WINTER 2004Sondra Ball
Mickleton MM
lizabeth O’Connor wrote, in Eighth Day of Creation: “A community which allows unemployed members to exist within it will perish because of them.” Paul, writing to the Ephesian church of Christ’s bountiful supplying of the human heart, said, “He gave gifts to (every human) ... to equip ... people for work.”
We are each of us blessed with gifts that are uniquely ours. From these gifts comes much of our ability to love life, to enjoy ourselves, others, and the world about us. From these gifts comes much of our ability to succeed in the world. And out of these gifts comes most of our contributions to other people and to the communities in which we work and love and play.
For no gift is given by God merely for the benefit of the holder of that gift. Gifts are given to indi viduals for the benefit of the community, and are owned by the community as well as by the individuals. The community reaps benefits from the gifts of individuals. It also has a responsibility to call forth or evoke the gifts of individuals, and to encourage each person to find suitable ways to express those gifts.
There are many gifts. One person might have a gift of service. This person might be just the person to make sure the coffee is started for coffee hour every Sunday, the folding chairs are put away after meetings, the name tags are in order. Another might have a gift for making new people feel comfortable, and would make a perfect greeter. There are gifts of vocal ministry, of counseling, of management, of creativity. There are many other gifts—probably far too many for me to name them all.
Each meeting has a responsibility to identify the gifts of each of its members and attenders cor rectly (including, of course, its children), and to find ways both to utilize these gifts in the meeting itself and to encourage individuals to use their gifts for the benefit of the larger community (perhaps the neighborhood, perhaps the Quarter, perhaps the world).
The Salem Quarterly Meeting Working Group on Gifts has been working to create a program that will enable meetings to help identify and nurture the gifts of their various members. It wants to help meetings find ways to effectively culture and utilize all the gifts in their care. We hope, by September 2005, to begin working with an individual monthly meeting in helping that meeting to joyfully uncover, claim, and develop the gifts of all the various members and attenders; and also to uncover its own gifts to the Quarter and to the world.
For gifts are not just limited to individuals. Each monthly meeting in the Quarter has its own unique and wonderful personality. Each meeting has special traits, or gifts, it brings to the Quarter which helps to make Salem Quarter the rich and wonderful place it is. And the Quarter itself has its own unique gifts that are part of the larger whole of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting.
We realize that some Quarter members might like us to start our first project earlier than Sep tember. There are a couple of reasons why we feel we have to wait that long before launching it, though. We need a little more time to develop our program. The monthly meetings that are in terested need some time to discuss this at their business meetings. And last but not least, one of our key people will be house-sitting in England for six months.
Meanwhile, while we are waiting for the launching of the first program, let us all continue to work together to uncover and utilize all our gifts: the gifts of individuals, the gifts of our monthly meetings, the gifts of the Quarter itself. Let us all take joy in the work our gifts are calling us to perform.
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Sunday, November 14, 2004 at 12:40 AM
