Get In the Zone!

A popular idiom in our day is for an individual to be so focused on his or her sport, creative endeavor, or work engagement, that it is observed by others that they are “in the zone!” In these early days of the baseball season, my favorite team has some exciting young players named Church, Wetherholt, Winn, and Jordan who are achieving this seemingly effortless state of hitting and fielding at such a competitive level that these guys are certainly performing “in the zone!”

Focused! In the Zone!
Image: stock.adobe.com

Athletes aren’t the only ones who “get in the zone” of accomplishment. Our church has recently been celebrating a dozen or so young people who have just completed sixteen weeks of instruction in their confirmation class. The Sunday Bible study class, Monique and I attend, got to partner in their efforts the other evening by serving their pre-instruction pizza and salad meal.

These students were in their next to last session and the topic of the evening was spiritual gifts. They had already filled out an inventory and were about to discuss the results. Those of us on the serving team were delighted to be asked by the pastor to share a few sentences describing our own spiritual gifts. We had two teachers, a counselor, and an accountant, as well as a preacher (moi!!) among the number of adults serving!

It was fun to hear adults assessing their own giftedness and how it has impacted their service for Christ in and out of the church setting. These special gifts, endowed and distributed uniquely by the Holy Spirit, equip believers to serve at many levels that build up the church and help it to accomplish the work of Christ in our community and throughout the world. Some are more observable, like teaching, preaching, and leadership. But, the greater number of gifts are impactful in “behind the scenes ways” like mercy, helps, service, encouragement, and generosity.

I have been invested in teaching and writing about the value of spiritual gifts for over twenty-five years since taking my first inventory and putting those reflections down on paper. The setting was an enlightening and valuable exercise during a Doctor of Ministry seminar. Here I was, a fifty-year-old pastor in a doctoral program, trying to reflect on my own spiritual gift mix of teaching, administration, and encouragement. In essence, the professor was challenging me to define and discover my divine design.

There are many designations used in discussing spiritual gifts. Aubrey Malphurs wrote about discovering and developing your divine design in his book, Maximizing Your Effectiveness. I have borrowed this concept for the title of my weekly blog site, Serve by Design! Rick Warren has written in his book, The Purpose Driven Life, about how God has “shaped” us for His service in the church. Warren says, you are defined by your “Spiritual gifts, Heart, Abilities, Personality, and Experience.’

Other writers have described a gift mix in terms of God’s spiritual “wiring” of one’s life. This idea plays prominently in the title of a new book by Bishop Demetrius Sinegal’s entitled, Wired for Worship. Sinegal, a prophetic voice in our day, pastors Reformation Culture Church in Houston, Texas.

Marcus Buckingham, English author and motivational speaker, has helped to develop “Strengths-based” studies for the Gallup organization. Buckingham appropriately concludes that when you lean into your gift mix, you are living out of your “strength zone!” We are never any more effective than when we are serving out of the strength of our God-given and Holy Spirit-powered spiritual gifts!

The Apostle Paul declared, “We are God’s workmanship (like a beautiful poem), created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” (Ephesians 2:10, NIV). The Psalmist reflected, “I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made!” (Ps. 139:14).

The average age of a middle school confirmand is somewhere around thirteen or fourteen years of age. These bright, energetic students are the strength and vitality of our church today, (not sometime in the future, but now!). They are at the optimal age for an introduction into the value of their spiritual gift mix for God’s Kingdom work in this moment. The insight and inclusion of this instruction is perfect for today’s youth!

I had not fully contemplated my own divine design until I was in mid-life. There are many of my peers who could admit that they lack understanding of their spiritual gifts. Sadly, they have made too many excuses for why they can’t serve in some capacity in the local church. These young conferees have just entered their teenage years, but they are well on the journey to understanding their role in the body of Christ.

I wish I had heard about the value of spiritual gifts many years ago! There is joy when we “get in the zone” and serve Christ’s church this way! He gets the glory, and we get to exclaim, “I’d rather be doing this than anything else in the world!”

Mike Keppler, retired pastor,
active churchman and
doting grandparent.
Contact: drmjkeppler@gmail.com
©2018-2026 All rights reserved.
Serve by Design. mjkministries.com



 

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