Monday, October 29, 2007

Leadership
One of my many duties as a United Methodist pastor is teaching Confirmation class.
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In my current class, we've been looking at Spiritual Gifts, and we did a gift inventory over the past couple of weeks. One of the guys came up with his highest being the gift of leadership, and he was a little unsure of it.
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I wasn't unsure at all, and here's why:
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During the week, he had come by, selling popcorn for Scouts. I invited him (and his friend) in and we talked for a while, and somehow the subject of hot peppers came up. I like to grow hot peppers, and this year's crop included habanero peppers. He expressed interest in trying one, so I cut him a little tiny piece to try. He "liked" it enough to want several to take with him.
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Before Confirmation class "officially" started Sunday morning, he was talking about the habaneros and who he had gotten to eat them.
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So anyway, I asked, "How many people did you convince to eat a habanero?" He counted off four or five. I said, "And you wonder if you have the gift of leadership?! ... It's a gift, whether you choose to use it for good or for evil!"

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

This weekend at the youth retreat, there was an astounding number of the girls who were there who head their lists with MERCY. It was interesting. And a relief, since I am so low on that...

Big Mama said...

Hummmmmmm, sounds like some young man I know very well who could (can) convince anyone of anything.

Thoughts From Jeff said...

Very Cool.

I love watching students find out what their gifts are and for them to examine whether they think they have them or not and THEN for adults to show examples.

Derek said...

Heh heh........love them habaneros!

And also love how you turned it into an illustration. Nicely done.