Spiritual Gifts: Finding Your Position on Team JesusSample

Welcome to Team Jesus! Is Jesus Christ your Lord? If Jesus Christ is your Lord, then you are on Team Jesus! Team Jesus includes all of the born-again believers from all of the nations, cultures, and languages of the world throughout human history in what theologians call the universal Church. Included on Team Jesus are all the Christian denominations, networks, teams, tribes, and traditions along with all ministries and followers of Christ doing Christian ministry in what theologians call the local church. Since we all have the same Lord, we are on the same team. This little concept has big implications. We’ve all been on some kind of team. There are project teams in school called work groups, sports teams, military teams called units, college teams called clubs, work teams called departments, political teams called parties, and Christian teams called ministries. For any team to thrive, every person on the team needs to follow the team leader, discover their role or position on the team, accept that assignment, and do their best to grow in doing it as well as they possibly can. The same is true for Team Jesus. For some, your discovery process will result in finding a place to serve in your existing church or ministry so that you are getting out of the stands and onto the field. For others, it will result in finding a new place to serve in church or ministry that is new to you. In Acts 13:1-3 we read of an incredible preaching team – a multiracial pulpit with five anointed Bible teachers that included Barnabas the encourager and Paul the Apostle. In basketball, this would be like having five Hall of Fame shooting guards on one team. What does God do? The Holy Spirit gives a revelation to the church leaders that the two most well-known preachers, Barnabas and Saul (or Paul), should be sent out to do ministry elsewhere. Rather than having five incredible preachers at one church, God the Holy Spirit wanted to spread them out among multiple churches. Practically, this makes sense. If one soccer team has five goalies but no shooter, and another team has five shooters but no goalie, swapping team members strengthens both teams. God does this all the time. Since our Lord is the coach of Team Jesus, He not only decides which position we play but also has the full right to put us wherever He wants and move us around as needed. We are praying that God uses this study to help you find your position on Team Jesus because your contribution is needed. God has uniquely prepared you to find your purpose and pursue it with passion to continue the Spirit-filled ministry of Christ as a Christian, which we will learn next. What do you think your giftings are? How are you serving the Church?