Where are your talents? Do you understand them? Do you use them? Or, are you off attempting to become something you are not?

I really enjoy the web master side of this site. I have maintained websites for a former employer, two churches, and my wife's law practice as well as Jude Ministries. I started out changing existing pages using Netscape Communicator and have continually "moved up" the ladder as I learned new skills.

There have been a couple of blogs I came across on sites dedicated to the technical side of web work concerning web designers and their desires to create websites. Seems like a lot of people want in on the web work but find it more difficult than anticipated. The two articles are by Andrew Neitlich and Mathew Patterson. The Patterson blog is actually just a response to Neitlich, but his earlier blog is linked and it is the earlier blog that is of interest.

What is of interest to this discussion is the concern that someone might attempt to be creative where they have neither the talent nor the learning. In this type of situation, one ends up making a mess of the situation. There is nothing wrong with this, so long as you recognize you have strayed beyond your boundries and make an effort to reassess your efforts. In fact, one of the posted comments to the Neitlich blog concerned "how do you discover your talents?"

How do you discover your talents? We don't have to be talking about web work here. Creating and managing a website involves highly technical issues that go beyond simply placing content on a page. Obviously, you know whether or not you understand asp.net, php, and sql enough to draw information from a database and properly display it on a webpage.

On the other hand, assuming you have proper software, do you know if you are any good at improving images or creating a new image from a series of pictures? Can you visualize colors and choose proper combinations? Do you have a great idea to sell?

Most of this sounds like general marketing / management / business administration issues moved from the general to the specifics of the web. In fact, that is exactly what they are. The web is just another store front in many ways, albeit a store front with unique factors and one that requires different business skills.

What if we move these same concepts from the general to Christianity? More particularly, what if we move from the general to ministry issues, either within or without the church? If your church is like mine, you are always in need of people to assist the ministries. This includes children workers, youth leaders, Sunday School teachers, greeters and ushers, people interested in other ministries, and so on.

We believe that each believer is equipped with one or more spiritual gifts that are to be used for the exhortation of the Christian body. Nevertheless, there is a sense in which a church setting is no different than a website setting. You want to be involved but you have no idea about your talents. How do you discover them?

One way is to take a spiritual gifts test. There are many of these floating around. I found at least two online tests. One is  here and a second one is here. There was another that you could have mailed to you. These were found using Google and I only looked at the top four or five responses so there could be several other options. The point is, there are plenty of paper methods for finding your gifts. These still do not tell you how to put your gifts to work.

Which brings us to the second method of discovering your spiritual gifts.

If this were webwork, you could easily attempt to create a website by opening note pad and starting to create your pages. There are also free html editors that you could use. Windows XP has a option to install the web server software and while this does not get your pages on the www, it does allow you to display them in a browser, so you can see if they "work."

The same is true of spiritual gifts. It does not cost you anything to go to the children's pastor and say, "I would like to try . . . " If you think about yourself, you will have some general inclinations toward chilren, youth, adults, pastoral care, women's ministry, men's ministry, or some other special class of people. Go with your initial inclination and give it a try. Just like using your own personal computer to test your web pages, giving it a try does not cost you anything and there is no harm if you fail.

In many cases you will discover that first choice is wrong. In the process, however, you will start to learn what your real gifts are. God will commence to lead you toward the ministry you should be serving.

If you have no inclinations, then go to the pastor and ask which ministry needs the most help. Go start their. God will still lead you. He will help you find your proper ministry slot. The goal is to use your talents. Jesus does not want you sitting on the sidelines. You are suppose to be an active Christian. Your ultimate ministry may not be in the church (although they need your help even if you serve else where). You may be called to serve in a para-church organization.

Whatever the location, put your spiritual gifts to work now. God gave you a gift. Maybe it seems small and insignificant to you, but God wants you to be active in the body of Christ. Read 1 Corinthians 12. We are all needed. Each of us have something to contribute to Christ's body. Now is the time to commence making this contribution.

Jim A