BULLETIN ARTICLE – 30 July 2017
Our Church is made up of many different people with many different gifts and talents. There are those who are musically inclined, those who can preach and teach, and those who prefer to do different Church work behind the scenes. The different gifts and talents are clearly utilised in our various Church ministries, each performing a set function.
Keeping the various and different ministries separate does help the Church to function better, just like an organisation with the various and different departments. It would not make sense, resource and function-wise to have every ministry overlapping and interfering with each other’s work. The Church needs each individual ministry to serve its individual purpose to help the church grow as we allow God to add to our numbers in His way and time.
However, we sometimes get caught up on focusing on the differences between the ministries. If we start competing and comparing between different ministries, that is where the problem starts. Though it may be easy to give in to worldly habits, we should never think that we are better, or serving God better, than those around us or for that matter, anyone else. It is true that God has given us different gifts and talents, but we have all been gifted for the same purpose – to build up the Church of Christ and for the glory of God.
We have been reminded by the Apostle Paul that “There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work.” (1 Corinthians 12: 4-6) While our prevalent purposes seem different, focusing on the gifts and talents we have received, we must not be divided by the material outcomes we are able to achieve. Instead, we should focus on the fact that all things are done for God and for His glory. Though we may be different in worldly purposes (playing music, setting up AV systems, teaching Sunday School classes, preaching from the pulpit, etc), we are the same in spiritual purpose. We must not forget that we all, as members of BKC, make up the body of Christ, and that our gifts and talents are given to us by the Holy Spirit for the common good of BKC and to glorify our God and to extend His kingdom.
