministry time and I got a picture for John, a senior leader in the youth, this was through waiting upon the Lord praying and asking for him to give me a word for someone in the building this night. And I got a picture for John. This ministry gift is mine for life and is able to be used whenever I wait on the Lord, it will grow as I grow spiritually and become strong as I become strong spiritually.

However, situational gifts are manifestations of the Holy Spirit within someone for a particular situation. May it be a home group or a conference, the Holy Spirit will manifest for a situation to be a powerful experience for the person allowing them to get in touch with the Holy Spirit. Situational gifting is of God’s perfect timing, used when he knows it will be the most effective upon the person in subject[2]. Where the Ministry gifts are used to develop a person of God into a more effective and powerful leader, disciple, missionary… [The list goes on] of God. God uses Situational and Ministry gifts to empower his people.

Spiritual gifts are meant to be used to further the Kingdom here on Earth. Jesus did miracles through spiritual gifts and called his disciple to do it as well. Jesus does this when he commissioned the twelve disciples and “gave them power and authority over all the demons and power to heal diseases…so they went… proclaiming the good news and healing everywhere”[3]. With this direction we are all called to do what Jesus has done, and as disciples of Jesus Christ we do as our Pharisee does and travel in his dust and do as he does. So when God gives someone a gift it is not to lay dormant and unused, for the gift was given out of generosity, yes, but also of expectancy to be used effectively. Jesus died for us, so it is our job, with the tools of Kingdom to spread the message of the Lord around the world, and it is through the spiritual gifts that we can do that. God uses the gifts of missions to empower someone with the heart and knowledge of being a powerful and effective missionary, and it is through this that God is furthering his Kingdom here on Earth. We just have to be receptive. For Jesus said: “You will receive the power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth”[4].

Spiritual gifts are effectively used within a team. Not one person can have all the powers of the Kingdom, and it is because of this that we can be very effective with our gifts when we use them as a team. Romans speak of this being “Many Gifts but One Body”: “Now as we have many parts of the body, and all the parts do not have the same function, in the same way we who are many are one body in Christ and individually members of one another. According to the grace given to us, we have different gifts”[5]. This shows us that united our diversity makes us strong[6]. It is in this same way that we should use our gifts, for example: Prophecy should team up with intercessors and tongues should be paired up with interception of tongues. This can be seen within my own youth group, we have been growing in our faith and the leaders of our youth group have, along with their personal development into Jesus, have developed their own gifts, for example I am able to prophecy and guide God’s words onto other people, along with a girl, Alice, in our youth who is able to intercede with someone and the Holy Spirit, becoming the needed lightening rod that connects the Holy Spirit and the person, who is not able to do it themselves. As a team we are effective, we can handle any problem that someone has for as one body we are strong.

Jesus’ death bridged the world to the heavens, and it is through this bridge that we are able to receive the tools of the Kingdom to further bring God’s Kingdom to Earth. In all gifts that we receive it is important that we use these gifts with the Lord and never by ourselves. The revival is not going to happen with God, we cannot do it ourselves, and so I am going to pair up with the Holy Spirit and the Tools of the Kingdom and make more disciples.

---

[1] 1 Corinthians 1:7

[2] 1 Corinthians 12:7

[3] Luke 9:1-6

[4] Acts 1:8

[5] Romans 12:4-6

[6] 1 Corinthians 12:12