You’ve learned what the acronym S.H.A.P.E. represents. If you are like many United Methodists, you may be unfamiliar with the notion of spiritual gifts. As stated above, they have lain dormant in our church for some time. However, you do know about your experience. It’s what your life is made from. So in our S.H.A.P.E. discovery process, we will start with what we know best, our experience, and work backwards.

All of us have experience. Our experiences come in many different “flavors.” One of these is our cultural, or common experience. It can represent a “defining moment” in shaping us for the long term. A popular corporate training seminar was called “You Are What You Were When...” It was based on the idea that people who passed through their formative years during the Depression and World War II (people often referred to as “boosters” by sociologists) are taught a certain set of values by their experience. These people tend to value loyalty and duty. They trust big institutions (big government for example helped them through the Depression and enabled them to “win the war.”) Those passing through their formative years during the era of the Kennedy/King assassinations, Kent State, the Vietnam War, and Watergate (“boomers”) are taught by their experience another set of values. They tend to be highly critical of institutions (government was behind the Vietnam War and Watergate). Today’s young adults (“busters”) were raised in the era of high divorce rates, latch-key kids, MTV, and a “microwave -- you can have it now” culture (these people tend to place high value on relationships, something many have lacked in the experience of their formative years). It’s not surprising to discover that these very different defining cultural experiences leave people who have difficulty understanding one another!

Another “flavor” of experience is your family heritage, often called “family of origin.” You grew up in a certain place, and that place taught you certain values and ways of life. Or perhaps you moved around a lot and that experience has influenced you. You are the child of two parents. Your relationship with your mother and father, for good or bad, is with you still. Or maybe you were adopted and never knew your birth parents. Or perhaps your parents divorced, and that experience is formative for you. You were the first born, or perhaps the last born, or perhaps even a “middle” child. Maybe you are an only child. Each of these elements of your family heritage brings experience that influences you still, even if that influence is a determination not to repeat your experience. How can this family of origin experience help you relate to people in the same boat?

Consider your educational experience. How did you experience school as a young person? Did you enjoy it or dread it? What teachers do you still remember? If you remember them, what was their impact on you? How does your education and vocation impact your sense of who you are? How does your education experience suggest ways to be involved in ministry?

Consider also your spiritual heritage. In what denomination were you raised? How did that experience influence your decision to be a United Methodist? Were you nurtured in a Christian home, about which you feel positive? Or did you come to know Christ through a rather dramatic, memorable experience? Are there people who made significant impact on your faith development? Who were they and how did they influence you? What was worship like for you? What experiences have you had working in the church? How does your spiritual heritage help you minister to those in our church today?

Life brings lots of experiences, good and bad. Perhaps you experienced one or more significant losses. Have you lost a close loved one? Have you known the pain of losing a job? How have you experienced relocations, which even under the best of circumstances, can feel like significant loss? What have been those moments which brought you great joy, like the birth of a child or grandchild, landing a long sought job, completing a work of art or craft work, etc.? How can you transform a bad experience into ministry to another?

Most of us have experienced influential people in our lives who made significant contributions and left a significant impact upon us. Maybe these are our parents, other family members, or close friends. Perhaps it was a teacher or college professor or a mentor at work or church. Who are these significant people in your life, and what has been their impact on your experience? How does it suggest the most helpful way to relate to others?

No matter what your experiences have been, God can use them in ministry. God can use not only the good experiences of your life, but God can also transform bad experiences into good through ministry. This is not to say that God causes bad experiences, but it does affirm that the God who raised Jesus Christ from the dead can use even bad experiences to serve God’s larger purpose. This is what Paul means in Romans 8:28: “We know that in everything God works for good with those who love him, who are called according to his purpose.” (RSV)

John is a man who grew up as the child of divorced parents. Many children are scarred by such an experience. And maybe our friend was, too, in some way. But his experience left him with the conviction that no child should experience such pain. God is not wasting his experience. God is using him to work with children of divorced parents in a ministry called Rainbows. His experience has given him a passion and a compassion that one who has not experienced divorce as a child could understand in the same way. Support groups are based on this same concept. God works through Alcoholics Anonymous, for example, when a person uses his or her very negative experience with alcohol to help others.

What do we learn of the connection between experience and ministry in the Bible? The “Golden Rule” states: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” Our awareness of what we “would have done unto us” often comes as a result of our experience. For example, aware of the pain of lacking, people who grew up in conditions of extreme poverty might grow up to be very tight-fisted, insecure adults. Or, they might also grow up to be very generous givers because they decide to do as they would be done unto. Jesus directly relates “what we would have done unto us” and “doing unto others.” Thus Jesus acknowledges the relationship between our experience and our ministry.

Israel’s experience of captivity in Egypt and in the Babylonian exile and God’s subsequent rescue served to give them their identity throughout their national life. Naomi’s experience of bitter loss helped shape her understanding of God when she came to see how God had provided for her through Ruth. Paul’s startling experience of Christ on the road to Damascus, followed by his period of blindness, profoundly influenced his sense of call to minister to the Gentiles.

Two of the most profound examples of God’s use of experience occur in the Old Testament. Moses’ experience, of course, included the call to go to Pharaoh to demand the freedom of God’s people Israel. However, he was the perfect person because his experience “just happened” to include having grown up in Pharaoh’s house. He ate Pharaoh’s food, studied under Pharaoh’s teachers, and knew Pharaoh’s court like the back of his hand. Another dramatic example is found in the book of Esther. In some ways, Esther is a strange book, for the word “God” never appears. Yet, to its writer there is no doubt that Israel was saved from extermination at Haman’s hand because God used the experience of the Jewish girl Esther. Her recent experience of selection as queen put her “in the right place at the right time.” With Haman’s death threat hanging over Israel’s heads, Esther’s experience was not lost on her relative, Mordecai. He hit the nail on the head when he told her, “Who knows? Perhaps you have come to royal dignity for just such a time as this.” (NRSV, Esther 4:14)

What are the experiences that make up your S.H.A.P.E.? How have your experiences put you “in the right place at the right time with the right people?” United Methodist pastor Jim Moore has written a book entitled Bitter or Better? His premise is that we decide how we respond to our experiences. We influence their lasting impact. What has been your response to these events? How has your experience shaped your values? What new skills or new knowledge has your experience brought about?