Rooted
Life with others | week 2

As we think about Life with Others, we talked last time about the importance of being connected in friendship and community. Today, we want to give you a tool for how to engage in community life—and that is to discover the spiritual gifts God has given you.

Learning objective: to uncover your spiritual gifts and learn how you might engage them in the church in a tangible and valuable way.

Prior to meeting with your mentor or small group, please do the following:
WATCH:

READ:

• “There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work. Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. To one there is given through the Spirit a message of wisdom, to another a message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues. All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he distributes them to each one, just as he determines.” (1 Corinthians 12:4–11)
• Many Christians are moved by the question, “What might be God’s calling for my life?” In speaking with them, I sometimes get the impression that they believe God enjoys calling us to tasks that in now way correspond to our gifting. God doesn’t call you to a task for which he hasn’t endowed you with the corresponding gifts. Said another way, if you discover your gifts, you know to which areas of ministry God is calling you. If you discover that you have a particular gift, but don’t use it, you can be quite sure that you aren’t living up to your calling. Would you like to find out if God has called you to a leadership position? Test whether you have the gift of leadership. There are other criteria for leaders as well, but without the corresponding gift you will have difficulty in any leadership role. Would you like to know whether God has called you to a counseling ministry? Then find out whether you have the corresponding gift. The discovery of spiritual gifts is a very important step toward determining your calling. 
  —Christian A. Schwartz, The 3 Colors of Ministry, pg.44

WRITE AND REFLECT:
Rooted Content

• When you consider all there is to life with God, and life in the church, what gets you most excited? What are you passionate about?
• Where do you find that your effort produces out-of-proportion results? In other words, what are some things that come easy to you? Ex. being welcoming, fixing things, sharing godly advice, teaching, organizing, etc.
• List any spiritual gifts you are aware of which you may have.
• How are you currently using your spiritual gifts in the church?

The Bible Project Content—Review

• By now, you’ve worked through four weeks of videos and questions exploring the basics of studying the Scriptures. This has included examining what the Bible is, the key plot line of Scripture, the primary types of literature found in the Bible, as well as key traits of Jewish meditation literature.
• As an exercise in personal growth and understanding of the Scriptures, try writing the Narrative Arc of Scripture from memory, in as much detail as you can. You might consider questions like:
  • Where and how does the story begin?
  • What goes wrong?
  • Who are key players and what are key events that move the story along in the Old Testament?
  • How does Jesus fit into the story and where?
  • Who are the key players and how does the story unfold in the New Testament after Jesus?
  • Where does it all end?
• Additional Resource:
  • Having completed your Narrative Arc of the Scriptures, you may wish to go back and fill in parts you were less clear on or left out altogether. A great resource to turn to, which summarizes each book of the Bible along with it’s timeline, key idea and life application, is found at Insight for Living Ministries: https://www.insight.org/resources/bible

TAKE ACTION:

• Go to the link listed here and answer the questions. The results will be emailed to you. Please share your results with your coach. www.giftstest.com/test
• Complete the Spiritual Pathway Assessment in the Appendix and email results to your course leader.

As we think about Life with Others, we talked last time about the importance of being connected in friendship and community. Today, we want to give you a tool for how to engage in community life—and that is to discover the spiritual gifts God has given you.
Learning objective: to uncover your spiritual gifts and learn how you might engage them in the church in a tangible and valuable way.
Coaching objective: to coach them toward meaningful involvement serving in the church.
INTRODUCTION AND REVIEW

• Thanks so much for being here today. I hope you’ve had a good time engaging the material.
• This week you should have covered the week five in your Participant Guide and Biblical Study Guide and sent me your homework; at this point, you should have completed the Biblical Study Guide.
• Can I have 2-3 people share from their homework? What was it like evaluating godly friendship in your life? Where did you sense God’s invitation for you?
• This week introduces you the first tangible practice to foster Life with Others—and that is the use of your spiritual gifts in service in the church.

COACHING: 10-15 MINUTES

• Preferably, prior to your coaching session you’ve read the participants homework. As you do so, pray for God to highlight a few people from what they’ve written in the homework. This will give you a jumping off point for coaching.
• I’d love to do some coaching around the topic of spiritual gifts. Ask if you can coach a specific person (whom you identified from the homework).
• Ideas to coach around: someone who feels they don’t have any gifts to offer; someone who is involved but felt underutilized or unclear about how to get more deeply involved; someone who got burnt out and quit serving; someone who feels it’s “not for me”.
• Potential questions to ask:
  • Share with me where you’re currently involved serving
  • What gifts do you think are used in that area of ministry?
  • For someone who feels underutilized or unclear about what step to take: Where do you feel stuck in serving? What are possible next steps you could take to get unstuck?
  • For someone who doesn’t think they have gifts to offer: Where could you imagine yourself getting involved? What about that interests you?
  • What will have to change in order to give yourself to serving in this way?
  • Serving is always more than doing a job or meeting a need. How can you imagine your small part in serving tying into the bigger picture of what God is doing through your church?

WRAPPING UP

• Thanks so much for engaging today. I’m excited for the journey each of you are on in your Life with God. 
• Let me pray to close us out for the night…alternatively, you can do prayer ministry for an individual or break the group up and have them pray for one another