MINISTRY!

Room 317 on the third floor of Todd Building on Dallas Seminary’s Main Campus. And the Fall Semester begins this week. What a delight to be back in the teaching saddle! And the thrill of interaction with fellow-faculty members and students! A foretaste of these, at the Faculty Workshop and Student Orientation last week, whetted my appetite for more. And there will be more, God willing.

It is with a great deal of eagerness that I embark on the next phase of my spiritual pilgrimage. Yet another opportunity to serve God and His people with what He has entrusted me with. While I’m thankful for the special place I’m in and the unique community I’m now part of here at DTS, opportunities for all believers to serve God with our spiritual gifts, for the edification of the body of Christ, are constantly available. In some capacity or another, in some venue or another, we are called to exercise faithful stewardship of God’s gifts. Let us make use those opportunities enthusiastically.

As each one
has received a special gift,
employ it in serving one another
as good stewards
of the manifold grace of God.
… so that in all things
God may be glorified
through Jesus Christ,
to whom belongs the glory and
dominion forever and ever. Amen.
1 Peter 4:10–11

All for the glory of God. Indeed, whatever we do must seek to glorify God.

Whether, then, you eat or drink
or whatever you do,
do all to the glory of God.
1 Corinthians 10:31

While the glory of God remains the ultimate goal, the proximal goal in the use of our gifts and talents is the building up of the church, the fellowship of believers in Christ. With all the different gifts operating, and as team members play their individual positions, together we all serve to strengthen and profit the community of God.

To each one is given
the manifestation of the Spirit
for the common good.
1 Corinthians 12:7

For the good of all, for the benefit of all. There is obviously no place for boast or conceit in the distribution or exercise of gifts. They are all equally the manifestation of God’s Spirit. And all equally gifts, i.e., given to us, received by us.

For who regards you as superior?
What do you have
that you did not receive?
And if you did receive it,
why do you boast
as if you had not received it?
1 Corinthians 4:7

This is an act of God—His sovereign distribution of gifts, His sovereign placement of each unique individual in the body of Christ. Dallas Seminary’s Annual Faculty Workshop is highlighted by reports from those responsible for the many facets of the Seminary’s operation—finance, academic, information technology, etc. Obviously the logistics of running such an educational institution is clearly a team effort. So also is the functioning of the church, designed by God to operate as a team effort.

For just as we have
many members in one body
and all the members
do not have the same function,
so we, who are many,
are one body in Christ,
and individually members
one of another.
Romans 12:4–5

Body parts with different functions. It truly matters not what exactly the gift(s) is (are) that each of us has. What is important is our faithful exercise thereof for the glory of God and the edification of the church, for …

… it is required of stewards
that one be found trustworthy.
1 Corinthians 4:2

And so, let’s plunge in, giving of ourselves to God and His people, serving faithfully.