Stewardship of Ministry: Talent

"As generous distributors of God's manifold grace, put your gifts at the service of one another, each in the measure he has received." 1 Peter 4:10

"The English word "talent" originated in the Bible which describes talent as a unit of money. It's a coin representing a specific amount of money.

The Scriptures gave us a great story: A man goes on a great journey and he leaves his servants ten talents, five talents and one talent--a unit of money. The Bible then explains that the men did something with their talents. One went and invested his portion and doubled it. The next one doubled his also, but the last one took his one talent and buried it in a hole. Of course we know how the story ends. The master comes back and praises the first two for winning their master's joy and then says to the worthless servant, "What's wrong with you? You knew I would come back and ask for an accounting." Then he takes the talent away from him and the servant has lost what wasn't even his in the first place. Remember, they don't say he buried his own money; it was his master's money that he buried.

Everything we have - our very breath, our life, our time, our talents and our resources - comes from God, and in thanksgiving for His many blessings, we need to give a portion of our blessings back to God." We have a need to give. We also have a need to use our gifts to benefit others. There's a saying, "If you don't use it, you lose it." But more importantly, in using our gifts we honor the Giver of the gifts.

Before we can use our gifts, however, we need to become aware of our God-given gifts and talents. We all have the gift of life. We have received the gift of faith, the gift of leadership, of family, of friends and of fellowship. For the clergy, the gift of ordination, the gift of being teacher, priest and king. With this in mind, discern how you might best use your own gifts to bring the spirituality of stewardship to your own community of faith, to your own community of disciples of Jesus Christ. And you know that we must share these gifts for the common good, "According to the gifts each has received, administer it to one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God." 1 Peter 4:10.

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