In many churches, it is standard practice to have Christians take some kind of a spiritual gift inventory. Through a series of questions that probe an individual’s interests, passions, and successes, these tests claim to help people discover the ways the Holy Spirit has gifted them to better love and serve his people.
Much has been written about such inventories and many people have expressed a degree of skepticism about their usefulness or accuracy. I have long observed that these resources typically lead people to front-of-the-room service more than less visible forms and that they generally lead people to serve in ways that are within their comfort zone and consistent with their pre-existing desires.
Yet the great majority of Christian love and service happens outside the gaze of the congregation and many of the ways God calls us to serve him contradict our natural desires rather than harmonize with them. God is able and often eager to ask us to do things that are difficult and that push us well outside our natural capacities. Hence we find Moses the stuttering leader and Saul the shy king. We find a host of ministers and leaders who, if they remained consistent with their natural talents or desires would never set foot in a pulpit or dare to pastor a church. We find a host of Christians who serve in ways they never would have chosen had God not provided burden and opportunity.
Where you spot a need, consider meeting it. Where you spot a weakness, consider strengthening it. Where you spot an opportunity, consider taking it.
This is not to say that such inventories are useless or have no purpose. Yet it seems wise to treat them with some degree of caution, and willingly make ourselves available to God to serve in any capacity, whether we can identify special gifting or not. The reason is simple: it often seems that God gives the gift with the calling, rather than the calling with the gift.
With that in mind, here is one inventory that I would encourage you to consider. Instead of surveying yourself, survey your local church. Instead of assessing your own strengths, assess your church’s needs. Instead of focusing on the gifts God may have given you, focus on the gifts that God may want your church to have. Where you spot a need, consider meeting it. Where you spot a weakness, consider strengthening it. Where you spot an opportunity, consider taking it. You may just find that as you move forward, even with trepidation, God bestows the gifting.
