Rich Kao

What's a church that makes God smile?  One that is enjoying the gifts given to her. 

God is a gift-giver.  That's what Eph 4:8 says.  And not only do we make God smile when we enjoy his gifts, we also become a gifted church, one that  is robust, vibrant, full of life, on the move, and bringing God's blessing to the earth. That's God's design - that we shine for Him.

How do make good on his gifts?  According to Eph. 4:11, there are five on them.  Here's my version of how we can "unpack" them and put them to good use.

Each gift has a purpose and design.  Each represents a part of who God is, how he thinks, feels, strategizes, builds up, leads, and makes the church great.  If we will incorporate all these gifts and their inherent designs into our church life, our church planting, our church nurturing, we will have a church that changes the world.

To unlock the richness and blessings of these gifts, I've formulated five lead-in questions that help us get at the gooey center.  It helps focus our thoughts on one train of thinking, and then another one, and another, until we've done this exercise five times.   Actually each question is a day of consultation and dialogue in and of itself, as it leads to many other questions that can become rivulets or rivers of thought, strategy and change.

In Part 2 of The Gifted Church, we'll look at the first question.