SCL

AwRight, a new guest post! And from someone with the "spiritual gift of Not Shutting Up When Something Really, Really, Really Needed To Be Said." As a wise colleague/mentor once said: 'sometimes you've gotta cut the head off the snake.' I'll buy not having the Gift of Prophecy or the Gift of Tongues, but not having the gift of picking up a broom or wiping down a dollar-store pastel tablecloth if it's right there and needs doing? Nope, not buying that one.

We are called to have a servant’s heart, and this means doing what needs to be done, with a cheerful heart. But God has also given us each unique gift for the purpose of building up the church. What do you have a passion for, what are you good at that has very little to do with you, but was put there by God? That is your spiritual gift.

This goes right with something else we Christians seem to like, which is finding ways to blame God for everything we do. Don't want to sweep up after a potluck, but feel guilty? It's God's fault! He didn't give you the gift of helps! Don't know whether to buy the red chairs or the blue chairs, and feel confused? It's God's fault! He hasn't made his will plain! Don't want to go out with that guy or girl, but don't want to look like a jerk? Throw God under the bus for that one, too!

Yeah. We've pretty much been doing this since the very first people alive.

Chris……..good one!! Jon……good choice!!

now both of you…….quit stepping on my toes……….

My friend got married a couple of years ago and asked me to read the scripture in her wedding (you know, I was the B friend in that situation). She told me she picked me because reading the Bible was my spiritual gift. True story.

I don't have the gift of helps in that I really don't derive that much joy from cleaning things up and setting them back out. But because I don't mind helping when help is needed, I've started to hear, "Well, don't you have the gift of helps, Emily?" No! I'm just being nice! Please don't put me on a committee to move chairs or anything!

HAHA! What a cop out!

gift of "helps" – Trying to make laziness spiritual!

Haha! Wow. I know a lot of people who were not blessed with this gift (myself included sometimes).

Personally, I wasn't blessed with the Gift of Potlucks. Seriously, I can never make a dish to pass that actually gets eaten.

"I pointed out that I didn’t see “helps” mentioned as a spiritual gift in any Bible I’ve read."

1 Corinthians 12:28 (New King James Version)
28 And God has appointed these in the church: first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, administrations, varieties of tongues.

I am convinced that my 6 year old son has the gift of boogers. I've said enough.

Nicely done, Bobby. I guess I never noticed that in the NKJV translation. Does "helps" show up in translations? And does "helps" actually mean "helping out physically around the church?"

You might not see me sweeping up either, but it's not because I don't have the gift, it's just because I'm lazy. You may see me displaying the Gift of Slowly Putting My Guitar Gear Away So I Don't Have To Do Anything Else, or even the Gift of Chasing My Two-Year-Old Daughter Around.

I think when we call something basic like cleaning up a "spiritual gift," we're saying, "nope, can't possibly do that thing, ever." At least by just acknowledging that I'm lazy, I'm opening the door to changing that behavior. I guess I've officially challenged myself to stop being so lazy and start flexing those "helps" gifts.

I started to read this but I realized I don't have the gift of "blog readery". Crap, I also don't have the gift of "Blog Posting" either. How did I get here?

There is a spiritual gift of helps (1 Corinthians 12:28). That said, all of us should help, but some of us have the gift so that we can help more. We want to help more. God gives us opportunities to help, which He might not give to others. Faith is listed as a gift (1 Corinthians 12:9). Every believer has faith, but some have the gift of faith.

Sadly, lots of people in the church think their pastor is the only one with the gift of 'helps,' (along with every other gift.) But seriously, even if you're at the top of the totem pole of spiritual gifts, it seems it would be possible to work the lower gifts. It's like a manager of a restaurant working the counter because one of the employees hasn't quite embraced their gift of selecting the correct food pictures on the cash register.

I want to kidney punch people who lame and claim "I don't have the gift of helps". But I don't. I want to though. If you'll pray for my violence tendencies towards jerks, I'll pray for you not to be a jerk if you call them out on it. Great story Christopher. And thanks, Jon, for sharing.

Most translations interpret that verse "those able to help others" which may be more accurate. Having grown up in charasmatic circles where spiritual gifts are sought quite fervently, I have never heard of someone praying to recieve this gift. But maybe we already have it. If we hit a rough spot while serving or realize that it involves hard work that no one will see, too oftenwe just decide that "I'm not called to do this".

Holy cow! I didn't even realize we could claim that! Heck, I'm going to, at our next church council meeting, claim to not have the "Gift of Listening-to-boring-arguments-about-nothingness" and leave. This is great!

And to think, I thought that having a spiritual gifts weren't terribly helpful in normal situations… All this time wasted and I could have been skipping out on meetings for a long, long time now!

Good God chose, in his sovereignty, not to give me the "Gift of Work Ethic" or else I wouldn't be able to read all these blogs. ::wipes brow emphatically::

There are the spiritual gifts listed in the Bible, and then there are the made-up-by-humans spiritual gifts, like helps, hospitality and administration. I don't really get the point of the made-up gifts. Are they meant to encourage (coerce?) people to do "church work"? Do church leaders fear that some Christians don't have any authentic, certified spiritual gifts, so they've helpfully added some, to make sure that everyone passes the "spiritual gifts" test? Am I the only one who suspects that spiritual tests measure skills and personality traits, and not supernatural gifts from God? Hmmm…

Your guest poster hit the truth nail squarely on its head, and yes, he probably did skirt the outer boundaries of "in love", but it sounds like helps-lacking-dude needed a swift reality check, and the class needed to hear the Word rightly divided, not subdivided and built on by a shoddy developer.

Good word.

Thank you, Christopher for having the gift of "Oh, heck no! You ain't ain't blame-shifting your apathy to God as if He were lacking in administration of gifts."

If only I had more people with your gift around when I feel like saying, "I don't have the gift of evangelism." Perhaps you could have rattle me to my senses with a rebuke like, "Or maybe God just passed you over with the gift of the Holy Spirit. You obviously have the gift of greedy consumption because you spend time with the church, soaking up the love of the Body of Christ but feel no need to pass this love along. Perhaps you should pray for the gift of repentance for seeking acceptance from the world first in your life and not wanting to risk offense to them by bringing glory to God in gratitude for Christ's saving work on the cross that washes all your sins away. Or maybe you prefer the gift of enslavement to the sins of the flesh?"

Another classic church circle favorite, is "I know that so and so is really hurting, or I can see that so and so is really needy, but I don't have the gift of mercy, so I can't help him or her, listen to him or her or otherwise inconvenience myself to be so merciful. Pass that girl/guy on to someone with the gift of mercy! And quickly please because it's making me uncomfortable." Yeah, we do that one a lot in the church too. And just like we can all pitch in and help, we all can and should show the same mercy to others that we've been shown by Christ when we ourselves were needy, emotional, and weak.

1 Corinthians 12:7 uses the phrase "manifestation of the Spirit" to describe spiritual gifts. IMHO, i believe that a spiritual gift causes people to say, "Wow, God is so incredible." So, unless God gives you crazy mad broom skills, i don't know that really qualifies as spiritual gift. But, calling out people with passion….

I was going to attempt to be funny, but I don't have the Gift of Comment Funnyness, at least not today.

I will say that comments like his (the Christian author's) really diminish the whole concept of spiritual gifts. I mean, back in the day, gifts included speaking in tongues and prophesy. Those are pretty huge, you have to admit. Stuck next to them, "Gift of Helps" seems pretty shoddy, not to mention a cop-out. And nowhere in the NT, and I've read it all in the past few weeks, is helping your fellow Christian a "gift". I daresay it's a "command". So… "I don't have the 'Gift of Obedience to Christ'" might be more appropriate. You think Jesus didn't clean up? He washed the feet of his followers, for crying out loud. How many of us would do that today? But that kind of attitude and lowliness of mind is what we're all called to have, whether we're a rank-and-file Christian (so to speak), a best-selling author, or a clever and amazingly gifted blogger.

I am convinced that most of us don't know what the actual spiritual gifts from the Bible really are! People have been making up spiritual gifts so long that some of them (yes, including Helps) are now sounding like gifts that were actually presented in the Bible.

In my opinion people start to make up new spiritual gifts because they don't know how to use the gifts that God gave them or don't like the one they got. I think churches need to do a better job helping Christian's discover and use their spiritual gifts.

Re: Romans 12:28. This is a verse about gifts, and in some translations, it does include "helps" and "administration", but in the original language, "helps" seems to refer to serving people, helping one another, as opposed to cleaning, etc.; and administration is more accurately translated as governing, rendering counsel, etc. We seem to have strayed from those meanings, and moved toward practical "church jobs" that match people's skills, abilities and personalities — their human nature — rather than seeing spiritual gifts as God sees them — supernatural gifts that we can only operate in by the power of the Holy Spirit. That's my two cents, for what it's worth.

This is a really funny post, and although I see it a lot, most people won't get away with laziness in our church. My pastor, although he never uses names is really good at pointing out those who have perhaps been skipping out of their duties to beat the lunch crowd at Chili's. We did a lecture on spiritual gifts last year and he made it very clear that the absence of a gift did not entitle someone the right to do nothing (although some people have tried to pull the, "hey I can't do this right, could you give me a hand?" And as soon as you pick up their slack they walk away. I think I did that a couple of times, but I always went on to another project that I could handle (I usually stuck with media equipment and never worried about helping others unless I finished early)). Wow, this is a really long comment. Why are you still reading this?

not a phrase i'd ever heard…but in the same category of people not doing something/anything because they're waiting for God to call them to action

I remember once hanging out with a certain zany group of people whom seemed to treat spiritual gifts like they were superpowers or something.

/casts Level 4 Gift of Discernment
//gains 24 pts experience

"You think Jesus didn't clean up? He washed the feet of his followers, for crying out loud."

Wow. Amen.

I remember one guy that worked at my church using the more generic “That’s not my spiritual gift” line all the time. And yes, it usually seemed to revolve around specific things that he just didn’t want to do.
I’ve since tried to use that line around the house but my wife just laughs at me and tells me not to be an idiot.

Playing the spiritual gift card is a classic move done only by the most seasoned veterans. You have to be careful in playing this card because it can back fire on you like it did for the guy who doesn't help people.

I don't think I have ever done this before, but I sure have thought about it.

Ugh. Soooo guilty. When I attended a smaller church, I led worship, taught high school Sunday school, directed the mid-week children's program, and hosted/led a small group. I literally came unglued when my name repeatedly showed up on the kitchen committee to make food and serve for funerals, shut-ins, and other special events. My argument was that I was using the spiritual gifts God gave me in other areas and I shouldn't have to do all of it. Truth is, I HATE doing dishes and I don't like standing in a kitchen with a gaggle of women chit-chatting and gossiping my life away….. I probably should have had more of a servant's heart. sigh. I was also taught as I was growing up that we are given certain spiritual gifts, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't practice applying all of them as long as our goal is to be Christlike. oops.

we know that we can ask God for gifts like prophecy and healing and there's nothing abnormal about that, right? if we are His children, why do we think those particular gifts are inaccessible but gifts like "helps" or "exhortation" are okay?

So… how many times do you think we take something the Bible teaches and add our own "human" (or pharisee) spin to it. True, there are verses about spiritual gifts. Instead of listening to a bunch of teaching on the subject and reading stacks of books about it, what would happen if we just asked God about it. Talked to Him. Listened to the Spirit's lead. We know He will not muddle things up like we do.

About a year ago, I took a spiritual gifts discovery course at my church, and one of my top three was "Helps." I understand it to be the spiritual gift of finding fulfillment and joy in completing the day-to-day and behind-the-scenes tasks that allow the church to run smoothly and others to pursue their own gifts.

This revelation explained why I love watching the youth choir I help direct perform or why I like arriving early to rehearsals to set up — and yet I'm not comfortable with recognition or solos or the spotlight. It's just instinctual for me to clear the way for others; I love doing it. Now, this isn't to say that I let people force me into Cinderella-esque labor; I am conscious that such abuse is a potential downside of my spiritual gift!

And that takes me to respond directly to Christopher. You're right: laziness or claiming an inability to do something because it isn't in alignment with your primary spiritual gifts is wrong. Knowing your spiritual gifts tells you how you can BEST serve in accordance with God's design, but not the ONLY way you can serve. So, while I thank you for standing up to him and agree that he was being a dolt, I believe "Helps" is a real spiritual gift. It's just one that not enough people have and few people seem to understand.

About a year ago, I learned one of my primary spiritual gifts is "Helps." I understand it to be the spiritual gift of finding fulfillment and joy in completing the day-to-day and behind-the-scenes tasks that allow others to pursue their own gifts.

This revelation explained why I love helping others and yet seldom seek the spotlight for myself. It also helped me become conscious that others might abuse my spiritual gift… which leads to my direct response to this post.

You're right: laziness or claiming an inability to do something because it isn't in alignment with your primary spiritual gifts is wrong. Knowing your spiritual gifts tells you how you can BEST serve in accordance with God's design, but not the ONLY way you can serve. So, while I thank you for standing up to him and I agree that he was being a jerk, I believe "Helps" is a real spiritual gift. It's just one that few people seem to understand or appreciate.

I once had someone tell me that my spiritual gift was dishwashing.

So everytime I'm at someone's house washing dishes and they say, "Oh, don't worry about that, you don't have to wash my dishes," I say, "It's no big deal. Just exercising my spiritual gifts."

I guess I do have the gift of helps.

It's like when I purport my Spiritual Gift of Sarcasm. I tell people it's the only one I received.

I'm telling my wife I don't have the spiritual gift of changing dirty diapers or changing the air filter.

I would tend to think that 'helps' , in the spiritual way, means more of being helpful and available to others (relational stuff) not just cleaning up after a church function. Put the two together, helping others with the helping, and you've got a great combination.

Ok my spiritual gift is encouragement, of course I tend to lean to the darkside and encourage bad behavior, but what can I say, the darkside has cookies.

Ok now on a serious note. I believe a spiritual gift is whenever God gives to us something we cannot have n our own. Life is a spiritual gift because God gave it in the first place. Healing and miracles are obvious, but what of Wisdom or Knowledge. These are gifts that move beyond what we could do or know on our own. Even Faith is called a spiritual gift in that it is a Faith that goes beyond our own ability to trust and believe. In 1 Corinthians 13 we are encouraged to seek the greater gifts which are Faith Hope and Love, the greatest being Love. In our flesh we do not reach the kind of Love that God calls us to, but through His Spirit we can.

That verse at the end of chapter 12 tell us to seek greater gifts, which means that each of the gifts can be sought, and if sought given. I believe that some people naturally love to serve. That is who they are by either some kind of natural genetic trait or as a learned behavior, Whatever, it doesn't matter they love serving. It may be a gift God places in them, but honestly I believe that if God gives the gift of helps it is for those who do not like to serve but who know we are called to be servants, "for whoever wishes to be great in the kingdom of God must become a servant to all." When we truly seek God and understand what we are called to be, then God can make it possible for us to overcome our own nature, which may not enjoy serving, so that we can follow Him. If someone does not have this natural desire, then they should seek God for a gift that superceeds their natural man.

Of course I am probably way off base with how I understand it. I'm just incorporating the fuller context and ignoring individual verses. How very unChristian.

Boy do I wish I had been present at that Sunday School class discussion. I would have had to give an "Oh snap!"

Part one of comment: I do believe some people have the gift of helps. When I worked at different churches, those were the people behind the scenes that made so much difference in keeping things running. We had people who would come in and help answer phones, and work in the office who freed up the pastoral staff to be able to see more people and take care of their ministry responsibilities. We had people who would come in and faithfully clean the building and set up and bring flowers and make refreshements. All those "little" things created an environment where things were ready and comfortable for the people to join together as a family. Sort of like people hosting a holiday meal for their family and lovingly preparing for their time together…

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Part two:
And just like with any family gathering, sometimes there are poopy diapers that need to be cleaned, children to wrangle, toilets to be unplugged, the messy clean up afterwards. Thank God for the people who have a heart and passion for that kind of service. But I can tell you that almost every week I ever worked at a church I had my hands in the toilets unclogging them and holding the screaming babies to help the overworked nursery workers. Not my "gifting" but certainly a great opportunity to serve the family I loved too. No one should ever be too big in the church to run the vacume cleaner. Great post Jon

My husband has an amazing gift of helping and he is so humble about it. He also as the gift of giving. He is extravagant in giving his time, his finances, etc to the body of Christ. He is always helping to fix things or move things around to make life smoother for everyone else. It is an awesome thing to see when he is walking full force in his giftings.

All gifts aside, it doesn't take divine intervention to help other people out with common menial tasks like cleaning a kitchen or moving chairs. Refusal to do so is lazy and selfish.

We have Christianized everything to the point of absolute insanity… "Gift of Helps." What's next? Gift of thinking?

Every Sunday, I hope to get to church on time but God blessed me with the gift of sleeps.

I have no qualms with doing the washing up, but I can't get near the sinks for all the amazingly gifted ladies of the church. I usually make do with showing off my strength and organisational giftings (read manliness) by clearing up the chairs and tables. It always sucks when I'm doing something sound related and have to wind up cables and put away microphones instead of carrying 8 chairs at once (or using the groovy red chair truck we use for moving stacks of chairs) or folding the table legs one-handed.

Ooooooooh, man. This was oddly convicting. I have definitely tried to convince myself I could wiggle out of sharing the Gospel with someone because I don't have the "gift of evangelism."

You know, I don't have the spiritual gift of purity. That's why I have reckless sex with anyone and everyone who will consent. I mean, if we're going to use a lack of a spiritual gift as an excuse for spiritual apathy, why not go for the gold?

The guy was twisting the Bible to excuse his apathy. Maybe you were a jerk, maybe you weren't, but in that particular scenario, it's not inappropriate to call him out.

When I was trying to find people to help tidy up after an event at my church one guy said that he isn't good at that sort of thing. I just said that practice makes perfect and walked off. The next thing I new was he was drying up in the kitchen. I love being stern sometimes.