Transforming Church

Unfortunately a high percentage of those who have designed “profiles” for the purpose of assisting people to discover their gifts, have dropped those three gifts from the biblical list of twenty, and gone in search of new ones to replace them. It is all too easy to incorrectly rationalize that since few or none in our tradition have these gifts anyway, it might be better to discover something more about other gifts they do have.

With more serious effects than most of those profile designers and participants have realized, that has never worked. Invariably, the search for new spiritual gifts ends up with compromising choices from among the most frequent talents and abilities employed in congregational ministry. With all of these profiles that have altered the biblical twenty spiritual gifts and/or have added any talents or abilities to the profile, all bets are off in determining an accurate assessment.

In each of the hybrid profiles actual gifts possessed are completely missed, even if those gifts are still included in the profile. How this can happen is a strong, substituted talent or ability negates them. Close analysis reveals that even every gift correctly discovered has been impacted by a ripple effect of distortion. End results are scued for everyone, even differently from one person to the next.

No case can be made stronger than to retain the original twenty gifts in a discovery profile, and to not mess up the discovery by adding talents or abilities. This case needs to be made regardless how you might feel about the three gifts that make some people nervous. Never mind that some congregations will not have anyone with any of these three gifts.

All three happen to be identified in the 12th chapter of 1st Corinthians, and each of them at least twice within that chapter:

Healings (1 Corinthians 12:9, and 12:28)
Some feel people gifted in medicine possess this gift, but the spiritual gift of healings implies a miraculous ability to bring God’s healing to others. Yes, I am fully aware that in the broadest interpretation that could still include the former, but normally this gift speaks to other than therapeutic techniques, and even to healings that God brings about through this person when that person is not aware of it, or realizes it only in hindsight.

Tongues (1 Corinthians 12:10, 12:28, and 12:30)
The spiritual gift of tongues is described as semi-controlled verbal communication with God, often without intelligible words. The New Testament Greek words for it mean “kinds of tongues,” suggesting there is more than one kind of manifestation. Paul did have concern about allowing the expression of this gift in public worship. Often this gift is more for personal edification and easily becomes more disruptive than building up in corporate worship. It was not uncommon for those possessing this gift to be asked to restrain it during worship. There is also circumstantial evidence that Paul was one who possessed this gift.

Interpretation of Tongues (1 Corinthians 12:10, and 12:30)
The spiritual gift of the interpretation of tongues is an ability to understand and interpret the esoteric speech of those with the gift of tongues. With some restriction on allowing expression of the gift of tongues at worship, the need to have someone to interpret would be in proportion. Infrequency of need, however, should not diminish the importance of this gift. One biblical description implies the immediacy of interpretation could even be delayed. At the same time, if there is no one available to interpret, those with tongues should exercise their gift only in private. That is a simple conclusion, because without interpretation there is little chance for tongues to edify others.

In forty-five years of ministry I have not met or been aware of anyone with the gift of Interpretation. I have been aware of only a relative few with the gift of Tongues. And even though I have never witnessed anyone experiencing this gift, I am very much aware that those so gifted were our strongest leaders in prayer ministry. In my purview, we are now talking about something extremely vital to a congregation. I have also been aware of only a few with the gift of Healings, and they made a significant impact in our ministry as well. These have been quiet ministries, not ones performed on a stage.

Now there is new, and for that matter the first, neuroscientific evidence that impacts our understanding of these gifts. It comes as a result of study by researchers led by Dr. Andrew B. Newberg at the University of Pennsylvania. This is the first time anyone has taken brain images of people while they were speaking in tongues.

The first discovery they made with those tested was that the frontal lobes of their brains, the part involved with thinking and willful control of what a person does, were relatively quiet. The same was true of the language centers of their brains. In contrast the parts of their brains involved in maintaining self-consciousness were active. Though clear these people were not in a blind trance, it was still unclear just which part of their brains was driving the behavior. And while that certainly leaves much yet undiscovered, many question whether scientifically it ever will be. From the perspective of science, though, the case is definitely open on the legitimacy of this gift.

For those interested in the technical aspects, these images which pinpoint the most active areas of the brain appear in the current issue of the journal, Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging. The images are the first of their kind that have been taken during the experience of the gift of tongues. Amazingly the images they recorded clearly supported the interpretation of what was happening by those who experienced the gift.

These findings contrasted sharply with images taken of other spiritually inspired mental states like that of meditation. These other mental states are often highly focused mental exercises and therefore activate the frontal lobes.

Unexplained is a dip in the activity region called the left caudate, an area usually active when you have positive affect, pleasure, positive emotions. No one is clear on what this says about speaking in tongues.

What has been shared here regarding this research is an attempt to capture the essence of what Benedict Carey reported in the New York Times on November 7, 2006.