People often ask, "what ministries does your church offer". Or, "what ministry can I serve in". In truth, we each have one all important ministry -- to worship the Lord and love Him with our whole being...spirit, soul and body. From that place of intimacy the Holy Spirit can reveal to us our giftings and thus our place(s) of ministry in the church. Our leadership and our people are committed to helping one another discover their giftings and to help each serve the body in the place where God intends them to be. 

Now we come to every man's gifting. Do we see these gifts for our benefit alone? While the gifts of Ephesians 4:11 are referred to as "gifts", they are part of the "gift of Christ" whom we all receive (Ephesians 4:7). The blessing of the gift is to the body, and not to the ministry. As Jesus said, "It is the Father that dwelleth in me, He doeth the works (John 14:10). So we say, it is the Christ who dwells in us who does what He does through us. We don't just have gifts. We have THE gift! He is releasing a measure of Himself in and through us to others, and the same is true from other Christians to us. Thus, we are "Life Based" in our concept of church and ministry. 

Your "work" of the ministry to build up the body of Christ depends on you identifying your gifts. These gifts or graces of the Holy Spirit are already in you. They cannot be earned or suddenly developed through teaching. They are resident in the Spirit and waiting to be released.

These gifts are going to be different from person to person. Holy Spirit releases gifts in different measure to each of us. You may have a great love for young children and enjoy nurturing them. You may also have a teaching gift or a helps gifting. The mix of these will determine whether you are anointed to teach young children or to assist those who teach young children. Both are important and need each other. 

The effective use of these gifts also helps ensure that not only ministry needs are met, but that no one person bears more of the burden of ministry than God intends. An understanding and application of this eliminates competition, jealousy and feelings of inadequacy. God's rewards to us are just based on what we do with what He gives us. This is emphasized in Matthew 25:14-29, the parable of the talents. Big, bigger and biggest is not God's way of measuring. Every part is valuable to Him in His Kingdom economy.