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By Michael J. Brooks

The Alabama Humanities Alliance honored writer Rick Bragg recently in Birmingham. In his dialogue with Roy Wood, Jr., Bragg mentioned that not everyone believed his writing to be good. Stephen King ripped him when reviewing his Jerry Lee Lewis biography for “The New York Times.” Bragg’s friend, the late Pat Conroy, called to encourage him. 

“Stephen King saying Rick Bragg can’t write is like Taylor Swift saying Patsy Cline can’t sing!” Conroy said.

Stephen King is a great writer, and Rick Bragg is a great writer, though their style is worlds apart. Taylor Swift has a great following, and at age 35, has more time to grow her career than Patsy Cline did since she died tragically at age 30 in a plane crash. Both are great singers, though their style is worlds apart.

I found this a great anecdote to understand the concept of spiritual giftedness in scripture. The Apostle Paul wrote, “In his grace, God has given us different gifts for doing certain things well,” (Romans 12:6, NLT). 

Science teaches that 99.9 percent of human DNA is the same, but the one-tenth of one percent remaining gives us distinctives such as eye color, height and susceptibility to disease. So, we’re more alike than different.

But I’m convinced this principle is reversed in the church. I know very few church members who are alike — in fact, probably none. The church is filled with all kinds of people with all kinds of gifts according to Gods’ grace. 

We have pulpit preachers and pulpit singers and instrumentalists. We have choir members and Bible study teachers who study the scriptures every week to share with the rest of us. We have greeters who welcome us in the name of the Lord and give directions to newcomers. We have money counters and finance committee teams who ensure God’s money is handled with integrity. We have gifted people who can replace a ballast in a fluorescent fixture and on hands and knees repair a leaky toilet. 

Who serves God best? All serve God best who use their gifts to honor him.

My father was not an orator, though our church convinced him to be adult Sunday School director for one year. In that capacity he stood before adults every Sunday though he struggled with this. He also was not a singer, though he enjoyed gospel music. But many afternoons he’d go to our church after work to replace a broken windowpane, repair a leaky faucet or rewire a sanctuary speaker. He taught me that every person and every gift is important. 

We don’t serve in the same way, but we serve the same God and seek to bring honor to him and his church.

“Reflections” is a weekly faith column written by Michael J. Brooks, pastor of the Siluria Baptist Church, Alabaster, Alabama. The church’s website is siluriabaptist.com.