Afterthought
Puritan Board Senior
It has been promoted in various circles that every Christian is given a spiritual gift to serve the church with. Indeed, many will go even further and say that since they were given the gift, they should be grateful and so have a duty to use it. As such, tests and support will be given to help the Christian find out what his or her spiritual gift is.
My questions:
1) Excluding the office bearers of the church, which God gave for the church, do all Christians have one or more particular spiritual gifts? If this is a confused question that doesn't make sense in the context of Reformed theology, why doesn't it make sense (passages in Scripture such as in 1 Cor. 12-14, Romans 12, Ephesians, and 1 Peter seem to indicate all have been given one or more particular spiritual gifts), and what takes this concept's place if anything?
2) If all have been given spiritual gifts, what bearing do they have on the believer? Does it place such a duty on the Christian that one should work to discover one's spiritual gifts so as to use them for the church's good? Does it place a duty on the Christian to use it at all? Does it require the Christian to figure out some "ministry" (music "ministry", children's "ministry", biker's "ministry", taking care of the homeless "ministry", art "ministry", etc.) to work in, perhaps at even the expense or promotion of the local church (perhaps the local church already has such a "ministry" for the believer to get involved in)?
Given the role that the ministry plays in a Reformed church, such that laymen aren't even given to read the Scriptures in public worship, my guess is that the answer concerning "spiritual gifts" will be a bit different than what other circles speak of (as such, I didn't bother asking the question of whether those spiritual gifts should be exercised in worship, since the answer to such seemed easy enough to decide). But what takes their place? What function do they or what takes their place have?
My questions:
1) Excluding the office bearers of the church, which God gave for the church, do all Christians have one or more particular spiritual gifts? If this is a confused question that doesn't make sense in the context of Reformed theology, why doesn't it make sense (passages in Scripture such as in 1 Cor. 12-14, Romans 12, Ephesians, and 1 Peter seem to indicate all have been given one or more particular spiritual gifts), and what takes this concept's place if anything?
2) If all have been given spiritual gifts, what bearing do they have on the believer? Does it place such a duty on the Christian that one should work to discover one's spiritual gifts so as to use them for the church's good? Does it place a duty on the Christian to use it at all? Does it require the Christian to figure out some "ministry" (music "ministry", children's "ministry", biker's "ministry", taking care of the homeless "ministry", art "ministry", etc.) to work in, perhaps at even the expense or promotion of the local church (perhaps the local church already has such a "ministry" for the believer to get involved in)?
Given the role that the ministry plays in a Reformed church, such that laymen aren't even given to read the Scriptures in public worship, my guess is that the answer concerning "spiritual gifts" will be a bit different than what other circles speak of (as such, I didn't bother asking the question of whether those spiritual gifts should be exercised in worship, since the answer to such seemed easy enough to decide). But what takes their place? What function do they or what takes their place have?
