One of my favorite days of the year is the day of the church Christmas program. All of those little kids screaming Christmas songs, girls in velvet dresses, the boys in sweater vests. They wave to their parents and pick their noses on stage.

But my favorite part of these programs isn’t the cute little kids. Nope, I love watching the adults helping shuffle the kids on and off stage; the children’s program director, and the adult choir director and the members of the choir; the piano player, and the people who put many, many hours into the drama.

For an hour or two these people strengthen the church by using the gifts that God has given them. And the hour of the program is just a glimpse of the hours of preparation that go into the performance.

There are varieties of service, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but the same God who empowers them all in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. 1 Corinthians 12:5-7

The common good is communicating our love for God and others by using the gifts within the local church. We are given the power of the Spirit and talents to build up the church. And somehow, through using our talents in the church, we communicate love to the rest of the body. 

Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. Ephesians 4:15-16