I have been thinking about "spiritual gifts" recently. I have always been confused regarding spiritual gifts because of the potential for abuse and the broad spectrum of views: some say that some of the gifts have ceased, while others disagree; some say the lists of gifts in the Scriptures are exhaustive, while others say they are a small portion of all the possible gifts; etc.

I took a "spiritual gifts" evaluation this weekend (I have never liked those, but I was curious ). As always, the gift that stands far above the rest is teaching. My mom used to tease me by saying I would make a great woman preacher.

Now, don't get me wrong, I don't believe in women being in authority in the church, and I don't like para-church "women ministers" that rove from church to church teaching at ladies' meetings and seminars.

So, I guess I have two questions. 1) How should I view spiritual gifts? 2) Regardless of spiritual gifts, how can a woman exercise her ability of teaching and love for theology and philosophy while still remaining in submission to Scripture?

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Kim G
Non-denom church (holds to the WCF)
Zion Community Church, Greenville, SC

Teach me Your way, O LORD;
I will walk in Your truth;
Unite my heart to fear Your name.
Psalm 86:11

Kim G;


that is one is high on my list as well, and like you, I have no desire to get behind a pulpit and teach/preach..but my gifts are best used by teaching younger women (teens; early twenties) and of course my children, which is what Scripture calls me to do..and I find myself content doing both..

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Bobbi Clark
Covenant Member
Pinewood Pres. (PCA) Middleburg

When I kept Silent, My bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. Psalm 32:3

Informally and formally... Among other women and children, and also in the church itself... Spiritual gifts belong to the Lord; we are to trust in the Him, keep the matter in daily prayer, and He, the blessed Source of those gifts, will give you the perfect venue in which to use them.

I've observed that He uses our natural gifts in supernatural ways, to serve His ends. Okay, men can be officeholders, elders, deacons, etc.: all formal titles, but that doesn't mean that the Lord has not equal use for us women... He's taken my natural gifts and blessed me with uses for them to an extent and in concrete ways that I never expected. You will be blessed, too, Kim, in tremendous ways! If our "hiding place," our refuge from the world, is in God's will, then so are our ways of serving Him in the world.

Thank you so much for starting this thread, for now we know how to pray for you! We'll pray that the Lord would soon show you exactly how He wants the generous gifts that He gave you to be used.

May He bless you abundantly with grace, wisdom, time, energy and understanding!

Margaret

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Margaret
Free Church of Scotland [Continuing]
Michigan

That sounds wonderful! Being newly married with my husband in school, I don't have kids (yet--I pray the Lord gives me many in the future). I have a desire to teach younger women (I'm only 24) but haven't found an avenue for that yet. I love writing and wondered if I could use my teaching skills in writing books directed toward children and women in the church. But I'm not a "touchy-feely" kind of writer that many women read.

Thank you very much for the prayers. They are greatly appreciated.

Don't worry, not all women want touchy feely...in fact, some women can't stand "for women" books because of that, almost having a "talking down" at them kind of feel

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JC - PCA - PA...homesick for SC
A we n' de Ya, ho; I mak sikker; Deus juvat

Indicabo tibi o homo quid sit bonum, et quid Dominus requirat a te: Utique facere iudicium, et diligere, misericordiam, et sollicitum ambulare cum Deo tuo. Michaeas 6:8

"Who says you can't go back, been all around the world and as a matter of fact. There's only one place left I want to go, who says you can't go home" Bon Jovi

Kim G;4

there will come a time when the opportunities present themselves, even in teaching women your own age who are still dating and wanting to get married, or those who are engaged; where you can share with them some of the things you are learning as a new wife..even how to step out in faith to trust God when your living on a shoe string student budget..

Even if you have a teen ministry at your church, you could teach the young girls God's design for relationships..dating/courting and the blessings of waiting on God to bring the right man into their lives and not trying to rush Him along, by dating anyone who asks them out..

Lots of things, even at 24, that you can teach younger women and girls..

to what's been said. This in area where I have struggled a lot, because I have teaching, exhortation and shepherding (counseling, nuturing and caring for the spiritual needs) gifts. I, too, have said many times if God had made me a man, I would be a pastor.

It's also tough when a woman with these gifts finds out that she has almost no ability to teach small children, but is completely comfortable with older teens and adults (I started off my college career in secondary ed). I served as a missionary in France for over two years, and after repeatedly being asked "What do you in France, teach small children?" I found myself fighting off ange.

So here I was, in my twenties, I couldn't preach, I couldn't teach small children, and I wasn't married. That left teaching women, and face it, what woman is going to listen to the wisdom of a 25 year old? Believe me, few do. Now that I have hit my late 40s, I am married and my children are a bit older, I find it much easier to stretch my wings within the church.

If you read some of my posts, you will see that I am a strong advocate of male leadership calling on women with these type gifts to teach, exhort and shepherd (nurture and care for the spiritual needs) of women in the church. Too often, women with these gifts frighten leadership, because they tend to be outspoken, intelligent, strong women. This is sometimes interpreted as a desire from the woman to take control. But you and I both know that is not the case, we just want to serve the Lord with the gifts He's given us.

My advice to you is to use this time to learn, write and glean as much wisdom from others and from Scripture as you possibly can. Write down what you are learning. Teach whenever you are given an opportunity to do so. God will use you, in His time.

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J Baldwin
Keowee Presbyterian Church, PCA
Pickens, SC
“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” Luke 10:27

Check Out My Blog: http://reflectjoy.blogspot.com/

Oddly I feel less qualified to teach now than I did as a younger woman. I have taught Sunday School, VBS, exhorted other women about theology -- I have not only no longer the confidence of having anything truly helpful say but no longer the adrenalyn to say it. The church I felt most a useful part of in was in Mexico, where I couldn't really talk more than basics with the other ladies. Yet I learned about charity from them because of their unaccountable kindness to me in thought and prayers and actions; about joy and selflessness in trials from their behavior; and much about practical help --like oven-fresh homemade bread (it's surprising how happy it makes people) or inviting people over and feeding them and washing up while they encourage each other. I'm sure they didn't set out to teach me these things. But I learned them because they were pursuing godliness in their whole manner of life. The older women are to teach the younger not actually theology (not that I don't think women should be understanding and getting mutually excited about theology: and actually I wonder if younger women often don't have more energy for helping other women get excited in this area and for taking the children and teens etc) but to love their husbands and children: I have realised recently how much of this I have 'unconsciously' learned from godly ladies I have known (on this board and elsewhere). I don't want in the least to denigrate women teaching children, younger women etc in more 'formal' settings, but I am not sure that the exercise of spiritual gifts in women always makes us look or even necessarily feel like we're being used, like we're 'teaching'. Yet I think that in pursuing godliness in the home and daily circumstances we will be used to teach and help and comfort etc., others in the church.

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Heidi
Indianapolis, Indiana

Patience must dwell with Love, for Love and Sorrow
Have pitched their tent together here:
Love all alone will build a house tomorrow,
And sorrow not be near. -Christina Rossetti

Heidi, you teach simply by your manner, your presence, etc. Trust me, I have learned some things from you. In a manner we all teach and we all learn. That is why we must take care with ourselves, we never know who is learning from us.

Another thing is that we all go through stages. There are times where we "teach" and times where we are pulled back to simply "learn". Those can be times of rest of us as well.

It seems that when we are in our child-rearing years, we have (by necessity) to turn our attention to the needs of our families, and teaching becomes more by example than by actually standing in front of a group saying something. I believe this is also why Paul instructs the older women to teach the younger. It amazes me the number of women in the church whom I have seen "blossom" into incredible teachers in their late 40s and early 50s after they have raised families.

It's sad to me when these qualified women feel inadequete because they think they need the energy and looks of youth to be effective. This is a result of our "youth-centered" society, but I don't find it anywhere in the Scriptures.

a mere housewife;

I'm sorry if I implied it need be in a 'formal setting', I have found that the most fulfilling 'teaching' moments I have been involved in have been here at my home, or shopping, and just conversations with others..

I've been blessed to have many teenage girls live in my neighborhood who came seeking advice from someone a little older than they were when they didn't think they could talk to their own mothers.

So it's really about allowing yourself to be open to any opportunity God brings your way, whenever it comes. I also notice times where I learn a lot from others, even some of the younger women as they go through their struggles, where God teaches me more about Himself.

and for those of us God does not ordain to have kids: what can we offer? I am suspecting in my case it is nothing. i do not do well in women only groups and am tired of being looked at as a three headed freak when answering "do you have kids" with No or with offers to see how cute my furbabies are. I have no confidence I can teach kids and nursery is agonizing (I do like kids but it hurts too much to be constantly reminded I am inferior in the eyes of the Lord and of fellow Christians).

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Bless you, Ma'am. You can offer something. You must. It was determined beforehand that you would (Eph. 2:10). Unfortunately, it is true that, just like other special groups, women only groups are full of fallen sinners. I'm sorry that they make you feel that way. Just because you may not serve in the same way another Christian mother serves does not mean you can't serve at all. Furthermore, it certainly doesn't make your calling any less astute or important. In fact, if everything is for God's purpose (and we know it is), then He has His purpose prompted to execute properly with you as well. You are by no means inferior, Sister, for we're all both equally wretched in ourselves and righteous in Christ.

May God comfort you in your grief, and give you strength to rise above the failures of others to recognize that all women, mothers or not, have their roles that God has given.

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Josh Hicks, Chloë's Dad
Christ Covenant Reformed Presbyterian Church, RPCGA
Facebook - The Calvinist Vent
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It is God that multiplies our sorrows.... God, as a righteous Judge, does it, which ought to silence us under all our sorrows; as many as they are, we have deserved them all, and more: nay, God, as a tender Father, does it for our necessary correction, that we may be humbled for sin, and weaned from the world by all our sorrows; and the good we get by them, with the comfort we have under them, will abundantly balance our sorrows, how greatly soever they are multiplied. - Matthew Henry

Whoever gave you this idea about the Lord is wrong, and if other christians treat you this way it would seem to me they are both wrong and arrogant.

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Mark
Independent baptist
Singapore

Thank you brother! That was a providential comment.

I'm glad you brought this up. I'm serving on the overtures committee at the PCA GA next month, and I understand an overture is coming that asks us to review some of these issues.

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HaigLaw, ruling elder
Grace PCA, Shreveport, LA
http://www.xanga.com/HaigLaw

Kim, my very simple thought on the matter is that you just get ready and take the opportunities that come up. Read, study, live, and as you honor God with your mind and strength and take the opportunities that crop up, whether that be teaching a class or organizing a meal or vacuuming a rug the most appropriate niche for you to occupy will open up. But of course we're not static throughout our lives and neither are our situations, so the opportunities and perhaps to some extent the gifts for service will vary as time goes by.

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Ruben
Moderator
F.P.C.I.
Indiana

Vanities and disguises have covered us, and thereby we are naked; licenciousness hath inflam'd us, and thereby we are frozen; voluptuousness hath fed us, and thereby we are sterved, the fancies and traditions of men have taught and instructed us, and thereby we are ignorant.
John Donne

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Calvinistas Conversando
Teología en Mexico
The Howling Wilderness

Dear Calgal, you're not out of place here. I have no children either (and no prospect of procuring any at this point). I am not able to do anything with other peoples' children either. God does not give His spirit only to mothers or nursery workers, any more than only to married women. This is not a distinction that matters with regard to His love or His gifts. It is not a proof of either. Christ died for us as surely as for anyone else, and that is the proof of our worth to Him, which He assigned Himself to each of His elect. It doesn't matter around here either, except to make you more precious to us as we pray and feel sadness for you.

Oh my! Gail, there are things that you can accomplish that those of us bound with children cannot. There are reasons and a place for each of us.

(okay, fess up, what kind of furbabies do you have? )

I agree. As much as I enjoy being a wife and mother, there are days when I wish I had my singleness again. There were types of ministry I did then that I can't do now. I did a lot of mission work and traveled a lot. I was much easier to go and stay with lady who was sick or troubled about something and help out.

2 adorable mischievous whippet boys! One is 8 and the other is 5. They are mad at mommy for making it rain.

You don't hear of people having those very often. How wonderful! I'm jealous, we aren't permitted dogs here unless I kept them outside all the time...I had to settle for a cat and a couple of anti-social goats

...and sinful. They need to read Galatians 6 about 40 times, for starters.

Margaret