According to Paul, all church leaders called by God are given specific gifts by the Holy Spirit to aid them in their work in the name of Jesus Christ. These charisms are more than innate talents which are part of our DNA or psychological makeup and are not identical with fruits of the Spirit that are given to all believers (Galatians 5:22-26). They are apportioned to us individually by the action of the Holy Spirit for the work of the church. Paul writes that they include preaching, faith, healing, prophecy, discernment, speaking and the interpretation of tongues (1 Corinthians 12:4-11), administration (mentioned twice in Greek in 1 Corinthians 12:28), and service (diakonia in Greek). In Romans 12:3-8 teaching, moral exhortation, generosity in giving, and acts of cheerful mercy are also mentioned. With characteristic bluntness Paul demands that they be made functional. “Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them; … . ” (Romans 12:5-6).
Recently I have been thinking about my own ministry, and I realize that the hardest gift for me to use (if indeed I have it at all) is the gift of prophecy. Paul must have thought it was pretty important since in his priority list in Romans 12:28 apostles are first, prophets second and teachers third. Christians have often been conscience-driven to proclaim and enact God’s word to the church and the world no matter what the cost to them, even, as the Confession of 1967 puts it, at the risk of national security (C-9.45). As The Directory of Worship states, Presbyterians are all called to proclaim justice, compassion for the weak, peace for those living in violence, and the preservation of God’s creation (W-7.0000-7.6000).
My own weakness in this area was driven home when I attended a recent peacemaking seminar. The speaker was oral historian Rosalie G. Riegle, author of the recent provocative book “Doing Time for Peace, Resistance, Family, and Community” (Vanderbilt University Press, 2012). Over many years, Riegle interviewed several Americans who professed their Christian convictions in public ways through nonviolent protest, civil disobedience, often getting arrested, frequently risking their own lives, and always putting their families in precarious situations.
Personally, I have seldom approached that kind of prophetic life and have not preached it consistently. My friends and family tell me that I was not called to that kind of ministry. Maybe so. But the Spirit keeps nagging me. Is it possible that my words and deeds lack prophetic urgency when it comes to issues like fracking, gun control or the use of drones, not because the call is absent, but because I ignore it, am afraid of danger, or do not want to risk the church’s unity? Many of my own heroes of faith, Jesus primarily, and others like John the Baptist, Mahatma Gandhi, Dietrich 
Bonhoeffer and Martin Luther King, all died to fulfill God’s prophetic call. And it is moving and humbling to read about the courage of more contemporary practitioners like Dick Von Korff, the Berrigans, Sister Anne Montgomery and more than 60 others interviewed by Riegle.
What gifts are given to us by God for the upbuilding of the church? Are we developing them fully to serve Christ or do we find, after honest evaluation, that we do not have the energy or courage to do what God is calling us to do? Is the approaching season of Pentecost a good time to put away all rationalizations and excuses and consider what it means concretely “to share with Christ in establishing God’s just, peaceable, and loving rule in the world” (W-7.4001)?
EARL S. JOHNSON JR. is a retired Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) pastor and an adjunct professor of religious studies at Siena College.
