Driving Your Quest: How Can You Utilize Your Gifts for Good – and for God?

What are you passionate about? What brings you great joy and inspiration in your life? We all are born with God-given abilities, and what makes us unique are the individual gifts and talents we are given. Some people are born with artistic talents, others are athletically gifted. Some are talented in science and math, and others are born with the gift to sing and dance or play music. 

As those called by God, we are all - in some form or another - born to spread the good news of God’s love for all. 

Maybe you’ve been blessed with the patience and kindness to help others. Maybe it’s your strength and leadership qualities that make you an excellent teacher or preacher of God’s message. Maybe you are resilient and ambitious, and have an eagerness to engage, lead and create peace in your community. 

These gifts that you have been given can sometimes be overlooked or buried, or, maybe you’re not sure where to begin. Take a step back, and ask yourself, “Where am I now?”

In what stage of life are you? Are you just discovering your gifts or do you want to develop more? Assessing where you stand and determining what kind of future you envision for yourself can help. View the chart below to determine what category you may fit into.

How Do I Know If I Am Being Called to Serve?

What does a call to ministry look like? Just because you have a call upon your life by God does not necessarily mean that you know where God may be calling you. Such calls are often unclear. The journey of a life called by God can sometimes feel like uncharted territory, taking you on paths you did not expect. 

God’s calling can be full of surprises and will likely take you in many directions. The objective is to be prepared. It may be that you are at a place now where it is time to consider next steps for that preparation. 

Deciphering if you are being called can be challenging, but you may find our Call to Ministry Checklist to be helpful. 

Call to Ministry Checklist

•  Is There Alignment Between Your Core Being And Your Calling?

When you think about your core being - the skills you have and those you are developing - do you sense alignment with your calling? Do your aspirations of serving your community through ministry match your current role? If your personal and professional goals are different from the servant leadership you think you may be called to, it may be time to reconsider your trajectory. 

•  Are You Passionate About Your Faith and Sharing God’s Love?

Do you find yourself devoted to faith? Are you an active church goer who seeks more? Do you seek wisdom through the Bible when things get tough, or as a way to follow Christ and live out your faith? During worship or other parts of your daily life, if you are yearning to do more with your faith, this may be a sign of a calling.

•  Do You Have An Inner Longing For Servant Leadership?

Some people feel they need to be doing more for others. Do you often feel this way? Volunteering can help satisfy this longing, but if you believe you need to lay down your life even more, you may be called to something bigger.

•  Are You Gifted To Teach, Preach, Counsel and Live Out God’s Word?

Are you longing to learn how to share the Gospel or to teach God’s Word? Maybe you’re more timid and this is a gift you believe God wants you to develop. No matter what, you are encouraged to use this skill for the greater good.

•  Are Lives Enriched When You Share Your Gifts?

When you think about assisting someone, whether it be teaching God’s love, spreading kindness or servant leadership, do people benefit from your giving? In other words, do your actions cause a generous, positive reaction in other people’s lives? If so, you are utilizing your gifts and God is working through you already; now it’s time to take them a step further.

•  Is Your Community Speaking Into Your Call? 

Sometimes, we become bogged down with our own self-experience and can become myopic, only seeing a limited vision that God is calling us toward. What are your trusted mentors saying? What do strangers affirm in you? What does your spiritual community have to say?

•  Are You Ready To Respond To God’s Call?

The most challenging yet rewarding part of servant leadership is offering all that you are and all that you have to God. Serving others and embracing God’s call on your life is a courageous act of selflessness. “Here I am.”

You may be called to ministry if one or more of these pertain to you.

Proverbs 16:9 “The human mind plans the way, but the Lord directs the steps.” (NRSV)

As Christians, we are all called to ministry. However, there are varying degrees and levels. You may serve as a lay person at your church: chairing a committee,  teaching classes, singing in the choir or leading child youth services. You may be an active church member participating in worship and volunteering during your free time. 

Whatever your call may be – whether in full-time vocational ministry or adding another dimension to your current role in church and community – all Christians are encouraged to participate in ministry to some degree. However, some might be called to add more to their calling through theological training.

Some have a clear call or feel an internal prompting to be involved in vocational ministry or community service. Others may feel confused or are searching for a more clear spiritual direction. There is not one right way to discern your call to ministry and that’s okay. 

Discerning your call to ministry may not just happen overnight. It could take years of learning more about who you are in Christ, what kind of servant leadership role most resonates with you and what role in the church and your community that God wants you to play. 

The reality is, you may not have a story like the one from Isaiah, Chapter 6 (“Here  I am Lord, send me…”), but that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t still seek the pathway to becoming a servant leader or try to better understand how you can be God’s hands and feet by serving the poor and marginalized.   

Let’s take a look at how your call to ministry and personal or professional enrichment  is needed in our world today.