Orienting ourselves to this training, here are our starting questions...

The intersection between the needs of the world and my talents...

What if my spiritual gifts don't have a clear outlet in the existing activities of my local parish church?

We typically have spiritual gifts in more than one area, we are called to God's purpose first and foremost. There are opportunities to expand and create new ministries if there are currently untapped spiritual gifts if there is motivation and will to use them.

Sometimes our spiritual gifts are not fully developed, because we have limiting beliefs about our ability to use them. Our gifts are often obscured or invisible to us, but more visible to others who can see us with different eyes.

For this introductory training, we are going to ground our work today in some key understandings about spiritual gifts. These are taken from Lloyd Edwards, "Discerning Your Spiritual Gifts."

Spiritual gifts are for use in the cause of God, for bringing reconciliation and healing, one and truth and justice, the divine weight of right relationship with each other and with God.

This is important as we differentiate spiritual gifts from talents. If I have a talent for photography, it is not a spiritual gift unless I use it as a way to reconcile and heal.

Part of my growth into the wise and faithful use of my gifts must be learning to let others use their gifts in ways complementary to the use of mine.

This is a flock of starlings, in a formation known as a murmuration. The birds wheel and turn, without even crashing into one another. The turns and movements are beautiful, as well as a means to protect the flock from predators.

The Community of Faith is the space to DISCOVER and CLAIM and USE and REFLECT ON the use of my gifts.

To practice cooperation in the use of gifts is to be in community; in fact, "community" in its root meaning has to do with doing things together.

The work of the church is not primarily good liturgy, or effective social action, or compassionate outreach, important as those are. They come and go, and their results are so often disappointing when viewed by the standards of effectiveness.

But the discovery of one's own gifts, and the results of of support and encouragement in using them, lasts; the witness of someone using their gifts calls for the gifts of another Jesus never described his ministry or anyone else's in such broad terms as "helping others": He simply used his gifts in God's cause and left the outcome to God.

Be with others in their joy and sorrow. It's is not so much to do for them as to be whole in their presence. It is not so much to save the world as to be the saved people that we are. We are not out to save the world. God has done that. We are called to live in the grace that comes with our world, with our life, and with our gifts, so that those about us may know the goodness of God by seeing what God has given us, and may be called into that same filial relationship with God.

A view of gifts which stresses cooperation and community is one in which every person's ministry is seen as part of the whole ministry of the church. All members of the church are important to its realization. Without this discovery, the ideas of spiritual gifts would be considerably less important.

While it is necessary in our time that the church be an institution, it is also true that where the church is understood ONLY as an institution, the kingdom of God is forgotten or subverted.

The vision of ministry requires changes of perception on the part of all Christians. They must begin to see themselves as people "ordained" at baptism as legitimate ministers of Christ, and, equally important, must learn to accept care from other laypersons, as well as from clergy, as if it were from Christ.

1 Corinthians 12-13

In Paul's original writing, these two chapters were not separate, and it is helpful to study them together because Paul writes about or individual spiritual gifts and our loving attitude toward others being in conjunction with one another.

Understanding our spiritual gifts and sharing them in love with others is essential in Paul's thinking.

Lectio Divina

NRSV--what verse or idea best summarizes this passage?

The Message
If you take this reading seriously, what changes can you make in your life?