Prizes for everyone!

We had a wonderfully crazy time in Middle School Sunday school this past Sunday! We began a discussion on "Spiritual Gifts." This was the first of many more conversations we are going to have relating to the topic of Spiritual gifts.

We looked into the subject of Spiritual gifts via 1 Corinthians 12:1-11.

1 Now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be uninformed. 2 You know that when you were pagans you were led astray to mute idols, however you were led. 3 Therefore I want you to understand that no one speaking in the Spirit of God ever says “Jesus is accursed!” and no one can say “Jesus is Lord” except in the Holy Spirit.
4 Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; 5 and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; 6 and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone. 7 To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. 8 For to one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, 9 to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, 10 to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the ability to distinguish between spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. 11 All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills.

To begin the discussion I thought it would be helpful to use a fun and easily transferable object lesson. So...

We played a trivia game. For each right answer a prize was given. Often it was multiples of the same prize. The prizes that were given were: a notebook, several unsharpened pencils, a couple of pencil sharpeners, some highlighters and a bunch of erasers.

After all the prizes were handed out and the pandemonium had ceased to a tolerable level, we discussed what each of the prizes could be used for. Then I asked what could happen if all the prizes were used together? Some said "homework," others said "take notes." I agreed and pointed out that if taking notes, for instance, was the main objective, then you would need all the prizes used together to accomplish that task.

I then related this to Spiritual gifts; pointing out that though there are many gifts, there is only one gift giver and He expects all the gifts to be utilized together for His great task - building His church!

We then talked about how every genuine Christian has received a Spiritual gift. As such, it is our responsibility to find out what that gift is and use it for the accomplishing of God's purpose! We are to use our Spiritual gifts for the common good of the church; for the work of the ministry and the building up of the body of Christ! No man has received a gift for private use, but for the benefit of others.

Thus, I challenged the students to find out what their Spiritual gifts are. I told them that if they don't it would be like sitting in front of all your Christmas presents on Christmas morning and saying "I don't care about those presents, I'm not going to open them and play with them." That's just crazy!

So, here are a couple of links to websites that will assist both students and parents in discovering their Spiritual gifts.

http://www.spiritualgiftstest.com

http://elmertowns.com/spiritual_gifts_test

http://www.churchgrowth.org/analysis/intro.php

For His Kingdom...