Interesting. I'm still wondering how one can truly be both born again and non-evangelical.

We did a spiritual gifts inventory at our church a few years ago and the number one gift of the adults in our church (by far) was hospitality. I think that is the difference between a survey and taking a spiritual gifts test.

I'm so far out in left field on this one, I don't know if I can begin to be rational. I've taught Ken Hemphill's course on this matter, perhaps a dozen times. Maybe more. And I agree with Ken's definition of gifts, which seems to be at odds with what Barna says.

That course eschews the use of the "inventory" as it's too easy to read what you want to do, into it.

But I'll say this: Spiritual Gifts, along with the Baptist Faith and Message, seem to be the least-taught and most misunderstood topics in the SBC.

The survey also found that many people who say they have heard of spiritual gifts were not necessarily describing the same gifts outlined in the Bible; these “gifts” included a sense of humor, singing, health, life, happiness, patience, a job, a house, compromise, premonition, creativity and clairvoyance. In total, one-fifth of all the gifts cited by respondents (21%) were attributes that do not fit the biblical lists of spiritual gifts given by God. Between those who do not know their gift (15%), those who say they don’t have one (28%) and those who claimed gifts that are not biblical, nearly two-thirds of the self-identified Christian population who claim to have heard about spiritual gifts have not been able to accurately apply to their lives whatever they have heard or what the Bible teaches on the subject.

While I do not think Paul’s lists of spiritual gifts is exhaustive, definitions (or at least a general understanding)are necessary to arrive through good biblical exegesis. Also, I think that the early church had a GREAT deal of understanding of spiritual gifts. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 12:1 “ Now about spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be ignorant.” Everyone loves to receive gifts. Who could imagine going to Grandma’s and Grandpa’s house for Christmas and then NOT unwrapping the gifts we received … just letting them collect dust in the attic year after year. I’m sure it would be a disappointment to our grandparents and a greater loss for ourselves. Unfortunately, that’s exactly what most (yes, most) Christians do with their God-given spiritual gifts, and the whole body of Christ suffers loss with them. This is why we need to experience the “unwrapping” of our spiritual gifts by discovering the Who, What, When, Where and Why of spiritual gifts . . . their PURPOSE and FUNCTION. And in my view, the way to "unwrap" your own spiritual gifts is through serving through a local community of faith rather than merely a gifts investigation.

For a Spiritual Gifts survey click here.

WOW! The digression in the knowledge of what Scripture teaches is overly apparent when looking at the results of this survey. Although the project was to determine issues related to spiritual gifts; the bigger picture is what do you really know about the Bible.

The church is failing to disciple people. It is not natural for people to have a desire to study Scripture. That is seen every Sunday in Sunday School classes. I hear more people say, "I think God is saying this." or "I believe that we should look at what everyone believes and determine the meaning from there."

This failure starts in the pulpits of America. Preaching have quit preaching. Entertainment is king. Some each one of us who stand up in the pulpit is to blame.

Man that's awful.

We need to raise up more evangelists!

And we especially need more hospitable people.

So which conference is going to be about hospitality then?

I do see great value in Spiritual gifts testing. I think a greater indicator of a person's Spiritual gifts would be a Spiritual Gift observation. Have 3-4 of your closest friends, who know the definitions of the Spiritual gifts and then ask them to observe you for a few weeks....They will nail you. They will be able to tell you your main Spiritual gift and they will be able to give you examples of how you use that gift.

Actually I think that most "spiritual gift" surveys are merely "personality" tests, and that theoretically, someone who is not even a Christian could take one and discover their "spiritual gifts."

I think that generally speaking, spiritual gifts should be viewed more like "spiritual power tools" that God provides to build His church and accomplish His purposes rather than something you were born with or an extension of your personality.

Most Christians probably have more spiritual gifts than they realize, but have simply never "fanned them into flame." Their gifts are more like sparks that have not made it to the wood. The gifts are there, they just aren't being focused or applied.

I do wonder how much these things are really personality tests. And, since the three main lists do not line up exactly, I also think they are not intended to be exhaustive.

But, my greatest concern is that people see evangelism as a gift for an ever decreasing few, not a calling and responsibility of every believer.

Barna has done good and helpful work here, not because people get it right, but because it helps us to see some issues need to be addressed.

Ed

A few thoughts on evangelism:

I think a lot of people associate evangelism and evangelists with going up to random people on the street and talking to people about Jesus. That's how many of my friends and I were taught. Many people generally wouldn't go to random people to talk about anything let alone Jesus especially among my generation (20-somethings). It's borderline profane and has created a sense of guilt and shame in many of us who have rejected that. By God's grace, we're now reaching out to others in ways more comfortable to us (mostly in small group Bibles studies where we get together, eat food, and talk about the Bible)...

It seems ironic that teaching is the most prevalent gift when it seems we don't know what the Bible says.

Several months ago I came to the conclusion that few of the people in my church knew anything about spiritual gifts. That led me to conduct my own study and preach through the gifts. Sunday will be week 11. I cannot begin to tell you how many things I was taught are not consistent with Scripture and no, I am not charismatic (except in the biblical sense)

It is very clear to me that Christians are very ignorant on this topic even though Paul was very clear, "Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I do not want you to be unaware." (1 Cor. 12:1) In fact, I had a pastor years ago that believed playing the piano was a spiritual gift.

My conclusion is many Christians believe the work of the ministry is best left to the professional Christians.

I agree with Curtis's post above. And I will say this as a pastor's wife. I have watched my husband's ability to share the gospel over the past 10 years improve dramatically. But he didn't just wake up one day and know exactly what to say and how to say it.

I've watched him study, pray, seek counsel and labor over many of the people he's led to Christ (many of them were in the secular workplace when he was bi-vocational). I do believe that God has empowered him and enabled him to evangelize effectively. But he has also worked very hard to learn to do it.

I think we often falsely believe that our spiritual gifts will always come easy for us. And, if something doesn't always come easy then we're not gifted to do it. However, the burdens and gifts God gives us must be cultivated. Tools must be sharpened.

Incidentally, the study that made the most impact in our lives was William Faye's "Share Jesus Without Fear." I recommend it to anyone looking for a great, simple, un-intimidating evangelism training tool.

The book that completely changed my view on evangelism, and made me more Reformed theologically, is J.I. Packer's Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God. Seeing my responsibility in evangelism to go and tell out of obedience and joy is incredibly freeing. Knowing God is ultimately in control of eternally comforting

When I teach on spiritual gifts I always teach:
1. You get the best idea of your gifts from people who know you well.
2. Gifts come in different flavors & expressions.
3. Having or not having a gift is no substitute for obedience.

So you guys are saying that we hardly ever teach on Spiritual gifts and yet 99% of evangelicals have at least heard of them? I think that's pretty darn good. I'm pretty happy if after teaching a youth Bible study 10% of them remember the teaching a week later.
I realize that many of the 99% probably have inadequate teaching on the matter. Heck, I'm still kinda cloudy on it too, and I've spent a lot of time and money (seminary) learning about these things. What exactly is the difference in a gift and a talent? How do you decipher where the Holy Spirit begins and personality ends? Do you think it is supposed to be that complicated?

I tell people to find out what their gift is they need to try to do things. If they enjoy it and are good at it or if they have a passion to improve in an area then great! Keep trying new things when you have the opportunity. Don't be afraid to gracefully move on if that area of service isn't for you. Pray continually. If you are fulfilled in ministry and still can't find which category your gift fits into, just let it go. We don't need Spiritual gift name tags to be "spiritual".

Intersting is not the word here. Try "appalling." First of all, none of the so-called "gifts" mentioned are spiritual gifts at all! The spiritual gifts are found in I Corinthians 12:8-10, and they are dispensed and activated by the Holy Ghost at His discretion. While there ARE other gifts (Romans 12 and Ephesians 4), the gifts of the Spirit are those found in I Corinthians 12. And no, there is no such gift as the "gift of discernment." There is much ignorance about the gifts of the Spirit, as this article proves.

In the highly liturgical Christian churches (Catholic, Anglican) where confirmation was retained, spiritual gifts included in the formal catechism and instructed.

Here's an Anglican catechism that includes instruction in the spiritual gifts (Isaiah 11:2) of the Holy Spirit:

http://www.katapi.org.uk/ChristianFaith/LVI.htm

>"We need to raise up more evangelists!"

From where? The Baptist women at my workplace have all had one child apiece and quit. That's a 50% population reduction in just one generation and its locked in at this point.

God bless...

The condition of the American Church is heartbreaking to me. As a pastor I know the Church has boundless potential yet she is steadily declining.

I don't think the answer is handing out more spiritual gifts inventories; I think the answer is to reintroduce the Church to the Person, work, fruit, and gifts of the Holy Spirit from a biblical perspective.

It starts with spiritual leadership in local churches; it starts from the pulpit; it starts with the pastor; it starts today.

I agree the failure is in the pulpit. The failure is that we have a pulpit. Why?
1) because sermons aren't getting it done!!! people don't retain that stuff, plus it's anonymous and many times irrelevant to my life.
2) church is anonymous, sit in rows, look up front, be fake and leave - that's not life transforming discipleship like what Jesus practiced and commanded us to do!!! ARGH! .... ARGH!
3) the pulpit teaches people that it doesn't really matter what your gift is, you have no gift, you are not significant. Only I, the pastor, and some of the staff are doing anything for the Kingdom. Just give me your money and we'll keep playing Church, and invite your friends.

THAT'S HIDEOUS! We don't know about the gifts b/c we don't teach them nor practice them. church is like coming to watch a baseball team play, non of the fans in the stands contribute at all.

that needs to change.

How?
- flatter leadership structures
- more empowering of all the members of the body of Christ
- arrows out
- less focus on us, our congregation, our building, our programs, etc.
- fewer paid pastors, more lay pastors, more asking for help, more listening to lay leaders, more acting like a body and less like MLB.

IMHO. perhaps I'm wrong. I'm certainly passionate about this. Thanks for bringing it up, Ed, it's a serious matter IMHO.

I have seen spiritual gift lists that had as many as 38 gifts.

I have material by C. Peter Wagner that lists 27 gifts. Has anyone seen that material? What do you think about it?

Gifts are arranged into 3 categories.

1. Motivational - every Christain has one of these
2. Ministry - the oppurtunity to use your motivational gift to minister to others
3. Manifestations - the results of being ministered to.

It is interesting that both evangelism and hospitality are registering at miniscule numbers. It seems that anything that has to do with putting yourself out there for others is hard for people to identify with. I think that people are hospitable and they do evangelize in many different ways. But, if you say that those things are your gifts, then you are obligated to function that way. Not many feel comfortable being obligated to activities that put them out there regularly serving others at the expense of themselves, thus the low identification with those gifts.

Teaching is a lot more glamorous because we are so cognitive in our approach to Christianity and we celebrate teachers so much.

Not only does the article itself demonstrate the ignorance of American Christians concerning the spiritual gifts, so do the many comments that follow! Anytime one sees "What are your THOUGHTS?" or, "What do you THINK?" in regards to spiritual matters, it's a sure sign of carnality. This is why the American Church is a valley (growing up to a mighty mountain) of dry bones. The Holy Spirit is the "Forgotten Person" in the churches of America. He seems to be a nice theory, but without relevance in this era of increased knowledge and wisdom. Welcome to Laodicea!

Re: Eyvonne's post of 2/18,
I work with Bill Fay, and shared your post with him. Thank you and your husband for your faithfulness. Bill's input on evangelism being a spiritual gift differs with what many are teaching these days. In the Bible one can find the encouragment, the mandate, and the commandment to evangelize.....but nowhere is there a reference to evangelism being a spiritual gift. Referring to it as such tends to give excuse to those uncomfortable in attempting to share. Not everyone has the gift of giving, but all are expected to give. No confusion is allowed in that teaching arena...ALL are directed that they need to give. Something that Bill has discovered in teaching in hundreds of churches is the principle that "As goes the pulpit, so goes the pew." He knows before beginning a seminar if it will be an exercise in futility. If the pastor has no heart for the lost, the congregation will likewise remain unconcerned. The often quoted figure that nearly 98% of all Christians never, ever, share the gospel speaks volumes about the the church leadership.

Well, Gordy, those are some passionate insights. I am glad you have figured out what Bible scholars have debated for centuries.

Frank, great insight and an important reminder.

Jesse, passionate, yes. But, also challenging and important. Thanks for them.

Ed

The Bible speaks three times in the NT of the evangelist (Philip in Acts, Paul to Timothy in II Timothy, as a gift in Eph 4), but nowhere does the NT speak of the gift of evangelism. The gift of evangelism IMHO is the creation of the creators of spiritual gift inventories, which Paul would never have used, again, IMHO. I believe in spiritual gifts. But I also believe in the Great Commission, which is not to be ignored in the name of "gifts." No doubt some are more naturally "gifted" at speaking to others about Christ. But most of the discussions I have read about the so called gift of evangelism have been less than convincing from a biblical viewpoint.
I confess to a strong bias against gift inventories. I think we use them because we do such an awful job of discipleship. If we were truly people of the Book we would not need a modernist test to help people find something God has given to them, would we?
I believe in the Holy Spirit. I believe in His gifts. But I do not believe in using them as a cause to disobey, as I have met those who say they do not witness because they "do not have that gift." I have a Greek word for that: baloney :-).

I'm with Alvin on this one. More of our focus needs to be upon obedience rather than spiritual gift inventories.

Several thoughts, for what they are worth.

Since believers receive the "gift" of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38), the focus should be upon Him. Things that we note as "gifts" are simply manifestations of His Spirit to edify the church (1 Cor 12:7). If a person had the "gift" before they received the "gift" of the Holy Spirit, it probably is not a "spiritual gift," but a character trait or a natural ability. How God usually works is that He will pick the servant least qualified for the task and empower them in His divine way, so that He receives all of the glory. Many spiritual gift inventories I have read have a person to list things that could be categorized as "natural talents," not any spiritual activity of God.

Every listing of the "gifts of the Spirit" in the NT is different, suggesting several things: (1) no listing is meant to be exhaustive, and (2) there are possibly many more "gifts" not listed. In the OT people were empowered by God's Spirit to lead worship and also to build the tabernacle.

Nowhere does the scripture say that a person's "spiritual gift" is given to them at the point of conversion, or that it necessarily continues for the rest of their lives. Just because someone does not have the "gifting" at this moment doesn't mean that God could not gift them at the moment of His task for them. Neither should we assume that just because someone had the gifting in the past that they automatically have it now. God's gifting is for the specific task He has for His servant at that moment.

Thus, our focus should be upon obedience, not a study of our "gifts." Whatever God commands you to do, He will gift you for that task. If you have the "gift" of the Holy Spirit, you can say along with the apostle Paul, "I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength" (Phil 4:13). Turning God down because you don't have the "gift" is a cop-out.

Finally, to Alvin's point, "evangelists" are "gifts" to the church for its edification (Eph 4:11). The NT speaks nothing of a "gift" of evangelism. It states unequivocally that Christ's followers will be empowered to "be witnesses" of Him (Acts 1:8). It is every person's task. If He indeed makes "fishers of men" out of those who follow Him (Mark 1:17), then it can only mean that if someone is not actively fishing, they are not truly following. Again, the issue is obedience.

I agree with Alvin on the spiritual gifts inventory thing. In my early years of ministry I thought they were a useful tool, but as I grew I realized that we are giving spiritual gift inventories to people who have disciples a whopping two to three weeks. they are still learning the difference between the old and new testament.
We have done a poor job of discipling. Alvin is right.

It's not a matter of "figuring out" anything. I do not lean unto my own understanding, but unto that of the Holy Spirit. Nor do I know any of the debates, as I do not read or listen to "scholars," per se. It's simply being taught by the Holy Spirit and not by men. True Pentecostals don't debate; they get out and DO the Gospel. We who are filled with the Holy Ghost and walking according to the Lord's pattern for His Church aren't dinking around with religiosity. The Word declares that one is unprofitable WITHOUT the spiritual gifts, and it takes the gifts in order to be ESTABLISHED (Romans 1:11). So where is the debate? And we are COMMANDED to "covet earnestly the best gifts," aren't we? How many decide to sidestep what they consider the "lesser" gifts (by whose definition?) in order to spare themselves the reproach of speaking in other tongues as the Spirit gives the utterance? What gift is "best"? Whatever gift is needed at any given time, so why not covet them ALL?? Just do that and the Holy Spirit will teach you about His gifts, and you won't need any man's lists. I suppose this is a "debate," but I confess that I am appalled at the general ignorance displayed in these comments. No wonder the Lord Jesus asked, "...when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?" Since it takes faith to operate the gifts of the Spirit, one will have to believe the Word of God in order to obey it. Unbelief is SIN.

Enjoyed the article. The link to barna didn't work. I believe it is http://www.barna.org/barna-update/article/12-faithspirituality/211-survey-describes-the-spiritual-gifts-that-christians-say-they-have

I am with the group that has a bias against spiritual gift inventories. More times than not, people answer these things how they wish they could be or how they think they should be, instead of how they really are.

It seems a much better strategy to get new believers engaged in serving as quickly as possible. In fact, service should be seen as an essential part of discipleship, not something that is subsequent to discipleship or distinct from discipleship. It is through serving that believers have the best opportunity to discover their gifts. It also provides the environment where those discoveries can be affirmed by the Body.

The rise of the use of spiritual gift inventories happened in the midst of the church growth movement as we were consumed with "How can we grow our churches as BIG as we can as FAST as we can?"

First, I would be suprised if most believers in traditional churches understand spiritual gifts in the New Testament sense because the church in the New Testament was house church. How do we understand the spiritual gifts when the "church" is 10-30 people meeting in a home rather than the 150+/- meeting in a "church" building? Hospitality is not about a committee making the building look nice for Sunday morning. So, how do the spiritual gifts found in the Bible function when there are 10-30 in a house church?

I agree that the evangelist is a gift to the church for the equipping of the saints for works of ministry. I do not see any text in the Bible that indicates there is a spiritual gift of evangelism.

Also, what is the relationship between spiritual gifts and the purpose of the church? Are the gifts "for internal use only"?

I have more questions than answers, though I am working on understanding both the New Testament church and the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

I have never seen such silly scholarship as I have witnessed with Spiritual Gifts. I'm not bold enough to name names but Men who have served as standards in evangelical theology baffle me at times. I recently read one mans writings on the subject and he started his view point based on what Pentecostals have done. Is that where we start? Look people have done crazy things with the bible. Should we throw it out? I'm not pushing any specific view point here, just that we need to start with scripture not experiences.

I'm a recovering Charismaniac. I've done things in the name of the Holy spirit that I'm ashamed to mention. I want to be clear that I was part of that problem and continue to repent as to escape judgment from my ignorance as a young minister.

Thankfully God has reformed my theology in this area. I'm left with a profound desire to understand spiritual gifts biblically and teach them passionately. We have to do better at equiping than we are, obviously right?

I'm leading a spiritual gifts study in our Life Group with people from many different backgrounds. I'm amazed at how little people know biblically and how little self examination has occured when it comes to how God has gifted us.

I will also admit I am frustrated that it isn't easier to systematically quantify spiritual gifts in a desirable and consumable way. (For instance what Ed said about no complete list that’s exhaustive.)

I'm at peace with this being part of the plan. As to keep us focused on Christ and not the gifts. Each gift listed we see in the ministry of Jesus and he has given parts of himself through the Holy Spirit for the ministry of reconciliation so that we are the hands and feet of Christ on earth.

regarding tests, I think they can be useful but only if the taker knows that their spouse and/ or two other close friends will take the test for them. I have witnessed cheating before. People reading into what they want to be. So the outcome of any test should be loosely considered.

Evangelist is the office held by someone in the body of Christ with the supernatural ability to provoke change in the heart for salvation or to provoke the Christian to evangelism.

Evangelism without spiritual gifts is dead works.

A spiritual gift apart from the fruit of the Spirit is sales.

We are called to witness to the lost by sharing our personal testimony of the result that the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ has in our life.

A witness in court shares their testimony and then it is judged.

The sinner hears our testimony and they must judge it for themselves.

The spiritual gifts like service, helps and mercy may allow someone to work in the nursery while mom and dad are in the service being nourished and encouraged by the music and preaching to go to their jobs strengthened in the faith to be a better witness for Jesus Christ.

Some useful books: The Bible, Billy Graham’s The Holy Spirit, D.A. Carson’s Showing the Spirit.

What I have observed over the last 30 years is that the church does not train believers how to give an EFFECTIVE personal testimony of their salvation including the "How To's". This is very evident when you sit in church and listen to people share their testimony. Thank God I had a "Paul" that took the time to teach me.

All comments are offered in a lighthearted way... something that is difficult to see in print...

As is often the case on matters like this, some folks seem to miss the big picture of what Scripture is saying, in favor of a focus on that which is less clear. For instance, if we put so much emphasis on the lists themselves, we better be able to define exactly what they are. But it seems to me that we cannot even do that. Oh, we can try, but do we really know EXACTLY what God meant when He inspired Paul to mention the gift called "the word of knowledge" or the one called "the word of wisdom...?" No, we have a general idea, but it can be fairly broad or fairly narrow. Those who try to define these things down to the smallest minutia, also often seem to hold that those who do not embrace their interpretation of that minutia are so far off as to be sinning, preaching heresy, etc.

Paul introduces the teaching in 1 Corinthians by using the word "varieties" no less than three times. So, he starts off by giving the impression that these gifts (and he also mentions ministries) are myriad in color and effect. I personally believe Paul was mostly making a big picture point about Spiritual Gifts, and in giving various lists (which he failed to define in detail), he was simply giving examples for the sake of further delineating what exactly he was getting at, which is this: The Holy Spirit gives special gifts to believers and we should use them to build up His church.

I agree about the problems with questionnaires and believe we are better off finding out how God has gifted us by actually trying stuff and also considering the counsel/affirmation of other believers.

But all of this discussion dealing with lists and trying to rule out or include some gifts seems counterproductive to me. I have known those who were very obviously "gifted" evangelists. They were simply gifted by God in that area and there is no denying it. And someone wants to argue about whether that should "count" as a "spiritual gift" or not. This is not what Paul or God intended by giving us these passages. One could say that labeling anyone with any specific gift causes others to feel they do not need to be obedient in that area. Labels always limit. Still, it is undeniable that there are those who are specially gifted by God in the area of evangelism, for instance. If someone doesn't want to call evangelism a "spiritual gift" because it isn't in the list, fine. We can just say this person is obviously gifted by God in the area of evangelism... but point out carefully that it is nonetheless, not a spiritual gift. (Pardon my sarcasm, it is only intended to make a point.) This is what I mean by the idea that we are majoring on the minors here.

What is the real heart of these passages? It is for the church to understand that God gives special gifts... but we also know that God gives special abilities... and yes, talents... and yes, experiences... and the point is that all of it is to be used for the edification of the body of Christ. Nitpicking about what should be considered a part of which list, and all of this emphasis on "figuring out exactly what your lifelong specific spiritual gift is" gets away from the original point in my opinion.

Yes, this is just my interpretation. Is it possible the church hasn't done such a bad job on this issue, but that some actually want to overemphasize this in a way that is counterproductive to the body? What exactly are we really supposed to teach on this issue? Some of us teach the main point without doing gift inventories or trying to get everyone to cognitively figure out what their precise gift is. As long as people are serving, doing something to edify and build up the body, they typically figure out what their gift is as they go, and they wind up using that gift, which is more important than whether or not they can write a theological treatise on the matter.

It just seems like we are missing the main point... missing the forest for the trees, as it were. I've always struggled with the issue, to be honest. Those who think they have these types of things completely figured out beyond question remind me of a preacher boy who once told me I can be as sure about the specifics of eschatology as I am about my salvation. Yikes.

One last thing... Paul said that no gift is worth anything without love. Even the early church fathers disagreed about Biblical interpretation... even the faithful ones. We must love each other enough to disagree agreeably. God has straightened me out over time on a lot of issues. He may want to straighten me out on this one as well. I am humble enough to admit I may not be seeing it clearly. We should never hold to our convictions so tightly that even God can not show us where we are wrong. This is exactly what the Pharisees and Sadducees did to their peril.

Thanks to you all for getting my heart pounding and my mind thinking.