November Newsletter - Pastor's Corner

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.

Pondering all of this on the heels of preaching and teaching "Making Disciples of Jesus Christ for the Transformation of the World" - 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 Ojai United Methodist Church church and beyond, but I had forgotten one vital piece. 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 for the Transformation of the World". 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 will do this and develop 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 Ojai 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 inventories here at church that we can get out to you, all you need to do is to call, or see me or Kathy here  at the office 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 a church 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 Ojai Valley and beyond?
Blessings,
David