1 Cor 12:7 Is the church service about Performance and Passivity or Participation?

1 Corinthians 12:4-7 (NLT) There are different kinds of spiritual gifts, but the same Spirit is the source of them all. There are different kinds of service, but we serve the same Lord. God works in different ways, but it is the same God who does the work in all of us.

A spiritual gift is given to each of us so we can help each other.

Having led 2 churches I am aware that being innovative, dynamic and allowing God’s Spirit freedom is not always easy. As a leader you can become a blockage to others, monopolising the preaching or worship leading. It is too easy to rely on those trusted few to do what they do well rather than risk using new people. It is too easy to take control and not allow freedom for people to speak and use God given gifts. Church services where people watch a performance however good and sit passively watching the clock has to be a million miles from what church should be about. Constant singing, long sermons and unreal prayers will turn off spiritual seekers who want to meet with God. God’s presence, prophetic words, honest sharing from the heart, dynamic interaction from the front, an awareness of visitors and their needs, these things are often sadly absent from services. But most of all the greatest sin is to ignore visitors a sure sign of spiritual death. Rather than being locked into unhealthy patterns of doing church let us break out and encourage others to do the same. God has generously given His gifts to all His people.

Father, may we find freedom to use the gifts you have given us.