Building up the gifts

[Presbyterian Continuist]

It's not common, especially now.

It all begins with leadership, if the pastor wants to allow The Holy Spirit to operate the gifts at their church or not, but a lot of pastors think that the gifts hinder membership so they would rather not have them operate. They may not be vocal about it to people there, but GOD knows their thoughts on it.

We had a period of time where The Holy Spirit was operating the gifts regularly in our services for a few years. He still does on and off, but not regularly anymore.

The main barrier to the use of the Spiritual gifts in our churches is that 1 Corinthians 14:26 is not followed. "What then shall we say, brothers and sisters? When you come together, each of you has a hymn, or a word of instruction, a revelation, a tongue or an interpretation. Everything must be done so that the church may be built up."

What we have instead is a worship leader and a band up the front controlling the worship, and then the one man band pastor gets up and preaches a message. Usually the order of service is so strictly programmed, there is no opportunity for any rank and file member to use a spiritual gift. Often it is the midweek fellowship meeting that is closer to the Scriptural norm, where individuals have a greater freedom to contribute, that is, if the leader doesn't rule the proceedings, now allowing others to freely contribute.

There are Pentecostal churches that specify who is allowed to use a spiritual gift, and if someone other than the "set person" does it, they are often spoken down and rebuked by whoever is leading the service. Other traditional churches are nothing more than a hymn sandwich, and notices, call to worship followed by a hymn, responsive psalm and Bible readings, followed by another hymn, then the preacher's message, prayers for others, followed by the final hymn. Then everyone says the grace and they go either out for morning tea, or go back home.

When we ignore Scripture concerning how a Christian service should be run, then we cannot expect the Holy Spirit to participate. Therefore in most of services, even Pentecostal ones, the Holy Spirit is in a corner with His hands tied while the one man band gets on with his man-designed programme order of service.

When 1 Corinthians 14:26 is therefore ignored, there is no surprise that churches are not built up as they should.

What's the point of ordinary church members seeking the Lord to be able to exercise their spiritual gifts when they are not given the opportunity in the Sunday service? This is why most church members don't bother, and end up being passive pew sitters, leeching off the one man ministry offered to them.

 

[ARBITER01]

The main barrier to the use of the Spiritual gifts in our churches is that 1 Corinthians 14:26 is not followed. "What then shall we say, brothers and sisters? When you come together, each of you has a hymn, or a word of instruction, a revelation, a tongue or an interpretation. Everything must be done so that the church may be built up."

What we have instead is a worship leader and a band up the front controlling the worship, and then the one man band pastor gets up and preaches a message. Usually the order of service is so strictly programmed, there is no opportunity for any rank and file member to use a spiritual gift. Often it is the midweek fellowship meeting that is closer to the Scriptural norm, where individuals have a greater freedom to contribute, that is, if the leader doesn't rule the proceedings, now allowing others to freely contribute.

There are Pentecostal churches that specify who is allowed to use a spiritual gift, and if someone other than the "set person" does it, they are often spoken down and rebuked by whoever is leading the service. Other traditional churches are nothing more than a hymn sandwich, and notices, call to worship followed by a hymn, responsive psalm and Bible readings, followed by another hymn, then the preacher's message, prayers for others, followed by the final hymn. Then everyone says the grace and they go either out for morning tea, or go back home.

When we ignore Scripture concerning how a Christian service should be run, then we cannot expect the Holy Spirit to participate. Therefore in most of services, even Pentecostal ones, the Holy Spirit is in a corner with His hands tied while the one man band gets on with his man-designed programme order of service.

When 1 Corinthians 14:26 is therefore ignored, there is no surprise that churches are not built up as they should.

What's the point of ordinary church members seeking the Lord to be able to exercise their spiritual gifts when they are not given the opportunity in the Sunday service? This is why most church members don't bother, and end up being passive pew sitters, leeching off the one man ministry offered to them.

Brother, a lot of what you said can have application, but you are forgetting a big aspect of the picture,..... holiness.

You could have all the pieces of the puzzle organized and such, but if everyone is more carnal than they should be, you can just forget that the corporate gifts will ever operate in any sort of regularity.

It takes a spiritual purity of some sort of degree for The Holy Spirit to draw close to the body and prompt people to operate their ministries.

 

[SavedByGrace3]

I am aware of people holding schools of the Spirit where the practical and scriptural aspects of manifestations of the gifts are taught.
Since we all have gifts differing by the Holy Spirit, they should be present when we are together for the edification of one and all. Much of it deals with what is preventing individuals from manifesting their gifts. Mostly, it is wrong teaching and wrong expectations.