Curtis preached a very good sermon today! It was a joy to be in worship and hear the Word. If you were at the 11:00 service you probably noticed I was not there. I had the opportunity to lead the confirmation class this morning.
Confirmation. We have that special service where young people make their public profession of the Christian faith. The service includes the part where we place our hands on the confirmand and say, "I confirm you in the faith and fellowship of all true disciples of Jesus Christ." This may be a one-time experience where conversion takes place. At the same time this is part of a life-long experience in the life of grace.
Today I talked with the class about a number of things but specifically spiritual gifts. Bottom line: All spiritual gifts are resident in the Holy Spirit - by virtue of your faith in Jesus Christ the Holy Spirit lives in you - therefore as you walk with Christ and are engaged in ministry with the Lord you may believe that any gift or resource needed is available. It's a pretty encouraging concept.
I truly look forward to watching these young people grow and develop in the Christian life. They are naturally gifted and with the grace of God filling their lives they are also spiritually gifted.
By the way, this holds true not only for confirmation class, but for any of us who claim Christ as Savior.
On another note. I just started reading a book by Leonard Sweet. He has more images of the church and the Christian life. One thing I noted was a call away from ABC church - A=attendance; B=building; C=cash. He would trade those for MRI church - M=missional; R=relational; I=incarnational.
Actually this later way of looking at church and the Christian life seems to fit the spiritual gift way better than the former. I have a suspicion that should we get focused on MRI the ABC will take care of itself - more people will respond to the missional, relational, incarnational message and find forgiveness and new life in Jesus Christ.
It's been a good day. Always good to catch a glimpse of some fresh insight. I hope you've had a good day to.
blessings,
steve
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