What are the needs?

How can we discover what our gifts are? I want simply to ask five questions and to link each of them with supporting texts. I want to suggest that if you keep those five questions in your thinking, they will help you to discover your gifts.

The first question: What are the needs? My supporting text would be John 13:15, where our Lord says, I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you. What had he just done? He had washed the sweaty, dirty feet of his disciples. And having done that, he said that is your example. That is your paradigm. That is what you are to follow. There was a need. These people needed their feet washed. The other disciples were angry with each other. None of them was willing to do that. Therefore, because none of them was willing to do it, it was not being done. And then our Lord did it.

Now, what are we saying? Are we saying that Jesus of Nazareth was particularly skillful at washing feet? Are we saying that he had a special unique gift which made him better at washing feet than any of his disciples? Obviously not—that would be a ludicrous idea. In this area, the need was the call. And our Lord was saying, While I may not have anymore giftedness to do this than anyone else, there is a need. I can do it, and I am willing to do it. In that sense it was a spiritual gift. Do you see what I am saying? It was not any particular aptitude. It was not any sense of call. He had not felt burdened to go and wash people’s feet. It was not something he longed to do. But there was a need, and the need was not being met. He could meet the need. He had the energy, the time, and the willingness, and so he met the need.

That I think is a helpful thing, dear readers. We live in in a self‑centred generation, a me generation. We need to remember that that is not what gifts are about. They are not about self‑promotion or self‑fulfillment. We are not coming to spiritual gifts saying, What is my thing? No! How can I help? How can I serve? How can I minister? God has put me into this situation. What needs are there that are not being met that I can do? What is being left undone that I could do? What needs to be done that I can do? That is what the reading of this article is about. It may be slightly unpleasant or unwelcome. But we come with a frame of mind that asks: how can I serve this part of the body of Christ?

I am trying to get you to think flexibly and fluidly. This gift will change with circumstances. Maybe somebody will be raised up by God in a few months to meet the need and you will not meet it anymore, or the need will disappear and it will not be there anymore. We are not talking about permanent lifelong commitments at this point. We are not saying, This is my gift and this is what I am going to specialise in for the rest of my Christian life.

There will be lots of times when we can speak or serve. It may be for a short time, for an emergency, or for some particular need. That is real and good service. The humble, loving, unselfish spirit is part of Christian gifting. True servants begin by looking for needs—going around with their eyes and hearts open in the church and the world. Their attitude is: what can I do and how can I help? That is going to vary and change. It is going to stop and start. As I say, we are not talking about a life pattern here, but this is a very, very Christ‑like beginning to the question of gifts. The person with that mental frame of mind is not going to go far wrong—they are going to be guided and helped.¹

Edward Donnelly