Spiritual Ministry Gifts and writing

Christian writers with creative ideas sometimes find it difficult to decide which writing project to focus on first. Quite likely all of your ideas have the potential to strengthen the Body of Christ, draw readers to God, and/ or help other people in general, so you won’t go wrong with any Bible-based theme or treatment. Nevertheless, one manuscript might be well-timed and another not. Or, one idea might fill you with enthusiasm (a word rooted in “en theos” – in God), whereas another project might leave you feeling ho-hum or put you into a panic. Regardless:

When you ask God to direct your work, expect that to happen.

Since the Holy Spirit promises to give every Christian one or more Spiritual Ministry Gifts, recognizing those gifts will guide you and give you insights into yourself, your work, and the writing to which you have been called.

We talked about this a little in a previous article on your “Writing talent and spiritual gifts,” so you might want to re-read that short discussion. Since then, I've had the opportunity to take a Spiritual Ministry Gifts test that differs from one I took years ago, and the current results confirmed the very projects to which I am now drawn.

Most likely, you also have some ideas that interest you more than others, but just in case you have not yet taken a test to discern your God-given gifts and confirm your next project, I did an Internet search to see which Spiritual Ministry Gifts test to recommend. As it turned out, I found several! So I took them all, and here’s what I found:

This excellent site provided by Ken Ellis not only has a Spiritual Gifts Test with online analysis but also a separate test for new Christians and another for youth. Since you’re encouraged to respond quickly and not over-think it, the main test takes only 15 to 20 minutes with immediate results and hotlinks to explain each gift with ideas and relevant scriptures. The results felt right-on, even though I initially had trouble responding to “Always” for areas that interested me.

Spiritual Gifts tested on this website did not include obvious gifts of healing or prophecy but, instead, clarified tasks that typically need gifted workers within the church.

Another site I recommend does not provide a test but offers insights and information relating to your Spiritual Gifts and Leadership, including definitions, scriptural references, and practical instructions.

The Spiritual Gifts Inventory by Paulist Fathers includes a test, which, like the others, encourages you to respond spontaneously and honestly to get the most accurate results. The site also includes helpful information and instruction for using your ministry gifts.

As you take a Spiritual Ministry Gift test, keep in mind, there are no right or wrong answers!

Also, this may not be true of other sites, but the hotlinks above give you and only you an analysis, so no one else needs to know the results. What you do with that information is up to God and you and the writing ministry to which you feel most drawn.


©2015, Mary Harwell Sayler

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Reading and writing Bible stories for children

Recently I received review copies of two Bible storybooks from Tyndale Kids: My Keepsake Bible, which I reviewed on the Bible Reviewer blog, and Bible Favorites: One Sentence Storybooks, written by Nancy I. Sanders and illustrated by Hannah Wood.

Both of those editions have a fresh approach for presenting Bible stories to young children as I discussed a bit on the earlier review, but here I want to talk about the small boxed set of 10 stories told in one sentence because the author and artist managed to achieve an enviable level of simplicity.

That sounds odd, but try it!

Try taking a complicated Bible story and compressing it down to its essence.

Then try writing the story in one sentence.

Impossible it seems, and yet the writer managed to do this, not by including details but by removing everything except the most basic aspects of the story while giving the impression of far more.

To give you an example, the first story in the set, entitled The Sun and the Moon, encapsulates creation. The little booklet opens with the text, “God’s hand” and has a drawing of a hand on the opposite page. Next “God’s hand made the sun” shows both on the adjacent page, followed by “God’s hand made the sun and the moon,” then “God’s hand made the sun and the moon and the earth.”

Those few words put across the larger idea that God created the heavens and the earth and all that is in them.

Besides providing young children with that important information, the little booklet has a page with key words to help sight-reading-spelling-recognition, followed by “One Truth to Learn,” “One Verse to Say” or memorize, and “One Prayer to Pray” with a child as you read.

That basic format continues for the other stories in the set, which includes:

Two Mice and the Ark
Moses and the Bush
David and the Giant
The City Wall
The Star and the Kings
Jesus on the Water
The Good Shepherd
The Sad Son (aka prodigal)
The Angel and the Cave

Each story is written super tightly and well with lively drawings that also have few lines, but I wish the set had a different story for King David. I’ve noticed this same decision made for several of the Bible storybooks I’ve reviewed where the single story of many possibilities shows little David overcoming the big, bad Goliath. It seems to me that, if only one story can be included for David, it might be one with a more positive impact, for instance, his care for the sheep, his loyalty to King Saul, his confession of wrong-doing, his poetry writing, or something that does not involve hitting, as here, or killing, as shown in other Bible storybooks for children.

Despite my disappointment over that choice, here and elsewhere, I very much appreciate the choice to include the story of Jesus’ walking on the water. Told in a single, highly effective sentence, the story comes down to this:

The men
in the boat
saw Jesus
walk on water.

Surely anyone of any age who reads that sentence will recognize that something amazing is happening! something unique that only God can do.

That simple sentence also reminds us, as poets and writers, that we don’t need to embellish or strain for effect but to get the facts straight and keep it simple, so the truth of the story can come through as happens in this highly recommended set.

©2015, Mary Harwell Sayler 

Bible Favorites: One Sentence Storybooks, set of 10 small paperbacks



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