The gift that is in you

I should not have read this post - but I did. A pastor's wife wrote and recounted that she has been asked to contribute to the worship service. Should she contribute and, if so, what? The post explores this question. May a woman lead in worship?

The author of the post then quotes from Randy Stinson.

It would depend on how that particular church understands the degree of authority that she holds over the assembled congregation and the extent to which she provides instruction. Is her position understood as one of authority over the congregation similar to a pastor/elder? Does she provide doctrinal commentary between songs or other doctrinal instruction to the choir or congregation? Does her “leading” involve the exercising of authority over others or, rather, the providing of leadership regarding timing, tempo, music, etc.? Does she direct the church to a particular song in a hymnal and invite those assembled to praise the Lord, or does she engage in more biblical exhortation like a pastor?

The post discusses how a woman may contribute in a musical way and never with an exhortation or doctrinal teaching. And then the blog author concludes with these words 'enthusiastically support your husband with your musical gifts.' But at no time does the woman indicate that she has musical gifts!

How sad it is to be told that God only wants back from us something that we may never have been given. Randy Stinson is teaching that the sexes are different by design at a conference in April.

On a related note, I attended a seminar on the history of psychoanalysis this week. Near the end of the talk the speaker said this.

What is most important for me is that we each have an 'other' - not someone to help us change - but someone to help us be ourselves. The boy and girl need a caregiver who helps them to be themselves, their true selves, not a caregiver who wants to change them, who wants them to be something they are not.

Here was a man who all his life was driven by knowing that his parents had not wanted him to be the way he was. How often are Christian men and women told that God, our father, does not want us to be the way he made us?

What do the scriptures tell us about gifts. First, they are not distributed by sex. Next, God determines how they are distributed - he gifts people by his grace and according to his will. We are to desire gifts, we are to earnestly seek them, we may receive them through the agency of others, but we are not to neglect the gift that is in us.

The gift, the χάρισμα, is a product of God's grace and favour towards us - it is not of our own doing. We are to seek earnestly to be ourselves, to develop and use the gifts given to us for the common good and for the glory of God.

There are several different Greek words which are all usually translated into English by the word 'gift'. The two most common ones are δωρεὰ and χάρισμα. It is interesting to see how a few different translations deal with an instance where both words are used in one verse, Romans 5:15. The blue are χάρισμα and the green δωρεὰ.

ἀλλ' οὐχ ὡς τὸ παράπτωμα οὕτως καὶ τὸ χάρισμα εἰ γὰρ τῷ τοῦ ἑνὸς παραπτώματι οἱ πολλοὶ ἀπέθανον πολλῷ μᾶλλον ἡ χάρις τοῦ θεοῦ καὶ ἡ δωρεὰ ἐν χάριτι τῇ τοῦ ἑνὸς ἀνθρώπου Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ εἰς τοὺς πολλοὺς ἐπερίσσευσεν

But not as the offence, so also is the free gift. For if through the offence of one many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many KJV

But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man's trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many. ESV

But the gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God's grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many! TNIV

15But [shall] not the act of favour [be] as the offence? For if by the offence of one the many have died, much rather has the grace of God, and the free gift in grace, which [is] by the one man Jesus Christ, abounded unto the many. Darby