How Do I Find My Spiritual Gift?
A lot of people are waiting for a sign. A burning bush. Some unmistakable confirmation from God before they commit to serving. Pastor David Chauncey has a direct word for that: it doesn’t work that way.
This week on What We Didn’t Say on Sunday, Pastor David, freshly back from leading a group through the seven churches of Revelation in Turkey, joins Pastor Richie Baldwin to unpack 1 Corinthians 12 and the question every churchgoer eventually faces: where do I fit, and how do I find out?
Why Interdependence Is the Design, Not the Backup Plan
Pastor David’s first point from 1 Corinthians 12 goes all the way back to Genesis 2:18 — the first time in the creation narrative that God says something is not good. Not the darkness. Not the chaos. The first “not good” is that man should be alone. Interdependence isn’t a theological footnote. It’s written into the original design.
Paul builds on that in 1 Corinthians 12 with the body analogy, using it almost comically. The hand can’t say to the foot, “I don’t need you.” The head can’t tell the feet to leave. Every part is necessary. And no one has been given all the spiritual gifts by design. Because if they had, the body wouldn’t need to be a body.
The Danger of the 30% Church
In most average Southern Baptist churches, only about 30% of members actively serve. Pastor David puts it plainly: imagine if only 30% of your body worked. You could train and develop that 30% all you want — you’d still exhaust them, and the body still wouldn’t function.
This is what the Nicolaitans were pushing in the early church — a heresy called sacerdotalism: the idea that a special class of clergy does the real ministry while everyone else stays passive. Two of the seven churches in Revelation were warned about it. The same dynamic quietly kills the life of churches today.
Pastor David’s response after decades in ministry: “You set me apart and financially support me to work this ministry full-time. You didn’t set me apart to give me your job.”
How You Actually Find Your Spiritual Gift
Pastor David has given spiritual gift tests for 30 years. His honest assessment: they’re barely scientific, much less spiritually authoritative. They’re a starting point, not a destination.
God is not going to burn a bush for you in your backyard and announce your spiritual gift. It bubbles up as you obey Scripture — as you love one another, make disciples, and serve. On the team is where it manifests. You try things. You make mistakes. Others in your Life Group see gifts in you before you do. That’s not a bug in the system. That’s the system.
The story of John Mark is the clearest biblical example. He failed completely on the first missionary journey with Paul and Barnabas. Paul refused to take him back. But John Mark eventually found his gifting became a close friend of Peter, wrote the first gospel, and later Paul himself says in Colossians: “send John Mark to me, he is of use to me.” You don’t find your gift and then serve. You serve, and the gift finds you.
Also in This Episode
- Pastor David preached in Ephesus — Acts 19, the crowded ruins, and why Paul would have loved it
- The Laodicean church met in homes with ~1,000 Christians in a city of 100,000 — the Byzantine building came 200 years later
- What incarnational worship is and why it’s different from a great concert
Scripture Referenced
1 Corinthians 12 • Genesis 2:18 • Ephesians 4:11–12 • 2 Corinthians 5 • Psalm 139:14 • Colossians 4:10 • Acts 19 • Revelation 1–3
Part of the SERVE series at Westside Baptist Church, Gainesville, FL. New episodes of What We Didn’t Say on Sunday drop every week.
How do I find my spiritual gift?
According to 1 Corinthians 12, spiritual gifts are given by the Holy Spirit for the building up of the body of Christ. The Bible does not teach that believers should wait for a supernatural sign before serving. Instead, spiritual gifts are discovered through active participation in the church community — they manifest as believers obey Scripture by loving one another, making disciples, and serving on a team. Others in the community often identify gifts in a person before that person recognizes them in themselves. Spiritual gift inventories and tests can be a helpful starting point but are not spiritually authoritative. The story of John Mark in Acts and Colossians 4:10 illustrates the biblical pattern: he failed on the mission field, found his true gifting through accountability and community, and ultimately became useful to both Paul and Peter.
What We Didn’t Say on Sunday
Every Sunday, our pastors preach. Every week, there’s more to the story.
What We Didn’t Say on Sunday is a weekly deep dive into Sunday’s sermon — the context, the questions, the passages we didn’t have time for, and the conversations that happened after. Hosted by Pastor David Chauncey and Pastor Richie Baldwin.
Q: What is the difference between a spiritual gift and a natural talent?
A natural talent is an ability given by God at birth or developed through practice. A spiritual gift is a supernatural empowerment given by the Holy Spirit specifically to build up the body of Christ. The distinction is often not in the activity but in the motivation and the anointing behind it. A professional singer like Pavarotti has a God-given talent. A worship leader who uses music to exhort a congregation toward Christ is exercising a spiritual gift — the gift of exhortation or encouragement expressed through music. The activity may look the same from the outside; the source and the purpose are different.
Q: What does 1 Corinthians 12 teach about the body of Christ?
In 1 Corinthians 12, Paul uses the human body as an analogy for the church. Every member has a distinct function, and no part can declare itself or another part unnecessary. The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you.” This teaches that every believer has been given at least one spiritual gift, that all gifts are necessary, and that the church cannot function as God designed it when members remain passive. No one is given all the gifts so that the whole body must remain interdependent.
Q: What is sacerdotalism and why is it a problem for the church?
Sacerdotalism is the belief that a special priestly class — ordained clergy — has exclusive access to God and is solely responsible for spiritual ministry. In the New Testament, this was associated with the Nicolaitans, condemned in two of the seven letters in Revelation. The New Testament teaches the priesthood of all believers (1 Peter 2:9), meaning every Christian has direct access to God through Christ and is called to participate in ministry. When sacerdotalism takes hold, the congregation becomes passive, the staff becomes exhausted, and the body stops functioning as Paul describes in 1 Corinthians 12.
Q: What does the John Mark story teach about discovering your spiritual gift?
John Mark failed on the first missionary journey with Paul and Barnabas, and Paul refused to take him on the second. But through continued involvement, accountability, and community, John Mark discovered his true gifting. He became a close companion of Peter, wrote the Gospel of Mark, and later Paul himself requested his presence: “he is useful to me for ministry” (Colossians 4:10, 2 Timothy 4:11). His story demonstrates that spiritual gifts are not always obvious at first — they are revealed and refined through trying, failing, and being redirected within a faithful community.
Q: What does Genesis 2:18 have to do with spiritual gifts and the church?
Genesis 2:18 — “It is not good that man should be alone” — is the first time in the creation narrative that God declares something not good. This establishes that interdependence is not a concession to human weakness; it is built into God’s original design. Paul draws on this same principle in 1 Corinthians 12: the church is a body whose parts cannot function without one another. The need believers have for each other in discovering and deploying spiritual gifts is a reflection of the interdependence God declared good from the very beginning.
