Let's Strengthen God's Family By Using Our Spiritual Gifts

LIFE Group Agenda: May 16-23, 2021

Tacloban Bible Community

Welcome: (15 minutes)

 Please observe social distancing and make sure everyone wears a mask and keeps it on. Please no
snacks, because people take off their masks as they eat and this can lead to transmission of Covid-19.
 Greet each person with excitement as they arrive. Give special attention to visitors.
 Do an icebreaker, or something fun, to make the group relaxed and get to know each other better.
You can have everyone tell something about themselves: favorite movie, or vacation, or where they
would like to live.

Worship: (10 minutes)

 Have someone open the meeting in Prayer.
 If someone in your Life Group can play an instrument, ask them to lead the group in singing a couple
songs that express our love for God.
 Remind people to focus their attention on what the songs are saying and on God.
 If you prefer not to sing, worship can be done through the sharing of things you are thankful to God
for. You could also read a Psalm or have each member, that wants to, share a favorite memory verse.

Word: (35 minutes)

 We encourage the LIFE Coaches to prepare a copies of a Spiritual Gifts Test for your LIFE
Group Members. Having them take this test will help your discussions for today and possibly
lead to more action since they will be aware of what they can contribute to the church. TBC
can provide you with copies or you can get one online from TBC Facebook page. But even
without the test your Life Group can still meet and follow this agenda.

 Last week we talked about the Seven Guidelines of a Loving Church, this taught the ways
we should treat and interact with one another in our church community. Please share about
any opportunities you had this week to show love to a brother or sister in Christ, or
share about loving actions you plan to do this week.

 For the past couple of weeks we have covered Romans chapter 12. We talked about how we
are a family and that we need each other in the church. We also talked about seven
guidelines for a loving church. Today we will learn how we can use our spiritual gifts to
strengthen our church family. Read Romans 12:6-8.

 Have someone summarize the Life Lesson from their notes.

 Spiritual gifts are God-given abilities, given to all believers. They are given for the purpose of
serving God and His people. Each one of us who have put our trust in Jesus have been given
spiritual gifts. That is not a maybe, it is a guarantee. Please explain why it is important to
discover our spiritual gifts. (Knowing our spiritual gifts will help us know where God desires
to use us in His Kingdom building. Knowing what our spiritual gifts are allows us to serve to
our full potential and allows us to be a bigger help in those specific areas.)

 In our passage Romans 12:6-8, the Apostle Paul mentioned seven examples of spiritual gifts.
These are the gifts of prophesying (This is ability to declare or proclaim God's truth that has
already been revealed in the Bible. Prophets spoke God’s message to the people.), serving,
teaching, encouragement, giving, leadership, and showing mercy. This is not a complete list,
 there are more spiritual gifts than this. Please share what spiritual gifts you feel God has
given to you and or what spiritual gifts you feel God has given to other members of our
LIFE Group? (What you enjoy doing is a sign of a gift. Do you enjoy serving or teaching or
giving encouragement or showing mercy?)

 What is important is not knowing you gift but using your gift. Let us read Matthew 25:14-30.
These verses talk about three servants who were given bags of gold. Two who were faithful
and one who was not. Jesus wants to teach us not to waste the time, opportunities, and
spiritual gifts He has given. For the ones who have not been faithful, He can take away what
He has given. But for those who have been faithful with what was given he can give more. We
all need to start using our gifts. Maybe you do not feel good enough at your gift to use it in
church, start by using your gift in our Life Group since this is part of the church. A good life
group will have someone lead an ice breaker to help members get to know each other, it will
have one or two people lead worship, it will have someone with the service gift call and text
members, it will have someone summarize their notes from the sermon, it will have someone
with the encouragement gift visit and encourage members. Please share how you feel God
might want you to use your spiritual gifts to help this LIFE Group. (as the leader you
share first.)

 When Apostle Paul mentioned giving he said give generously, when he mentioned leading he
said lead diligently, and when he said show mercy he said show mercy cheerfully. There is an
indication of not just using our spiritual gifts, but going the extra mile, or giving extra effort in it.
My guess is that this pandemic has caused many of us to stop using our gifts. Let us each
decide to become active in using our gifts again. Read I Peter 4:10-11. God does not want us
to do these with our own strength, he wants to help us do it. Please share the difference
between someone teaching, or giving, or serving, or leading by their own strength and
someone doing it as a spiritual gift trusting in God to help them.(A person teaching with
their own strength would simply teach the lesson as best they could, but someone teaching as
a spiritual gift would pray more before and after and follow up with the people to see if they are
developing a relationship with God. A person leading on their own strength would lead by
commanding, but one leading with God’s help would be praying for the people they lead and
trust God to help them lead beyond what they feel capable of.)

 One of the Apostle Paul's objectives was to encourage all believers to use the spiritual gifts we
were given to worship God, serve others and to help the church grow. What are some things
you want to start doing now for the church? Where do you see yourself contributing to
our church's growth? (Since I am gifted in preaching, I see myself taking opportunities to
share God's Word, either in Bible studies or campus fellowships. Since I am gifted in serving, I
see myself helping out in the church with different kinds of physical tasks.)

Work: (20 minutes)

 Talk within your group to see if any members want to start exercising their gifts in the Life
Group next week. As if any members want help starting to use their gift at TBC.

 Divide into groups of two or three and pray for each other.