modern-day-gifts

Modern day gifts – The Accommodator (aka “the bean-bag”)

This is the person who is just what everyone needs them to be. They’re not pretending to be someone who they’re not, they just genuinely are able to be the life of the party – if the party is lacking life… and they can be the quiet serious one in the corner, if the party already has life, and needs a bit of solace. They can be your back-up, they can be your front-man, they can make something up and they can follow what’s set-out already.

Chances are they won’t like conflict, but the great strength of the Accommodator is their ability to make everyone feel like they are getting just what they need.

Modern Day Gifts: The Girl Gusher

There’s a certain type of guy who, without any particular intention to, just seems to get into conversations with girls who then feel comfortable to open up, share their histories, their struggles, their pains. These guys don’t try to find out these things; they just sort of find themselves in deep conversations with girls, offering an open ear, godly counsel and Christian encouragement.

Of course this could be terribly abused. And there are certain things to be wary of. These guys need to realise that girls may form emotional attachments after a very short time. They need to be especially open with their wives about who they’ve spoken to, and its almost always best if they have their wives with them in every conversation.

When I’ve spoken to guys who’ve found that girls just open-up with them about serious Christian stuff, I’ve usually told them that they might have a special gift for encouraging and counseling girls… and apart from being really careful, maybe its a gift that’s best used in a few years – like when they’re over 55 and can be a fatherly encouragement.

Sure, there’s always going to be issues to be wary of here. But these guys have a great opportunity to speak gospel truths to women, that otherwise would be very difficult for other people (men or women) to say.

Reblog: Modern Day Gifts: The Mood Reader

Don’t you love the person who can just read the mood in a room? Whether its a small group, a big church meeting, a special event, or just in a social setting.
This is what a great MC will do… they’ll speak into the feel of the room. A sermon might have left a solemn mood, or a song might have ended on a high. A (spiritually) gifted MC will see/feel that… they won’t ruin it, they won’t make a clunky change of gears. Their tone of voice, their words, their mannerisms will match.
Going one step further, a gifted MC with added skills will pick that mood, and then push it one way or another, to help people in the room move on.

#ModernDayGifts Dreamers and Doers

Some people love being given a problem to solve. Even if you give them a task, they will probably come back to you with a different way of doing that task. They’re Dreamers.
Some people love being given a task, and just told what to do. The clam up at the thought of having to invent something, or design a new way to get something done. They’re Doers.
Both these people are invaluable to our churches. We need Dreamers who are going to take our desires as a christian body and come up with new ways to do them. But we have other things that, as a body, we need to keep doing again and again. Doers love serving their church family in these ways.
If someone is feeling a bit out of place in how they’re serving, it might be because you’re asking a Doer to Dream, or you’re asking a Dreamer to just Do.

Modern-day-gifts “The Energizer”

Put some people in front of an audience, and they have to try so hard to affect the mood in the room. Shouting and jumping around will likely only cause embarrassment, rather than excitement.

Put other people in front of an audience, and all they have to do is half-a-smile… and bam! There’s something electric in the room. Everyone’s alert and excited. They’ve got some ability to inject energy into the room.

Thank you God for those people.

Modern Day Gifts: The Illustrator

You work at the text, you see it from every angle, you explain it in every detail, you apologise for its complexity, while encouraging people to work really hard at understanding it…

And then “the Illustrator” arrives and says, “Oh, so it’s kinda’ like how…” and proceeds to come up with a BRILLIANT illustration for what you’re trying to say, such that everyone just goes, “Ohhhh!! right!”

And it all seems so simple.

When was the last time you asked someone to help you come up with an illustration?

Modern day gifts: The Applicator

Ok, I know that just sounds weird, but hear me out.

Some people have a unique and amazing knack at hearing a sermon, reading a passage and just nailing what it practically means for themselves and people around them. They can apply the bible so well.

They may not be great teachers or preachers, but they see what the implications of the gospel message are in very real terms. They make great advisors for sermon applications.

Modern day gifts: The Categorisor

I love these people, mainly because I wish I was good at it.

Categorisors are those people who look at a big list of topics, or a whole book of the bible, or listen to a 3hr conversation… and then they say something like, “So we’ve really been looking at these 4 issues… etc.”

Now, just because you’ve met someone who tries to do that, doesn’t mean they have this amazing gift. A true gifting of the categorisation spirit is on display when, and only when, the topics/categories they put forward are perfect.

Everyone in the room/discussion hears those categories and visibly sighs with relief because they can finally hang all their thoughts on some hooks. The categories just fit everything so perfectly. The buckets just seem so perfect everyone kicks themselves for not seeing it before.

Keep these gifted-people close and use their gift for the glory of God!