Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it. And God has placed in the church first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, of helping, of guidance, and of different kinds of tongues. 

—1 Corinthians 12:27–28

My husband, Peter, has the gift of helps. He loves to work behind the scenes, support and encourage other leaders, and help bring the visions and dreams God has given other people into reality. These things all give him a sense of joy and fulfilment.

During this season as we prepare for Bible translation work and I'm in seminary part-time in addition to ministry, Peter has been leaning into his gift of helps. Of course, he still has his own ministries as well, but the proportions of our time management are shifting, and when a school term is in swing, he's doing a lot more support work these days. 

Why do I bring this up? The gift of helps seems undervalued in the Western church. At no time was this more apparent to us than this past year, when we encountered a Western Christian who lives in Japan and took it upon himself to grill Peter on his recent ministry activities. It didn't appear good enough that Peter is still doing some of his regular things and has moved others to a more events-based approach. It didn't appear good enough that Peter is also supporting me and taking care of the administrative side of our work. Because he was a little less visible, a little more behind-the-scenes, somehow he was contributing less. At least, that's how our friend's comments came off to us. (It is noteworthy that the Japanese themselves seem to have no problem with this approach.)

I know some people think of the gift of helps as a rather feminine quality. And it's true that quite a number of women have taken a helping role towards the activities of their male relatives and bosses. But for me, Peter is a remarkable demonstration of how masculine the gift of helps can be. It takes a strong man to step back from the spotlight, to rejoice in the accomplishments of others, to not require heaps of affirmation from other people. It takes a strong man to not be threatened when his wife earns more money than him, as I did for a season. It takes a strong man to stand up and confront his wife when she's wrong without domineering her or ever pulling the "submit to me" card. It takes a strong man to love self-sacrificially, quietly, persistently.

But these are not strengths that our society generally appears to recognize. And that makes me sad. Because it means that a lot of other people don't get to experience what I do with Peter. It means that many men feel they have to perform on centre stage in order to be seen as valuable.

After our encounter with our friend, Peter and and I wondered together why it was that the gift of helps seems so undervalued in churches, yet those same churches complain when they don't have enough volunteers to run their programs.

I wonder if the answer lies in an observation I've already made above. The gift of helps tends to be linked with the female gender in many people's minds. Could it be that the term "helper", applied to Eve in the book of Genesis [1], is chauvinistically deemed "lesser"? [2]

We may think of the person who helps as subordinate to the one being helped.

And yet, we also see that the Holy Spirit, an equal member of the Godhead, is called "Helper". He is not subordinate to Jesus or God the Father. He is equal. And yet he is still called "Helper".

Jesus said, "I will send you the Helper from the Father. The Helper is the Spirit of truth who comes from the Father. When he comes, he will tell about me. And you will tell people about me too, because you have been with me from the beginning." [3] 

The Helper was sent to help us. If the helper is subordinate to the person helped, this would mean that the Holy Spirit is subordinate to us. I hope that most of us will be able to easily see that this is a repulsive heresy!

If a helper is not subordinate to the person helped, but in fact can be superior to that person, how does this change our view of the gift of helps?

How does this impact our view of those people who are quietly confident in their position with God and in the people He has created them to be? How does this change the value we place on those who, without any fanfare, carry out all of those little tasks that enable those in the spotlight to fulfil the callings God has placed on their hearts and lives? 

When Peter was a worship and outreach pastor back in Canada, he always used to give his volunteers a break over the summer. He and I would lead worship alone during those months. We would lead worship alone for the Christmas Eve service, so volunteers could sit with their families and enjoy a rest. Whenever asking something of his team members, he would go out of his way to give them permission to say no, to never do anything that could conceivably cause guilt, to respect their boundaries, to give them rest whether they wanted it or not. In the end, the senior pastor of the church we served with verbally acknowledged (unsolicited) that Peter's ministries were the most healthy in the entire church. We were never once short of volunteers.

This is the power of valuing people with the gift of helps. May we embrace the true nature of God's kingdom, and value one another, whatever our role in the body of Christ.


There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work.

If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. If they were all one part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, but one body.

—1 Corinthians 12:4–6, 17–20


NOTES

Unless otherwise noted, all scripture references are taken from the NIV.

[1] See Genesis 2:18.

[2] Lest anyone say that chauvinism is something that women just have to accept as a punishment for sin (see Genesis 3:16), please remember that the punishment for sin for men was the introduction of weeds into the soil (see Genesis 3:17–19). If we don't have a problem with a farmer removing the weeds from his crop, we shouldn't have a problem with standing up against chauvinism.

[3] John 15:26–27, ERV.