Stewarding spiritual gifts

By Diana Myers, Voices Contributor Tuesday, July 02, 2019

Since 1954, the Fellowship of Christian Athletes has been impacted by givers—those who have given your time, talent and treasure to invest in the Kingdom. Over 65 years, countless volunteers and supporters have created a legacy at FCA and trusted this international sports ministry with their God-given resources!

FCA believes that every believer has a calling. And in order to fulfill our calling to the utmost, God has provided each of us with a unique set of spiritual gifts. Knowing and leveraging our spiritual gifts enables us to be more effective members of the body of Christ.

According to 1 Corinthians 12, the Spirit of God, acting in a direct and intentional way, desires to bring fullness and balance to every body of believers. This is His will, and it can only be realized through the sharing of our spiritual gifts with one another. The concept is both profound and exciting.

We are commanded by God to be good stewards of the gifts He has given us. Good stewardship, therefore, compels us to know, understand and utilize our spiritual gifts to better fulfill our calling, and by doing so, bring our unique contribution to the body of Christ.

Serving with our gifts is a powerful form of stewardship. You would think that Christians already know everything there is to know about serving. After all, we are taught from a very early age that serving others is the path to pleasing God. While there is a fair amount of truth in that statement, there is also much confusion as to what actions best constitute Christian service.

At the basic level, serving is giving—giving of our time, talents and treasures, and giving of our prayers and affections. To think deeply about acts of service is to come face to face with the heart and message of Christ. The Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve (Matthew 20:28). This knowledge compels us to always seek ways to achieve a fuller expression of our life of service.

Ministries and churches have long sought to increase the volume and effectiveness of the service we provide in the name of God. The sobering reality is that, unless each of us accepts and learns to function within the framework of our giftedness, the church as a whole will not maximize its impact.

Who will benefit from better stewardship of this collective giftedness? The answer is simple. Everyone we come into contact with. The ripple effect is endless. For our local brothers and sisters in faith, the sharing of our gifts builds them up. Our individual gifts mesh with theirs to produce a rich and beautiful tapestry of service. Leveraging our spiritual gifts, we all contribute to the experience of a healthy and whole family of Jesus Christ.

“As each one has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God” (1 Peter 4:10, NASB). Significantly, without each of us serving with the full knowledge and power of our unique spiritual gifts, the Kingdom experience is incomplete, and the resulting outcomes are partial rather than whole.

The criticality of spiritual gifts to our collective well-being has been neglected for far too long. It’s time to embrace and be good stewards of the unique gifts God has endowed each one of us—with arms and hearts wide open.

Diana Myers has been a Fellowship of Christian Athletes volunteer since 2001 and is founder of the Gifts of Grace Ministry. She currently serves on the FCA Board of Trustees and has served on the California Leadership Board.