How Do Spiritual Gifts Connect to Church Roles?

Evangelicals make a recurring mistake when it comes to spiritual gifts. When they talk about gifts, they invariably think in terms of abilities and talents only. This is a repeated problem of people separating gifts from the roles that those gifts are for. The result of thinking about gifts only in terms of abilities or talents is that people can claim that they are unqualified for roles simply because they can display a talent. The gift lists of 1 Corinthians, Romans and Ephesians link one’s ability with the intended role to be carried out. When Paul employs the analogy of...