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The Problem with "Gift-Based Ministry"
Posted by Les Puryear in Uncategorized
On September 19, 2007, Rob Ayers wrote a post entitled, “Something to Think About: Ministry Teams.” Rob did a good job of presenting the case for “gift-based” ministry. I love Rob as a brother in Christ, however, we differ on this ministry approach. In the spirit of irenic dialogue, I offer this post in regard to assembling ministry teams according to “burdens” instead of “gifts.” This is a repost that has been revised and expanded from my original blog at Joining God in His Work.
Not gifted in evangelism? Then you don’t have to do evangelism.
Not gifted in mercy? Then you don’t have to be merciful.
Not gifted in faith? Then you don’t have to be faithful.
Not gifted in compassion? Then you don’t have to be compassionate.
Not gifted in administration? Then you don’t have to do administration.
The list could go on and on.
If “gift-based ministry” is not right, then what would be a better approach? I highly recommend Henry Blackaby’s little 92 page book entitled, What’s So Spiritual About Your Gifts? Here’s an excerpt from a chapter entitled “Gifting Follows Assignment”:
“As the Spirit reveals the will of the Father, we can then allow Him to accomplish it through our lives by the Spirit’s enabling. Equipping always follows the assignment. The enabling power of the Holy Spirit follows the assignment, never precedes it. For if we aren’t willing to obey the Lord and do His will, there’s no need for Him to give us gifts. Spiritual gifts don’t belong to the believer; they’re an expression of the Holy Spirit doing the Father’s will.”
Did you catch the emphasis of Dr. Blackaby? The emphasis is on God, not man. God empowers, equips, and enables as He calls His people to serve. We don’t deteremine when we will obey God according to our alleged gifting. We obey God and He equips us for the task, whatever it may be.
I know this flies in the face of the thinking of many SBC pastors and churches, but, to me, this is just another example of the difference of being God-centered as opposed to being man-centered. “Gift-based Ministry” is man-centered in that it is based on my gifts and how I will serve. The God-centered approach is following Christ anywhere He leads and relying on Him to equip us for the task. For those who disagree, I would recommend you take the time to read Dr. Blackaby’s book.
If “gift-based” ministry is not the answer then what is the answer for assembling ministry teams? I believe “burden-based” ministry is more biblical. What do I mean by a “burden”? I define a God-given burden in this context as “a sense of personal disquiet, urgency, and obligation, given by God and only by God, to act on behalf of and for the benefit of others to resolve a problem, meet a need, or seize an opportunity.”
I believe that the Bible is correct when it says that Lord adds to the body. If the Lord adds people to our local body of Christ, then we need to pay attention to who He is adding and what their “burdens” are, not so much their spiritual “gifts.”
As far as I can tell, God never called anyone to serve Him based on their “spiritual gifts.” God didn’t go to Moses and say, “Moses, you have the gift of courage and public speaking, therefore, I am calling you to deliver Israel from Egypt.” God didn’t go to Abraham and say, “Abe, since you have the spiritual gift of administration I’m going to call you to be the father of a great people.” God didn’t go to Gideon and say “Gideon, because you have the gift of wisdom, I’m going to call you to overthrow the Amalekites.”
No, God didn’t do that. What God did was choose to call someone, place a great desire in their heart to serve Him in a certain way, and then He equipped them for the task at hand. The equipping was always after the call.
“Burden-based ministry” is how I assemble ministry teams in our church. You see, I assume that if someone has a desire to serve God in a specific area, that is God placing that desire in their heart (“Experiencing God,” by Henry Blackaby).
I ask folks this question: If you could only do ONE thing for Christ and nothing else, what would be your heart’s greatest desire? You would be amazed at the answers. Some will have a desire to minister to elderly people. They become our nursing home ministry. Some will have a desire to reach children for Christ. They become our Children’s ministry. Some will have a desire to feed the homeless, visit the sick, work with youth, etc., etc.
This is “burden-based ministry.” You assemble ministry teams based upon their heart’s desire (burden). Then you have teams of people who actually WANT to do what they are being asked to do. For those who may not feel they are “gifted” for the ministry they feel the most burden for, tell them to ask God to equip them. When you do that, pray for them as well and watch them grow in the Lord! It is an exciting thing to watch.
For those ministries that no one seems to have a burden for, you pray that God will bring people to your church in whom He has placed a desire for those ministries. When you pray like that, you see God working all around you.
I would heartily recommend you try this “burden-based” ministry approach instead of “gift-based.” Once you see God work through the burdens of people’s hearts, you will never go back to “gift-based” ministry.
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Les,
Good stuff.
I tell my wife that I am not gifted in taking out the garbage, but am well trained in the consequences as encouragement to do so.
Les, I could not agree with you more. My ministry has taken a turn I would never have expected, yet I know God is equipping me as I go.
When my family moved to a smaller local church from the regional megachurch two towns over, I had preconceived notions of what “my” gifting was, based on my experience at the mega.
God has used His word, some good books, and very notably, the pastors at my church to point out that God may be gifting me in a different way with this church.
Praise God, He doesn’t limit me to my self-imposed limitations!
I think we need to define “gifts” here.
I get really frustrated by this mentality. I get a little frustrated at Dr. Blackaby, too, because it’s easy to miss an important point.
This isn’t a principle that is set in stone, because it leaves out two important groups of people. Well, maybe more.
Musicians and doctors.
David was a musician. BECAUSE he was a musician, God used him to minister to Saul. He didn’t call him to Saul’s court, then hand him a harp, and magically make him play. That’s what this approach to burden-based ministry approximates. Sure, God can allow someone to learn to sing or play after they recognize that call in their life, but it’s very rare to find a church musician who excels at their art IF THEY DON’T HAVE A NATURAL GIFT.
I also hope that God gifted my doctors with a very high level of intelligence from birth, otherwise they’re probably not very good doctors, regardless of when God called them to become doctors.
My point is that this mentality tends to trivialize the natural abilities that God gives us. By no means, as a musician, should I say “nope, I’m not gifted in administration, so I refuse to serve on our Board of Directors.” That attitude is wrong. But it’s also very wrong to say “your natural gift is science and biology, therefore it’s obvious that God intended for you to be a race car driver so that He can get all the glory.”
Let’s clarify gifts. I think this typically applies to some very clear things – spiritual gifts. Based on the words of Jesus Christ, NOT USING OUR TALENTS IS SIN.
Thus, I suppose I disagree with you to a certain extent, Les. I mean that in a loving way because I think this is a good topic. A lot of times the word “gifts” is used to mean something that culture typically doesn’t define it as, and we need to be clear here.
Bernard,
Thanks for a thoughtful comment. When I’m referring to “gifts,” I mean spiritual gifts such as one sees on those spiritual inventories.
I wholeheartedly agree with you about the use of one’s talent. The doctor and the singer, in your examples, have special talents and these should be used for the glory of God.
Regards,
Les
Jerry,
Mike,
Amen, brother.
Bernard,
I wholeheartedly agree with you that “not using our talents is sin.” I’m speaking of spiritual “gifts,” which I’m defining as abilities as given by the Holy Spirit for the service of God. I’m not addressing “talents,” which I define as a God-given ability given to one at birth.
Les
Les -
I appreciate your response. I just wanted to stress that due to my observations that the two are very easily confused, especially to newer believers.
Thanks!
I tend to agree. Gene Getz follows a similar approach in Sharpening the Focus of the Church (now The Measure of A Church) which suggests that measureing a church should not evaluate spirituality by a manifestation of spiritual gifts. Instead we must look for the degree to which believers are manifesting faith, hope and love.
Joe,
Thanks for the book recommendation. I’ll try to get a copy.
Les
Les,
IMHO, the church that gets everyone Pugged In and uses the Spiritial Gifts that God Alone gives in his Grace, is the Spirit Filled Church.
In His Name