Using Your Gifts to Bless the Body of Christ - Part 2

“God has blessed us all with different gifts, but that doesn't mean they're ours to use however we want. Ultimately, we should be using them for God's glory, and to bless the body of Christ.”

In the last post, we considered our responsibility as stewards over the gifts God has entrusted us with. As we continue to look at using our gifts in the context of the church gathering, we now focus on how we should be doing this.

God has blessed us all with different gifts, but that doesn't mean they're ours to use however we want. Ultimately, we should be using them for God's glory, and to bless the body of Christ.

So with that said, the next point then, or responsibility number 2, is…

...Servanthood.

This really has to do with how we practically use our gift. Just to be clear, this doesn’t mean we shouldn’t use our gifts or abilities outside of the church context - of course, we can - but in this post, our focus is the church context.

In 1 Peter 4:10, we read these words…

...As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God's varied grace:

The primary application of this verse relates to spiritual gifts within the church. However, there is also a clear secondary application and underlying principle here:

Any gift or ability God has given us is never to be used for purely selfish reasons, but rather, we use our gifts and abilities to serve and bless others.

Notice in that verse the concept of stewardship and service are linked together.

This idea of servanthood also reminds us that when using our gift, our attitude shouldn’t be just that we want to use it so we can get the satisfaction of knowing that we are serving. Rather...

We should want to use our gift in a way that is most fitting, and most appropriate, for the church’s needs and requirements.

In other words, it's doing what is best not just for ourselves, but for the church as a whole.

This means...

We should be flexible and willing to fit around what the leadership of the church requires, and have a submissive heart that is thinking of others above ourselves.

Practically speaking, this might mean things like changing a song we had selected, or dropping a song altogether. It’s important also, in our role as church piano players, that we understand that if we have the responsibility of choosing the songs, we should never use that to only play “our favorites” but rather, we need a good sense of what is best for the church as a whole. We’ll talk more about that in a later post on selecting and organizing our music.

Ultimately, the way we use our gift should demonstrate a genuine, servant-hearted attitude that is seeking to bring glory to God first and foremost, and be a blessing to the body of Christ.

In the next post, we'll be looking at how sanctification plays into this role of using our gifts in the context of the church.

[Return to The Church Piano Player Website]

This blog post was written by pastor and pianist Kris Baines, from The Church Piano Player. Kris lives in the UK with his family, having recently moved back from New Zealand where he worked as a pastor for the past 26 years (also leading worship/worship teams). Kris has also spent over 35 years writing, recording, and performing music and is now bringing all that combined experience together to help equip church piano/keyboard players.

Check out the church piano player website for more information on online courses by Kris Baines.

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