Gifted

We're getting ready to jump into a series on Spiritual Gifts here in the new year, and we're doing a few soft launches before we go big. I just ran an inventory with our Senior High Sunday School class, and our Ministry Council [i.e. Administrative Council] is doing one before our meeting next week. I also tossed one on our church's twitter account for anyone who was interested.

I took the test with my students- it was the test produced for Willow Creek's Network curriculum and has roughly 8,273 questions to go through [kidding- like, 130ish... but it feels like you're taking the SAT's]. From that test, I concluded that I had the gifts of faith, mercy, and administration. Makes sense.

Then, I got the MinCo [my new, hip abbreviation for Ministry Council] test. For the sake of consistency with the rest of MinCo, I just ran through it. It's adapted from "Serving from the Heart," and it's 40-something questions. 48? I don't know. Anyway, I ended up with a six-way tie for #1 [overachiever]: encouragement, faith, knowledge, mercy, shepherding, and teaching. Sorry administration- you're out.

Now, being curious, I decided to see what the online test said. It's 21 questions and super easy to click through [plus, I don't have to do the math. Anytime I can avoid the math, I'll take it]. This test does a "primary gift" followed by a "secondary gift." It also clusters gifts into groupings- nurturing, witness, outreach, etc.- and tells you your strongest cluster... so it's a little different. I start clicking away, then hit submit, and BAM. Six gifts.

Six different gifts.

Primary: Interpretation of tongues; Secondaries: Tongues, shepherding, apostleship, wisdom, and encouragement. So basically I have 2 that cross over. Nurturing was my main cluster, too, which... duh. But let's focus for a second: these results go against what scriptures teach. You can't speak in tongues and interpret them; that can't happen. Or at least, from my understanding, that's pretty much not how those gifts work. One person speaks, another interprets. Otherwise, I could babble something, then say, "Oh, God said His favorite food is lime jello and we have to eat it at every meal," when God really didn't say that. Kara did.

I answered all of my questions honestly, but the problem with the online test was that their interpretation of "tongues" meant foreign languages and cultures, not the tongues we think of when we think "tongues in the Bible." [Although, with the amount of babbling I'm doing on here...] [also, I totally get that tongues is a legitimate gift. I've seen it, I've been a part of several moments with it- several holy moments. I'm just saying that it's not a gift I have.].

So, what'd I learn? I like to take care of people. I get that life is hard and I'm wired to dive into the mess with others, connecting them to the only One who can pull them to the surface. I know that God can and will see them through. I know that God has seen and continues to see me through. And I want to share it because it's the only way we're going to be able to survive in this world- by realizing that Christ is walking through it with us.

[And that I like to talk a lot].