1 Peter 2:5 “You also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”
Living Stones Ministry’s goal is to help you realize what spiritual gifts you possess. Spiritual gifts are special abilities given to you by the Holy Spirit to be used to equip and build up the body of Christ and enhance the spiritual growth of the body of believers.
1 Corinthians 12 lists several spiritual gifts. Here are but a few to give you an idea of what a spiritual gift is: teaching, musicianship, hospitality, encouragement, administration, and mercy.
St. Matthew offers a spiritual gifts discovery class periodically throughout the year. In the class you will fill out a survey that helps you discover your gift(s); take a personality quiz that shows you how you 1: get energized (do you “recharge your battery” by being with a group of people or by being alone?), 2: gather information (do you use your senses or analyze?), 3: make decisions (do you go with logic or feelings?), and 4: approach life (do you go with the flow or plan your moves?). A third worksheet takes you on an introspective journey asking you to think about what inspires you ~ what are you passionate about? It will also ask you about what abilities (innate or learned) you have, and what experiences in your life have shaped you into who you are today.
To tie all this together, we use the acronym S.H.A.P.E.
Spiritual Gifts
Heart (passion)
Abilities
Personality
Experience
Combine all the answers from the worksheets and you will find that you are cherished by God, unique, and have special gifts and abilities that are yours alone. With this new knowledge you will be able to honor scripture’s charge (1 Peter 4: 10-11) to use these gifts to build up the church and the body of Christ.
