Bruce L. Bugbee - What You Do Best in the Body of Christ: Discover Your Spiritual Gifts, Personal Style, and God-Given Passion

Resources from Bruce Bugbee

Network

Discover Your Spiritual Gifts the Network Way

What You Do Best in the Body of Christ

ZONDERVAN

What You Do Best in the Body of Christ, Revised and Expanded
Copyright 1995, 2005 by Bruce Bugbee

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of Zondervan.

ePub Edition January 2009 ISBN: 978-0-310-57258-9

First edition published 1995. Revised and expanded 2005

Requests for information should be addressed to:
Zondervan, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49530

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Bugbee, Bruce.

What you do best in the body of Christ : discover your spiritual gifts, personal style, and God-given passion / Bruce Bugbee. Rev. and expanded.

p. cm.

Rev. and expanded ed. of: What you do best. c1995.

Includes index.

ISBN-13: 978-0-310-25735-6

1. Gifts, Spiritual. 2. Lay ministry. 3. Pastoral theology. I. Bugbee, Bruce. What you do best. II. Title.

BT767.3.B84 2005

253dc22

2004020588

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible: NewInternational Version. NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked NASB are taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE , Copyright The Lockman Foundation 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995. Used by permission.

The website addresses recommended throughout this book are offered as a resource to you. These websites are not intended in any way to be or imply an endorsement on the part of Zondervan, nor do we vouch for their content for the life of this book.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any otherexcept for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher.

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contents

appendices

3. Network: The Right People...
in the Right Places... for the Right Reasons...
at the Right Time!

This is a book about biblical community. My understanding of the church has been the result of a journey through many congregations who have shaped my theology and ministry. They have been patient and gracious with my participation and the development of the concepts shared in this book. I want to thank the following churches for their ministry to me: The Crystal Cathedral (Garden Grove, CA), Calvary Chapel (Costa Mesa, CA), El Montecito Presbyterian Church (Montecito, CA), Pasadena Covenant Church (Pasadena, CA), Christ Community Church (Buena Park, CA), First Reformed Church (Orange City, IA), Willow Creek Community Church (South Barrington, IL), and South Coast Community Church (Irvine, CA).

My relationship and ministry with Bill Hybels and Don Cousins through the years have generated additional insights for the application of these principles in churches around the world. As my coauthors of Network: The Right People... In the Right Places...For the Right Reasons, their ministries continue to be a witness to the building of biblical communities.

I thank my friend Jim Mellado of the Willow Creek Association for his support and commitment to the contents of these materials. He has demonstrated the teachability and life-changing potential of them with different groups through the years.

Wendy Seidman provided the iron-sharpens-iron relationship for forging the ideas into a simple and crisp presentation. She is loved for her patience and ability to be ruthlessly gracious with me.

Jack Kuhatschek, Rachel Boers, and Lela Gilbert made contributions to the manuscript. They have provided a much more readable text that will serve the reader well. I have appreciated their support throughout the process.

Rob Gullota provided ideas and stimulated my thinking to formulate the questions for reflection. He shares a passion to see Gods people realize their divine potential.

Every vibrant ministry has an integral person at its core who keeps all the people and activities of the ministry connected to its overall mission and purpose. Bette Holderman is that invaluable person for me. For years, she has faithfully served me and the the thousands of churches we serve.

Most authors acknowledge the sacrifice their family made to make the book possible. As I complete this project, I am very aware of the contribution they made when they gave up valuable family time.

I believe that God has been changing the hearts of his people. Today, believers are beginning to actively pursue their roles of service in and through the local church. Historically, serving hasnt sold. But we are seeing the beginning of a new era.

The Holy Spirit is moving throughout his church, crossing denominational lines and geographical boundaries. He is energizing a worldwide wave with little respect for theological or doctrinal differences. God is uniting his people today around his purpose for the church: To glorify God and to edify others.

Biblical teaching on spiritual gifts is inspiring universal interest among churches. Church leaders are supposed to equip the saints for the work of ministrya biblical concept that is easy to understand but difficult to implement. Churches have been wanting the priesthood of all believers to be evident in their congregations, but that has been more teaching than action. One question bringing the church together is: How do we get the right people in the right places for the right reasons?

What You Do Best presents the vision and values for a ministry to do just that! This book can help you develop yourselfand Gods peoplefor ministry. Its approach is different because it starts with a personalized process built on the belief that each individual is unique, with different spiritual gifts, personal styles, and ministry passions. When using your spiritual gifts, you will serve more competently. When serving in ways that are consistent with your personal style, you will serve with greater freedom. When you are serving in your area of ministry passion, you will serve more enthusiastically.

I have written this book for believers who have committed their lives to Jesus Christ, and who, since doing so, have felt like something is still missing in their Christian experience. They do not seem to have found sustaining joy, meaning, and purpose. They have sat in the pews, listened to the messages, put money in the baskets, and still have not been able to find where they can make their unique contribution in a meaningful place of service. They know they should servethey really want to serve. But they are not sure how to best serve because most of the time their efforts in service have not resulted in pleasant experiences. Does this describe you?