Date: Sunday, August 26, 2018
Series Description:
The message series "How God has SHAPED Us for Ministry" is something that has been presented three other times in the past. We must give credit where credit is due, so it needs to be said up front that much of what will be presented in the messages over these 7 weeks will be taken from Pastor Rick Warren’s book The Purpose Driven Church. Most of the key ideas that will be shared on this subject can be found in chapter 19 titled "Turning Members into Ministers". SHAPE is an acronym that Rick Warren developed to explain five elements (spiritual gifts, heart, abilities, personality, and experiences) that determine what a person’s ministry should be. Each of us is uniquely designed, or shaped, by God to do certain things, and we will look at and hopefully discover together how God has shaped each of us for the ministry that He has prepared for us to do.
Sermon Description:
This morning, we will be talking about the A in our SHAPE, which is our abilities; our skills and knowledge. Abilities are the natural talents that each of us has been born with. One of the most common excuses people give for not getting involved in ministry is that they just don’t have any abilities to offer. This is absolutely not true! Many national studies have proven that the average person possesses from 500 to 700 skills! We need to identify our abilities and to match them with the right ministry. God has given to each one of us special abilities, skills, and knowledge, and we are to wholeheartedly use these to serve God and others.