During a recent long road trip, I realized that I had never used the cruise-control function on the car. Not even once. The odometer is nearing 200,000km, and for all those long lonely miles, the little gadget that controls the cruise function has never once been engaged. The thought made me feel some sadness for the little circuits and chips and wires and levers that comprise the unit. They must have had such high hopes of being useful when I bought the car. But they were doomed to disappointment.

It made me wonder if some churches can share the same story. Gifts and graces being deployed from heaven, but never employed on earth. New believers filled with excitement at the prospect of possessing a spiritual gift, but never getting to use it nor to see it in action. Why is that?

Perhaps for three reasons. Pastors can sometimes be too busy to discover the resources that sit in their congregation. Parishioners can yield to feelings of fear or insecurity, or bury their talent under piles of ‘one day’ and ‘maybe’. Church cultures can give the impression that spiritual gifts can only be used on a Sunday, and only during the service, instead of in many and various ways. What to do? Perhaps all three culprits need to recapture the ideal of using their gifts to bless the ‘beside and beyond’. And maybe then, the church might cruise down the highway of life with less puff and more power.