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Fan into flame the gift

Fan into flame the gift…

On a Sunday in early October, Mike Neelley and I went into Skagit County Jail together for our weekly services. Five men gathered around a stainless steel table cemented into the floor. We began with a prayer and then I passed out photocopies of 2 Timothy 1:6-14 – the passage on the gift of God.

I invite someone to read the first verse:

“For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands.”

I offer a brief introduction by stating that God has gifts for all of us– spiritual gifts. These gifts are different from natural abilities, like being artistic, perceptive or a good communicator.  Spiritual gifts are distinct from learned skills like carpentry, welding, or auto mechanics. They include healing, prophesy, identifying evil spirits that afflict people, faith, and many others.

“Maybe some of you already know of a gift God has given you,” I suggest, looking around at blank faces.

“Or, maybe some of you still don’t know if God has given you a spiritual gift, and you’d like to receive something.”

The men seem to resonate with this option. I go on to share how these gifts enable us to become actively involved in God’s liberating work in the world,

I share how exercising a spiritual gift, like praying for someone to be healed or sharing a prophetic impression requires faith, which means taking risks. I ask someone to read the next verse:

“For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and love and discipline.”

Hearing these verses in the heart of the jail, with the TV blaring a football game suddenly made me feel vulnerable. I think I was then and there experiencing the kind of fear or timidity we’d just read about. The next verse seemed to expose and directly address the underlying issue:

Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord or of me His prisoner, but join with me in suffering for the gospel according to the power of God, who has saved us and called us with a holy calling.”

We talk about how natural it is to feel ashamed to believe in God’s liberating actions and of Jesus himself. You can feel like a fool believing in an invisible God.

Yet in the face of this Paul writes as an inmate himself, urging people not be ashamed. After all Jesus has saved us, and we need saving. Still when we respond to his call we do enter into a kind of suffering, which the apostle acknowledges.  But Christ Jesus “abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.”

Suddenly I remember that the men hadn’t seemed aware that they had received a spiritual gift. I suggest that Mike and I would love to ask the Holy Spirit to reveal each person’s spiritual gift, and that we could gladly ask God to give new gifts.

The men all seemed eager to for whatever was going to happen next. Mike and I looked at each other and began to go for it, taking turns to speak prophetically over each man around the table.

Each man seemed to soak up the words of affirmation that Mike and I offered, agreeing with the gifts that we identified or spoke over them. We could see new hope ignited, there in this place of bleakness where negativity, harsh labels and curses abound.

Only one man joined us in “P pod”—a Mexican American guy with stars tattooed on his cheeks, barely visible under long curly black hair parted in the middle.  He is a man of deep conviction, born of suffering through years in prison.

Mike and I were moved by how easy it was to identify people’s spiritual gifts in the jail setting, and how precious and welcomed God’s perspective is among those who feel downtrodden.

We wrap up our time with each group by encouraging the men to step our in faith—fanning into flame their gifts. We encourage them to not let fear paralyze them, but God’s power, love and disciple.

Paul’s final words seem the perfect charge: “Guard, through the Holy Spirit who dwells in us, the treasure which has been entrusted to you.”

Mike and I find ourselves being deeply encouraged by this Scripture and our experience with the men. I share this message at Tierra Nueva’s service that day, and the work continues.

For further reflections on the gifts of the Spirit, read “Guerrilla tactics: signs, wonders, justice and mercy,” chapter nine in Guerrilla Gospel: Reading the Bible for Liberation in the Power of the Spirit.

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Chris Kugler WTCLive

Chris Kugler – The Image of God in Paul

 

This episode of WTCLive comes to you from the student pub at WTC’s student residential (September 2016). Lucy Peppiatt, Matt Lynch and Brad Jersak interview Chris Kugler on the various aspects of his thesis, which looks at the Image of God in Paul’s writings and how that relates to a Sacramental Anthropology and Image Monotheism. Chris is also involved in a broader discussion amongst current New Testament scholars on Divine Christology and he argues for the bringing together of a high Christology and a high anthropology in Paul’s letters.


Chris Kugler PhD Candidate
New Testament

Chris holds a bachelor’s degree in Religious Studies and Biblical Languages, as well as two master’s degrees in Biblical Studies from Duke University and the University of St Andrews respectively. He is currently working on a PhD in New Testament at the University of St Andrews, Scotland, under N. T. Wright, where his research focuses particularly on Paul’s use of the Jewish and Greco-Roman imago Dei traditions in his Christology and theological anthropology. More broadly, his research interests include Jewish Monotheism, Jewish and Greco-Roman theological anthropology, Christology and Christian Origins. His primary passion is to help students encounter the New Testament in its rich and complex historical context. He is married to Katie Rae and both of them are based in Houston, Texas.


Rev. Brad Jersak PhD
New Testament and Patristics

Rev. Dr. Brad Jersak (Reader Irenaeus) is an author and teacher based in Abbotsford, Canada. He teaches New Testament and Patristics at WTC. After serving as pastor and church-planter for twenty years, he now travels for Fresh Wind Christian Fellowship and serves as reader at All-Saints Orthodox Monastery. Brad’s focus today is on writing accessible theology, facilitating ‘listening prayer’ seminars, and teaching college courses. His emphases are the Gospels, Cruciform theology , and contemplative spirituality applied to prophetic justice. He is currently editor of www.clarionjournal.com and senior editor Plain Truth Ministries (www.ptm.org).

Lucy Peppiatt PhD
Principal, Systematic Theology

Lucy has bachelor’s degrees in both English and Theology. She completed her MA in Systematic Theology at King’s College, London, and her PhD through the University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand. Lucy is the author of Women and Worship at Corinth: Paul’s Rhetorical Arguments in 1 Corinthians. (Wipf and Stock, 2015); and The Disciple: On Becoming Truly Human. (Wipf and Stock, 2012). Lucy’s research interests are Christ and the Spirit, Charismatic theology, discipleship, and 1 Corinthians.

Matt Lynch PhD
Dean of Studies, Old Testament

Matt teaches Old Testament and serves as Dean of Studies at WTC. He recently moved from Germany, where he completed post-doctoral research on conceptions of divine supremacy in Persian period biblical literature. Matt is the author of Monotheism and Institutions in the Book of Chronicles (Mohr Siebeck, 2014) and various articles on the Old Testament. Matt is particularly interested in helping students grasp the theological and literary contours of the Old Testament, wrestle through its ethical and historical challenges, and understand its ongoing significance.

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Women and Worship

Lucy Peppiatt – Women and Worship at Corinth

Women and Worship at Corinth

In this WTCLive episode: Matt Lynch interviews Lucy Peppiatt on her groundbreaking new book, Women and Worship at Corinth: Paul’s Rhetorical Arguments in 1 Corinthians (Wipf & Stock, 2015).

In this book, Lucy outlines an argument for reading key texts in 1 Cor 11 and 14 as supportive of the full participation of women in the life of the worshipping Church. She suggests that in 1 Corinthians Paul quotes and then refutes the misguided views of his opponents.


Speaker:

Lucy Peppiatt PhD

Principal, Systematic Theology

Lucy has bachelor’s degrees in both English and Theology. She completed her MA in Systematic Theology at King’s College, London, and her PhD through the University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand. Lucy’s research interests are Christ and the Spirit, Charismatic theology, discipleship, and 1 Corinthians. She and her husband, Nick Crawley, lead Crossnet Anglican Church in Bristol. They have four sons.


Buy the book here:

Woman & Worship at Corinth