My husband used to tease me about the way I acted during a church potluck dinner. I’d not be wandering the tables serving or in the kitchen cleaning up, but in a corner “talking theology” with someone.
Do I feel guilty that I’m not drawn to the church kitchen? Or that I’m not on the service committee? I used to, maybe due in part to the teasing, but now we both realize that we serve God and others best in the area of the gifts and interests He has given us.
Acts 6 starts out with, “In those days when the number of disciples was increasing, the Grecian Jews among them complained against the Hebraic Jews because their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food. So the Twelve gathered all the disciples together and said, ‘It would not be right for us to neglect the ministry of the word of God in order to wait on tables. Brothers, choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will turn this responsibility over to them and will give our attention to prayer and the ministry of the word.’”
The disciples knew their role. They excelled in preaching, teaching, and prayer. God had gifted them in those areas. They also knew that some Christians love serving in a physical way; so find the servers to do the serving jobs. As for me, every Sunday morning I feel totally inadequate to teach any class, yet I know this is the one thing in life that I am “supposed to do.” God made me a teacher and when I teach, I feel His pleasure!
The teaching gift is characterized by an appetite for information, a desire to learn, to know things, and to pass on what I discover. At the same time, nothing gives me greater joy than to help someone else discover and to see that “ah-ah” look on their face when God’s truth enlightens their mind.
This morning I’ll be teaching my regular Sunday class. For me, this is the highlight of the week. I teach by the Q&A discussion method. That is, I ask questions that prompt discussion. Sometimes the questions are about life issues (to get them into the topic), but most of them concern the Scripture we are reading for that day. Who wrote it? Who were the original readers? What was the author trying to say to them? How did they interpret it? How can we interpret it for our lives? What is God trying to tell us? How should we respond to this?
So in a way, I’m also a servant. God puts His food for the spirit on a platter, hands it to me (and I go “ah-ha”), then tells me to serve it to those who are hungry. The only difference is that the oven in my kitchen is a pile of Bibles, reference material and theology books, and if I am obedient to my teacher, there is usually no cleanup afterwards.
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