"Planned Incompleteness"

On Sunday, Phil talked about spiritual gifts.  Specifically, the role that these gifts play in the church.  The church is trying to emphasize spiritual gift recognition and this sermon series was (I think) the foundation for their push.  One of the phrases he used which caught my ear, was "planned incompleteness."  By this, he was referring to the fact that just as one person doesn't have every spiritual gift, not everyone in the church has the same gift.  He talked about how God purposely creates us with different gifts to (and here's the kicker) work together with other people.  I never much thought of something like planned incompleteness.  The fact that there are certain gifts that I don't have ON PURPOSE gives me pause.  That he created my gifts to be used in situations that I was not yet aware of is mind blowing. But that's God.

He also talked about about the number of different gifts.  Not just the different gifts, but variations on the same gift.  One of the examples he used was the gift of teaching.  He talked about how some people are gifted to teach elementary children and some are gifted to teach special needs children.  Some are gifted to teach in a structured classroom setting, and some are gifted to teach in an apprenticeship/mentoring relationship.  That's an interesting take on spiritual gifts, that I don't think most people think about.  I'm not quite sure how far you could take that (are there different levels of hospitality?), but it certainly makes you think.