Children's Challenge: Week 29
20–26 July 2015
Throughout the book of 1 Corinthians, Paul continues to give the church at Corinth lots of instructions on many different issues. Remember that the church was just starting out and they didn’t have the Bible as we do today to help them figure things out—they didn’t have an instruction book on how to be a Christian! This is why Paul’s letters and instructions were so important for them.
In chapter 12 of 1 Corinthians, Paul writes about the idea of working together. In it, he recognises and encourages the people at Corinth to think about the different contributions that people might make in the church. These are called ‘spiritual gifts’, as they are gifts, skill, talents and attitudes given to us by the Holy Spirit for the good of the whole church and wider community. Each gift is as important as the other and, together, they help the church remain healthy and work together as a whole, just like one body.
Paul says the church is like a body with lots of different parts all working together. It would be weird if the whole body was just an eye, an ear or maybe a finger! It might be able to see, hear or point very well, but – on its own – it wouldn’t be able to do much else! In the same way, the Church would not work properly if everyone was a teacher or a preacher or a healer or a prophet. Church works best when people with different spiritual gifts work together. And remember, everyone has something that is important to contribute.
Look back at the Scripture reading and underline all the different types of spiritual gifts Paul mentions.
This week, ask a leader at your corps or someone within your family what their spiritual gifts are, how they found out that they had these gifts and how they use them to serve Jesus.