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Giftedness

Axioms of gift and mission Theology:

1 Every Christian has one or more gifts.
2 Every Christian is called to exercise their gifts in the mission of God.
3 The ministry of every christian is required in the ministry and mission of the church
4 Every gifting is equally important in the life of the church
5 Gifts and ministry labels identified in the Bible are not exhaustive. Other gifts and other ministries are equally possible.
6 The Church exists to achieve the vision and mission that God has given her.
7 Ministry and gifting follow calling.

In the bible's discussion of gifts, the writers of the New Testament use the term in a number of ways:

1) Power gifts: these are a divine impartation of God's power in some fashion. The effect may only be achieved through that power for example healing, miracles etc or they enable the ability in an area that doesn't solely require God's power for example song leading. Any competent musician can lead singing from carols by candlelight to the national anthem etc. The spiritual gift of music/worship leading adds discernment and direction, to name two, so that the right music is played at the right time and communicates the message of God at that time in all its variety.

2) Motivational gifts: These are the things that drive or motivate the Christian. An intercessor is driven to intercession, prophets are difficult to live with and teachers will detail the twelve reasons why you have trouble in the areas you have trouble with and what to do about it complete with biblical exegesis.

3) Gifts by God to the church: These are the Christians themselves making up the rich fabric of the church - the prophets given for direction, teachers to develop, helpers to keep the church running in practical ways.

It should also be noted that the bible doesn't make these distinctions, they are a fabrication of western thought but they remain very useful in getting our western heads around the topic.

The names, in some cases, overlap between the categories but what the names refer to don't. Take for example the term prophet. In the power gift category, the exercising of the gift of prophet involves supernaturally expressing a message from God to his people.

In the motivational gift category, the prophet is a person who is driven by their internal imperatives to move the church and Christians to the purity of God's ways - a kind of evangelist for the church. In the motivational gift category they are operating out of personality.

In the final category, the office of prophet is a Christian leader who is a holder of the tradition (ie the Gospel etc) and critiques the church's life against that tradition. Primarily the prophet is someone who re-points the church back to God. They are an identifier of issues. They continually compare the church to the vision and also the standard of the Bible. They are called more than any other office to be independent and to be God's representative. The challenge to the church is to allow space for such a person to operate.

The difference between the motivational gift and the gift by God to the church is that the motivational gift is a description of personality, viewpoint and way of life. The gift by God to the church is about ministry and leadership in the church or to go further it is a viewpoint of the church from where God stands in that he is raising up that ministry as a gift to the church. There is an element of ministry formation in that raising up. Competence and Christian maturity appear to be a precursor to that raising up. There is a distinction between God raising up a ministry and a church appointing to ministry. They may coincide or they may not with very interesting results.

Any one person can operate in the same gift name across all categories. Some, for example, operate in all three categories of prophet. Equally a person may operate in a gift name in only one or two categories. Keith Green, for example, is often called a prophet but he was not known to stand in church sunday by sunday beginning to speak with the words "thus sayeth the Lord..." Rather he exhibited the motivational gifts of prophet and that developed into the ministry role or final category of prophet. Generally, the ministry or final category, have related power gifts and motivational gifts that tend to be fairly consistent. Not all people operating in the ministry will have all the identified gifts in the other two categories but there will be a modicum of similarity. This is a result of axiom 7: ministry and gifting follow calling. Gifting is about God equipping the Christian on all levels for their ministry.

I offer three definitions of a leader:

1. "A leader is someone who is actively altering their environment to achieve God's purpose"
2. A leader is someone who operates in the power gift: "leader"
3. A leader is someone who holds a recognized position of responsibility in the local or trans- local church.

All three are valid definitions of a leader and each state something unique for our understanding of leadership. At first look they appear to be contradictory, however when held in tension they encompass some of the broad range of things we mean when we say "leader".

The first definition is broad enough to include all Christians. It is an important understanding that the church is called to be made up of leaders in this sense, who responsibly fulfill their individual calling and ministry. It also allows no place for a hierarchy of leaders. Rather it suggests an organic model of church governance: governance arises out of the interaction of leaders and leaders exercising their leadership. Each leader operates within the sphere of their ministry or responsibility whether that is a number of churches, a single church or simply doing the organization on a Saturday to get the church cleaned. This definition arises from the body passages in 1Cor 12 and other places.

The second definition suggests that there is a supernatural aspect to leadership. Just as the power gifts around musicianship transform and empower music ministry, the power gifts around leadership will transform and empower leadership.

The third definition is well recognized and is a pragmatic description of what happens in most churches.

To my mind, the third definition is actually the least useful because it doesn't move our understanding of leadership and is open to abuse. When the three are held in tension however this is not possible because everyone from the most senior leader in definition 3, to the lowly cleaner of churches is an equally valid leader under definition 1.

Lets see whether we can discover something of the gift of leadership across the three categories:

The Power Gift:

1) Mt 4:18-22, Lk 5:1-11

· Was Jesus well known, did he have a high profile at this stage of his ministry?
· Was there any specific reason to follow him?
· Why did the disciples follow him?

2) Mt 9:9, Lk 5:27-28

· Was Jesus well known, did he have a high profile at this stage of his ministry?
· Was there any specific reason to follow him?
· Why did the disciples follow him?

3) Lk 4:14-37

· Why were they amazed in Vs 22?
· What was wrong with being a carpenter's son in this context?
· What was their impression in Vs 22 and 28,29?
· How did he avoid being thrown over the cliff?
· Why were they amazed in Vs 32?
· Why were they amazed in Vs 36?

4) Jn 8:1-11

· How does Jesus avoid being stoned?

5) Acts 27:14-44

· What was Paul's position - who was in control?
· Who showed leadership in Vs 21-26?
· What is incongruous in this picture?
· Who showed leadership in Vs 30-32?
· What is wrong with this picture?
· Who showed leadership in Vs 33-36?
· What is wrong with this picture?
· How did Paul, a prisoner in chains on a capital charge, in a crisis manage to get away with this activity?

6) 1Kings 18:8-20, 19:19-21

· What was the relationship in each case between Elijah and the others in the passage?
· What would have been the expected conversation?
· What really happened?

I believe that in these verses we see something of the shape of the power gift of leadership. In all these passages we see a response to the person in their actions that doesn't match their position. The immediate response of the disciples to Jesus when he called them when he was relatively unknown, the amazement of Jesus' hearers, the failure of the plot of the adulterous woman and Paul's true leadership in chains and crisis. I believe that the power gift of leadership is supernatural authentication, legitimization and authorization. This is what caused the disciples to drop everything to follow an unknown, the amazement of Jesus' hearers because their heart response didn't match their knowledge of Jesus and why Paul, instead of being slapped down, slipped into key leadership.

The Ministry of Leader

The ministry of leader can be seen in the many offices of the people of God from Joshua the leader into the promised Land to James the brother of Jesus and the leader of the Jerusalem church. Leadership in this context has two directions: these people are recognized by the people of God as having a leadership role and they are gifted, called and anointed in that role. The ministry of leader is not linked to any one ministry exclusively, but rather their activity in leadership and scope of leadership is to some extent defined by their role. In other words Elders/Overseers lead in the context of the local church, Apostles lead in the context of their ministries of church planting, keepers of the tradition etc. Leadership in my theology is an aspect of another ministry. If someone is appointed to the position of Minister of a church, they are expected to operate in a variety of different ways including pastoral ministry, preaching, administration as well as leadership. A minister would not be acceptable to a church if all they could do was lead.
My thinking is unashamedly more towards definition 1 of leadership than definition 3. In definition 1 each Christian has a role in fulfilling their calling and thus leading because in fulfilling their calling they are extending the kingdom of God and carrying out their role in the body. The difference between the functions that have traditionally been called leadership roles and the rest, is their sphere of influence and the nature of their ministries.

1) Acts 15:13-22

· Who were in the meeting?
· What were their roles or functions in that meeting?
· Who was in charge?
· Who exercised the ministry of leadership?

2) Acts 6:1-5

· Who were in the meeting?
· What were their roles or functions?
· Who was in charge?
· Who exercised the ministry of leadership?

3) 1Cor 5:1-5

· Is Paul exercising the ministry of leadership here?

4) 2Sam 7:1-7

· Who were in the meeting?
· What were their roles or functions?
· Who was in charge?
· Who exercised the ministry of leadership?

5) Jos 1:10-18

· Who were involved?
· What were their roles or functions?
· Who was in charge?
· Who exercised the ministry of leadership?

6) all the passages above

· What were the ministries of each of the people in the passages above: apostle, elder, war leader...
· They were obeyed/listened to - why?
· Did any of them have "leader" as their only role?

When asking why the people listened to the leaders we come to a key struggle for the person exercising leadership under definition 3. I offer three possible answers:

1) they were exercising the power gift of leadership
2) they were held in high respect in terms of their knowledge, integrity, maturity etc
3) they had control and disobedience would have consequences for the people listening.

The last was probably a factor for Joshua because the hierarchy and boundaries of those he led were sharply defined. In the modern church the boundaries are loosely defined and becoming less defined all the time. A leader in the modern church who relies on the third will fail because there is very little of the modern church that is centrally controlled. I personally have ethical problems with the third but there is a real tendency for church leaders (and other leaders) to operate in a dictatorial manner. It is the easiest way to lead. Rather the leader, instead of doing leadership, has to be leadership and create a relationship in which the first two options can operate.

Motivational Gift:

Motivational gifts are usually the first step in identifying ministry and calling. As such it is difficult to identify them in the kind of observational study that we have been doing. The passages below are a little inconclusive and also they may show the gift in a poor light. It is easiest to find the motivational gift of leadership in the bible when looking at the spiritually immature. Because they are immature, you see the gift in the midst of their mistakes.
1) Acts 12:12, 25, 13:5,13,15:37-40, Col 4:10, 2Tim 4:11, Phm 24

· Why was John-Mark taken along?
· Why did he want to go?
· Why did he return to Jerusalem?
· Did he become a leader in the end?

2) 1Tim 3:1

· Why would you want to be an overseer?

3) Acts 8:9-24

· Did Simon yearn to be a leader?
· Why?
· What was wrong with what he asked?

I am always amazed at how little direct evidence I can find for motivational gifts and that they form such a key part of Gift theology. I prefer to develop the concept of motivational gifts from the concept of calling. In pragmatic terms I see them in action around me on a regular basis and use such things as gift surveys to identify ministry, calling and requirements for ministry formation.

The key understandings from Gift theology for leadership:

1. the existence and operation of a power gift of leadership
2. the motivational gift of leadership is simply a starting point, on top of that comes maturity etc
3. leadership is organic rather than hierarchical and extends across all christians no matter what their level of responsibility.
4. leaders should lead out of earned respect and gifting rather than position.