Marketplace Ministry Part 4

Continuing my thoughts on equipping believers for serving in the marketplace:

Let's look at the 7 spiritual gifts that Paul the Apostle listed in his letter to the Roman community, chapter 12:

"For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads, with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness."

Here are 7 spiritual gifts for the marketplace:

1. Prophecy - not telling the future, but speaking the mind of God

2. Serving - meeting the needs of others in practical ways.

3. Teaching - helping people understand and apply concepts

4. Exhorting - encouraging people and motivating them to excel

5. Contributing - generosity in all manner of things

6. Leadership - making sure others have all they need to succeed

7. Acts of mercy - showing grace and compassion to others

Each of these spiritual gifts can be used in the marketplace to love and serve the people that we work with. All of these gifts are focused on helping other people excel in the sphere of the marketplace. They are not used to preach about Jesus or to "share the gospel" (although that can certainly happen in appropriate ways during lunch breaks or after hours). The primary purpose of marketplace ministry is to love and serve other people by making them more effective in their marketplace work or activity. This is love - laying aside any agenda of our own to truly serve others and help them to fulfill their potential in every area of life.

For example, my gift is the gift of teaching, and in my job as a software engineer at Cisco, I use my gift of teaching to help other engineers become better and more successful at their jobs. This is an operation of God's love, because as I enable other people to become successful, their self-esteem grows, they become more valuable to the company and they often receive promotions and raises. This is my way of demonstrating the love of God to my fellow employees.

It's been my experience that when I treat my co-workers with kindness, empathy and value they respond to this and begin to trust me. This in turn creates a platform for me to speak into their lives. I purposely avoid using religious language, but many times I have shared with co-workers a word of encouragement (which I felt was from God) that has brought strength and vision to them. In addition, time and time again my co-workers have thanked me for my teaching saying things like, "Bill you have such a great way of explaining things. It's all so clear when you teach us." I give the praise to God because this is His spiritual gift of teaching operating in me in my place of business to help others.

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