What Difference Does It Make?

This question is one that I am sure each of us has asked at one time or another.  Perhaps it was out loud while talking with a trusted friend during a crossroads moment in your life or blurted out in frustration over a specific event. Maybe it was simply in a quiet moment of reflection.  

For each leader, there are three basic tools they have at their disposal:  power, authority, and influence.  Each of these is necessary to possess, but I think the one most needed at their disposal is influence.   Drew Dyck, managing editor of Leadership Journal shares how influence can impact others:

“Young people who have meaningful relationships with older Christians are much more likely to retain their faith into adulthood. I had those connections and have no doubt they were instrumental in my life.“

I know for myself I can look back and remember my first young adult bible study teacher.  His name might not mean anything to you, Tom Hinzman, but it does to me.  At the time, I lived in a small Western PA town, and Tom was your typical blue collar guy; worked in the local steel mill, wife, three sons.  I can only imagine his work environment – gritty, 100+ degrees in the mill, and by the time he hit the locker room to clock out, I would have to imagine many of his co-workers were mentally and physically exhausted and maybe a few choice words were flying around the room.  

However, he was a steady witness to his co-workers; when one of them was running short on food, he sent them down to the Salvation Army food pantry; if they needed a ride to work because the car wouldn’t start, he was outside their door waiting to pick them up – and the list goes on and on.  He not only shared the Bible in that teen class with me – he showed me how it influenced those around them. He taught me that where it mattered most was in the places God gives you influence. The point is this: He made an influence – on me and those God put in his path.

Tom was simply living out the gifts God had given him in the places of influence he naturally navigated.  The Bible talks about influence, both positive and otherwise many times.  Jesus used this in his ministry more often than power or authority.  Whether it was while talking with the Samaritan woman at the well, having dinner in the home of a tax collector who simply wanted, “to see who he was,”  the New Testament talks about each of us having gifts and using them to serve others.

It brings me 20+ years ahead to where I am now in my life.  As an adult, I see others in my own life living out their gifts, and it often manifests itself in simple ways.  I watch as one gentleman, formerly living on the streets, recruits people each week to help collect the offering in church on Sunday. 

Are you not sure of what your gifts might be or what difference you make?  We are all here with a purpose.  Try the test below to discover your spiritual gifts and how they can impact others:

Spiritual Gifts Test

Written by Chip Kelly
Territorial Lay Leader
Development Bureau Director