Lately I’ve been hooked on some shows on HGTV, and there is always a promo clip during the commercial breaks for the show Home Town. My favorite part about this clip is that one of the leads of the show who revitalizes their community by restoring old homes in their hometown says “Use the gift you have to make your place better, no matter where that place may be.” That sounds a lot like Shared Ministry to me. We take the time to explore what our gifts are and then we have to use them to make our place better-whether that place is this church, our workplace, our families, the Tulsa community or the world as a whole.
It’s such a simple idea, yet so many of us aren’t engaged in sharing our gifts and making our place better. Maybe you think you don’t have the time to explore what your gifts might be, or maybe you don’t think you have the time to serve and commit to making a difference. Maybe you feel uncomfortable and uncertain about how to serve and need the help, support and encouragement of others. Maybe you don’t know where to start? Maybe you have your own troubles and can’t be bothered with the problems of the world right now. These are just some of the reasons that most of us have used at one time or another to put off the work of making our place better. So, what reasons do you have for not fully committing to sharing your gifts and serving others? What if all of us stopped coming up with reasons to not serve one another and instead brought forth the Kingdom of God by committing to sharing our ministries? What would the world look like?
The final part of that commercial is that same woman passionately proclaiming “get up and do it.” It’s not enough just to know what you are good at, it’s not enough to think about serving, it’s not enough to come up with ideas but never see them through. You have to act. You have to commit to giving of yourself, your gifts and your time. So what are you waiting for? “Use the gift you have to make your place better. Get up and do it!”
~Terisa Cunha, Coordinator of Shared Ministries