Making Ice Cream

The other day I was preparing for youth group. I went
to get a coffee can for one of the program activities
and I realized I had a whole host of small coffee cans
from all the coffee I drink. I had been saving them to
make Ice Cream with the youth during the summer. I had
planned ahead for those particular needs. And I knew
when the time came I could go out and pick up some
cream and sugar, some flavorings, some ice and some
rock salt so the kids could make ice cream.
Only I was missing a key ingredient to making tin can
ice cream. I needed the 2 or 3 pound containers to
contain the inner coffee can and the ice and salt to
do rolled ice cream. I make this appeal to you now, if
you have any large 2 or 3 pound coffee cans, or as you
use them up in your house would you bring them to me
down at the church office for a summer program with
the youth group where will be making ice cream.
Pondering all of this on the heels of preaching and
teaching "Making Disciples of Jesus Christ" - our
mission statement for the United Methodist Church I
discovered I had the same problem. God was here, the
spiritual gifts had been laid out, you were here, and
I had been given training and resources to help each
of you use your spiritual gifts through the Del Rosa
church and beyond, but I had forgotten one vital
piece. And once again, I need your help in getting it
together so that we can do better than make ice cream.
We can "Make Disciples of Jesus Christ". I need to
know what your spiritual gifts are. I need an
inventory from you that has helped you to discern
where you have been gifted by God for service in the
world today.
Our Lay Leadership Committee has already done this and
developed a sense of understanding about their own
gifts, and we can draw from those, but they alone do
not make up the Disciples present here at the Del Rosa
UMC.
I offer here a few resources to help you determine
what God has gifted you to do that you may serve Jesus
Christ at your fullest, living your vocation in the
church and world you interact in each day.
For those who use the Web on a regular basis here are
a few sites to look at and use:
http://www.umc.org/site/c.lwL4KnN1LtH/b.1355371/k.9501/Spiritual_Gifts.htm
http://www.churchgrowth.org/analysis/intro.html
http://www.elca.org/evangelism/assessments/spiritgifts.html
http://www.buildingchurch.net/g2s.htm
http://mintools.com/spiritual-gifts-test.htm

For those who use paper resources first and foremost,
I have some invetories here at church that we can get
out to you, all you need to do is to call, or see me
on a Sunday morning and we will ensure you have one in
your hot little hands.
If you have done them before and found your gifts to
be in a certain area, please take some time to be in
prayer and take it again. God provides gifts to the
community that the people may have their needs met in
the present, and God may be laying a new calling upon
your heart, whereby you will be gifted to address that
new calling. As our sign has said from time to time,
"God does not call the gifted, but gifts the called."
How are you being called, and how have you been gifted
to help make disciples in the Del Rosa area?
Blessings,
David