Spiritual gifts can be a tricky subject to talk about. Especially when we don't use this kind of language in our everyday lives. When people think of spiritual gifts, our minds go directly to my "church gifts." The problem happens when we start separating our gifts and talents into "church gifts" and "not church gifts."

Spiritual gifts can mean a lot of things, especially when we really think about our lives as mission. I love sports, and it wasn't until I was offered a coaching position that I learned that I have a love for coaching young athletes. So what does this have to do with spiritual gifts? I think coaching for me plays into a spiritual gift of mine. How so? I get to teach, lead, serve and disciple these athletes in various ways. In reality, it is not only my athletes that I get to do these things for. I get to teach, lead, serve, and disciple my athletes, parents, and the crowd. Not saying I am superman for all these people, but I get to honor God with my gifts through the act of coaching basketball.

What am I getting at? Simply put. I believe our passions and hobbies can be classified as spiritual gifts. Make sure we get what I'm saying. They "can" be, but no always are. But I think this kind of language that helps people see their mission easier. I thought sports were something I was done with after college. I never imagined I would coach. I even started coaching for myself, as a way to stay connected to the sport. I never imagined in what ways I would learn to love and serve until halfway through my first year.

Working at different churches I have had the privilege of hearing and meeting some amazing servants of God. I met this man who took his love of tinkering and uses it to mentor young kids after school. He uses his skills of small engine repair, wood working, and random odds and ins, to give these kids a small trade, help them stay out of trouble, and just mentor and make a lasting impact. His love of tinkering is a spiritual gift in my opinion.

I heard a story of a lady who started knitting gifts for the local nursing home. She would knit anything from socks, scarves, etc for gifts. This lady loves to knit, and had so much extra around, she made it a goal to get enough done for the local nursing home. Amazing! She took her hobby and used it to make a difference in someone's life.

These are just a couple stories. I know that I have more, and I bet you can probably think of a few. It is a great way to stay passionate about God's mission. Now there are times we are asked to help someone from the church deshingle their house, and I'll be the last person to be excited for it, but we do it anyway because that is the church. But we should not place spiritual gifts and serving God in places that fill us with dread. We shouldn't feel that we must give up our vacation time, our weekend, our money, or resources in order to feel that we served. We should also feel free to use our gifts, passions, and hobbies as spiritual gifts. Give freedom to have fun serving in the church. We have these different gifts for a reason. We all have passions for different reasons.

We celebrate our differences by sharing them with others, and we do that best when we glorify God through them.

We live in a society that if your going to accomplish something great, it has to be done on your own. Like somehow accomplishments shouldn’t be celebrated unless you did it yourself. Our culture tells us it’s every person for themselves, pick yourself back up, and you just have to work harder. That just isn’t biblical.

Biblical examples:

We can see many examples in scripture that point to how coaching was the norm.

• Coaching recognizes that God uses people differently.  God doesn’t have a one-size-fits-all mold that he uses for his people. What one person is called to do isn’t often the same as what another person’s calling is: “As Jesus was getting into the boat, the man who had been demon-possessed begged to go with him. Jesus did not let him, but said, ‘Go home to your own people and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you.’” (Mark 5:18-19)

• Coaching provides a way of contextualizing the gospel for your community. We weren’t designed to serve alone. We need others to be a sounding board and bounce ideas off one another. “And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching” (Hebrews 10:24-25). 

• Coaching moves people toward maturity and offers accountability.  Instead of simply telling people what to do, coaching helps people mature in their gifts. This promotes growth in responsibility and in leadership. Coaching provides the accountability for people to move forward into what they have decided to do. “As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another” (Proverbs 27:17). Coaching is a focused relationship that helps people continue to move forward. 

• Coaching parallels the method of Jesus.  Jesus listened and asked questions in the context of relationships, allowing them to draw their own conclusions and allowing them to decide how to act:  “When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, ‘Who do people say the Son of Man is?’ They replied, ‘Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.’ ‘But what about you?’ he asked. ‘Who do you say I am?’  Simon Peter answered, ‘You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God’” (Matt. 16:13-16).  

Now these aren’t the only things people can draw from scripture, but it offers good insight on what coaching can offer.

Leaders are not superheroes, and we should never get down on ourselves if we are not like other leaders we know. What coaching does is help strengthen in the ways where we find ourselves the weakest. It’s about coming alongside and empowering for wherever God is leading. Coaching is not telling you what to do, it’s helping you follow God’s call with confidence.

Coaching often seems like a foreign concept, but coaching leaders is much like a sports arena. Through strategy, walking through ideas, and encouragement coaching all around is to support what the coachee is doing and striving to see them thrive.

With so many states opening up from the last several weeks of restrictions, what does it look like to gather for worship again? Depending on the size of your congregation, the loosening of stay at home regulations may look differently compared to the church down the road. So what is the right answer?

This pandemic hasn’t been easy on ministry leaders around the world. Most being caught between one side that says we should honor the authorities God has placed into power, and the other side that says we just need to trust God. The position that so many have neglected to uphold would be a pathway that affirms God’s sovereignty in both putting our trust in him with going about our lives while also trusting the authorities that he has placed in positions of power.

So how do we open up our worship spaces as the desire to come together as a church body is at an all time high. How are you preparing for an influx of people when you finally open your doors?

A few things to keep in mind:

1. Where are people going to sit?

   Are you going to space people out, do you have another room where people can watch a video feed, or are you going to encourage those who can to still worship with you online? Do you have multiple services where you can have people sit in alternate pews each service? Maybe families sit together, but what happens when families take up a single pew. How does spacing work then. If you spread people out, research shows that only about 30% of your typical worship space becomes available.

2. Children’s Programs

   Children’s programs can be a vital part of our worship services, but how can we make it work when the adults have to social distance still? Many churches are opting to not reopening their children’s programs until schools reopen. The solution might take some creativity, and maybe your ministry context is unique enough to work around distancing regulations. Maybe our children’s programs become more interactive with parents at home, and we transition our main worship services to engage younger children.

3. Multiple Services

   After leading a church always trying to please everybody the reality has set in, that you can’t please everybody. Oh don’t get me wrong, I was told that, but that was still the direction that the church wanted to go in. This could be the perfect time to launch a second service. If your congregation can’t all worship together in one service because of the need to continue social distancing, why not try another service? Why not offer a little different style to each service while you are at it.

4. Offering

   Online giving. If you haven’t set this up yet, you need to do it. There are many options to choose from. Some have fees attached monthly, some only charge fees for each transaction, and others may be integrated with your website or church app. The point is, get on this trend. The more that technology get’s woven into our society, the ease of this form of giving will soon take over. Get a mobile kiosk, offer text to give, or even just direct people to your website.

5. Communion

   We aren’t going to touch on this one as in depth as every tradition may celebrate different. The focus here is how can the elements come into the least amount of contact with other people.

6. Serving Coffee or Treats

   Do you serve coffee or treats before or after the service? Instead of guests grabbing their own cup of coffee or treat, create a hospitality team that serves those who need that morning pick me up. Have the team wear gloves, use tongs for treats, and really turn up the servitude. It will be a welcoming surprise.

7. Greeters and Ushers

   Ushers will be necessary to help keep spacing adequate, but greeters should greet with a smile and not a handshake. Greet individuals and make sure they know where things are at if they are new. The bulletin that usually gets handed to individuals should be put online, or digital format. They could be handed out individually but cross-contamination is likely with this method.

8. Online Services

   If you had anything going online for Sunday Services, you should continue reaching out to the online community that has grown accustomed to meeting virtually. What we know by the numbers is that people are coming to church through their online devices more than ever. Churches that were worshipping at 100 are at about 150. Churches off 1200 are worshipping around 1500 online. Don’t cut out this ministry opportunity just because we can gather again.

9. Small Groups

   What we have come to realize is that church was never solely about the worship service, but we have realized that we have deeply missed the fellowship and community that the church affords us. Small groups need to be one of the focuses as we open back up. These groups don’t have to study the Bible, often the fellowship of believers living their gospel centered lives can be enough, at least to start. These groups offer a wonderful time to gather more frequently, makes friends, and grow together. Many of these groups have turned into developing programs at churches, doing service projects, and they have been used as a tool for evangelism.

There may be other aspects of worship that you are planning around, and we would love to add to our list. Comment or send us a message on what other ways your ministry is preparing for when we all come back together.