Varieties of Gifts

Fellowship – Snacks or a Meal (10 minutes with snacks; longer, obviously, if there is a meal).

Gathering and Opening (10 minutes). Begin by exploring participants’ results from their spiritual gifts assessments. What did they find surprising? Did any participants disagree with their results? What new areas of ministry might some participants need to explore? (An optional exercise would be for participants to try and guess other participants’ spiritual gifts before they reveal their results.)

Group Dialogue (Approximately 30 minutes). Read: 1 Corinthians 12:1-11.

Count the number of times the word “Spirit” is used in the passage [8]. What might this reveal about the emphasis of this passage? [More about the Spirit than us.]
Read Ephesians 4:11-13 and Romans 12:6-8. What might these other lists of gifts suggest about the number of spiritual gifts? [Not limited just to those mentioned here.] What other gifts would you add that are not listed?
Who benefits the most when we are operating out of our giftedness? Us? Others? Both?
Do you think our spiritual gifts can change over time?
(R) How might we over focus on our spiritual gifts such that practicing them is self-centered as opposed to being for the “common good” (v. 7)?
(R) Have participants tell of a time when they operated out of their giftedness and/or when they had to do something they were not gifted to do. Is it always wrong to do only what we’re gifted for?

Practice: Find one way to use your giftedness this week and be ready to report about it next session.

Prayer (10 minutes). Share prayer requests and respond appropriately.

Sending Forth (2 minutes). End by praying the following or a similar prayer:

Father, Son, and Spirit, you model for us a community of mutuality and an essence of love. You have given us a diversity of gifts for the building up of the community. Give us the eyes of appreciation, instead of envy, for the giftedness that others add to the community. Give us the eyes to see the needs of others and the courage to be empowered by the Holy Spirt to be the “hands and feet of Christ.” Amen.