Does God use the gifted?

Posted on May 5, 2008 by anna

I was contemplating what areas of service I would like to get involved in at church, trying to think what I would be best at or most gifted in, when this thought struck me.

As Christians, churches and societies we usually choose our leaders based on the potential they show, the obvious giftings they possess and their willingness to serve. Fairly similar, in fact, to Sir Alan Sugar’s audition process in “The Apprentice”. How different from God’s method of selecting leaders. He seems to choose those with little or no obvious gifting, who don’t show apparent leadership skills and who really don’t want to be used, even those stuck in the grip of sin. Think of Moses protesting, Jonah running, Gideon hiding, David fornicating, Rahab prostituting. Not the usual leadership candidates, especially in church! It seems He selects those with nothing to give, as they are the ones who will entirely depend on Him.

How different from our ideas of leaders. From what I see, God cares much less about “talented individuals” and “gifted leaders” than we would like to think. He seems to spend much more time with, and give his attention to the drunks, the whores, the fearful, the hurting, dirty and dying. Perhaps that’s where our focus should be?

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3 Responses to “Does God use the gifted?”

  1. duncanmcf, on May 7th, 2008 at 1:43 am Said:

    I always knew there was something in there that led me to want to be a leader and now I can see it’s because I have no obvious gifts, no leadership ability and don’t want to be used like that :-) lol!
    It’s a fair point, and how radical it would be if we did think like that, especially in a church located in an affluent area like ours.
    But then again, we should, according to Timothy 2, be choosing our leaders based on their spiritual character….how often do we do that?

  2. anna, on May 7th, 2008 at 5:22 pm Said:

    thanks for the comment!
    when i compare myself to these biblical models, it does change slightly the way I view myself and my “leadership potential”. it is hard to imagine how a church could function with leaders like that…
    it is interesting that Paul’s view differs somewhat from the way God choose his leaders, but it all seems to boil down to character- one that is able to be moulded and changed by God

  3. brunettekoala, on May 9th, 2008 at 11:13 pm Said:

    I think Duncan hit the nail on the head with his last sentence there. Some of the most radical leaders have been those who seem to be the least likely leaders.

    Personally I go for a moses approach when asked to lead anything ‘I can’t do that - send someone else God’…sums up my common response when asked to do something remotely out my ‘comfort zone’.

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