Empowering the Gift of Helps: Insights and Stories from Ministry and Service

The Gift of Helps in Ministry

0:22 Don Carpenter: Another great episode of Equip the Saints.

0:24 Don Carpenter: Glad you joined us today.

0:25 Don Carpenter: We got an exciting guest with us.

0:28 Don Carpenter: I got to give you a heads up on this one.

0:32 Don Carpenter: It's my grandson.

0:35 Don Carpenter: I am very blessed to have my family serving God.

0:40 Don Carpenter: What a joy that is for any parent or grandparent.

0:52 Andrew Carpenter: My name is Andrew Carpenter I am doing music and tech and media ministry for churches, and it's definitely kept me busy am currently working in Virginia in the United States.

1:13 Don Carpenter: You're married.

1:17 Andrew Carpenter: Yes, I'm married.

1:18 Andrew Carpenter: I have a wife, no kids, and she is leading worship and helping another church.

1:27 Don Carpenter: Andrew, I've watched you grow up.

1:28 Don Carpenter: You were a graduate of our Bible College, and how long have you since you graduated?

1:37 Andrew Carpenter: t was 2015, I think.

1:39 Andrew Carpenter: So eight years now.

1:46 Don Carpenter: Where's the time gone?

1:47 Andrew Carpenter: I first started traveling as a musician and evangelists would hire me.

1:51 Andrew Carpenter: I'd travel with them, and that got me like 60 to 80,000 miles a year Just driving to all these different churches, and Lord's really opened up a lot of doors there, and that's what led me down into Virginia.

2:06 Don Carpenter: So one of the gifts that we've seen develop and you feel is probably quite strong, is which gift?

2:14 Andrew Carpenter: Helping churches with the gift of helps.

2:20 Don Carpenter: You are musician and a singer and all of that too.

2:23 Don Carpenter: We want to talk about helps and a lot of times, people look at helps as not being that big, but actually it's extremely big when we go into 1 Corinthians, chapter 12, and it says there in verse 28,.

2:47 Don Carpenter: And God has appointed in the church.

2:53 Don Carpenter: L ots of times we're thinking, it might be my idea.

2:56 Don Carpenter: Whatever we are in the church, even the church that God guides us to, he places us there, and that's why we always have to know that we're in the will of God and not just our callings and gifts, but every part or every aspect of our Christian life and ministry is God directed.

3:19 Don Carpenter: And it says in 1 Corinthians 12:28, God has appointed in the church, first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healings.

3:33 Don Carpenter: And look at this, helps.

3:37 Andrew Carpenter: It's up there near the beginning of the list.

3:38 Don Carpenter: It's right up in there administrations, various kinds of tongues, so helps is very much Bible supported, very much God ordained.

3:52 Don Carpenter: So how did you first start feeling that you had this gift, or was there anything?

4:00 Andrew Carpenter: There were a couple churches that I worked at, that they didn't really have many people to step up and to volunteer doing different things.

4:06 Andrew Carpenter: For example, fellowship dinner, who's going to pull the tables out of the closet, throw the tablecloths on them, put the plates on the table, start serving the food?

4:16 Andrew Carpenter: Who's going to clean up afterwards?

4:18 Andrew Carpenter: Mop the floor from all the kids spilling food everywhere?

4:21 Andrew Carpenter: Right, a lot of churches might not have a lot of people in order to do those things the logistics, the set up, the tear down and I was always taught by you and my parents that we serve in multiple areas, multiple capacities, even though I'm a musician,

4:43 Andrew Carpenter: If someone needs to turn the lights off or check the security system or lock the door behind everybody else or shovel the snow off of the driveway of the church.

4:53 Don Carpenter: If you live in the North country.

4:55 Don Carpenter: If you live in the North, yeah, so obviously, when you first saw this is interesting because as you were speaking there just about cleaning the tables, just that part alone I saw your passion start to rise and a lot of young people I'm talking about, you know, even many people, not just young people they don't want to get involved, they want to go to a conference, they want to go talk or they want to go who knows and do what, and it doesn't matter who's in the kitchen, who's not, who's cleaning up after, like a meal, fellowship meal, etc.

5:33 Don Carpenter: When you first started to do that, did you feel fulfilled?

5:38 Andrew Carpenter: Absolutely, Felt tired too.

5:39 Andrew Carpenter: people had a good time fellowshipping with one another, and now the place is cleaned and ready to go for the next event.

5:58 Don Carpenter: When you're talking about helping churches, not just in the kitchen, but what have been some other areas that God has really used you in.

6:09 Andrew Carpenter: There was a church that my brother was serving at in North Carolina and their sound system got hit by lightning.

6:15 Andrew Carpenter: The whole thing is a blew up, lost it all.

6:17 Andrew Carpenter: So we had ordered all new sound gear but they didn't have anybody who was willing or, you know, thin enough to crawl through a crawlspace in the attic to run cables.

6:28 Andrew Carpenter: And so my brother and I and one other guy from the church who was newly saved at the time he didn't really have a lot of biblical knowledge, but he had the willingness to help, he wanted to serve.

6:39 Andrew Carpenter: He also had the gift of helps, but he didn't know how to use it.

6:42 Andrew Carpenter: So as I'm crawling through the attic I almost fell through twice.

6:46 Andrew Carpenter: You know just little things like that, but the whole time we were talking and yelling from below down in the sanctuary to the attic, talking about scripture and talking about our testimonies and what God has done for us or for people that we knew, just while crawling through the attic, and then, we would solder cables and hook up this whole sound system.

7:06 Andrew Carpenter: We started our work at 6 pm and we got done at about 4 am.

7:12 Andrew Carpenter: We worked through the night and it went by so quick because the whole time we were just talking about God and about different biblical topics, whatever it might have been, things that he had questions about, all while serving with the gift of help.

7:26 Don Carpenter: So what's happening?

7:27 Don Carpenter: What I see happening just in this story?

7:29 Don Carpenter: Let's go talk about this story.

7:30 Don Carpenter: It was in a non-threatening environment.

7:33 Don Carpenter: He felt totally relaxed.

7:35 Don Carpenter: He was just working with his hands helping to install some cables in a crawl space in the attic.

7:44 Don Carpenter: And many times, Andrew, I have found and I'm sure you've experienced this as well people, when they get relaxed and they don't feel that they have to perform, they don't have to talk Christianese.

8:03 Don Carpenter: He would have asked you questions that he wouldn't had a chance to ask, maybe the minister or the pastor was very busy too.

8:16 Don Carpenter: If he just went to a church meeting.

8:18 Andrew Carpenter: Yeah, absolutely.

8:19 Don Carpenter: So you can see God using you there like personal one-on-one Right, like you do that.

8:24 Don Carpenter: You do that well.

8:26 Andrew Carpenter: Absolutely, the gift of HELPS opens doors.

8:29 Andrew Carpenter: The apostle Paul talks about.

8:31 Andrew Carpenter: not neglecting the gathering of the saints, about relationship with talking with one another, one-on-one or just in a small group, because iron sharpens iron is the saying.

8:42 Andrew Carpenter: And so when we're working, doing things with our hands, and sometimes it might take a while, it could take days, but we're always going to be talking, we're always going to be communicating with one another, and I feel like the gift of helps is a gateway, it's a doorway into discussing certain topics with each other and just talking and just fellow shipping, whereas you might not have the time to just sit down at a coffee shop or whatever and talk for four hours.

9:13 Don Carpenter: Your 28 years old, and how long you've been doing this.

9:19 Andrew Carpenter: So I've been in ministry since I graduated from Bible college here in New Brunswick, so it has been eight years.

9:24 Andrew Carpenter: I was full time for the first four years, and a worship leader for another four years after that.

9:32 Don Carpenter: Y ou are still full time, Even though you have another job.

9:35 Don Carpenter: Do you have any other stories that you can share regarding gift of helps?

Helping and Serving Others

9:50 Andrew Carpenter: Yeah, so lately, a gentleman named Rich and I .

9:55 Andrew Carpenter: (he's a sound technician and he did sound out in California and then he moved to the East Coast.

10:01 Andrew Carpenter: He moved to Virginia) and he wanted to serve God with his gifts, with whatever he could, and helps was one of them.

10:10 Andrew Carpenter: But he really has a gifting for technical sound and audio and setting up sound systems and stuff.

10:18 Andrew Carpenter: So he invested and bought an entire sound system himself so the church that we were attending could do outdoor events and all that.

10:30 Andrew Carpenter: we built teams and put people together who had the gift of helps and gave opportunity, saying, "hey, we got an outdoor concert going on on such and such date, and then we would set up for two, three hours and that's with five or six people, but during the whole time there's still a lot of communication going on, talking and fellowshiping, giving people the opportunity to serve and Feel like the church is going somewhere, is doing something for outreach, not just in the four walls, but now we're outside, now we're setting up all these other stuff and to see his growth, rich's grow through all this process because he had never really used his gifts in that capacity to glorify God, because he was.

11:11 Andrew Carpenter: He was mixing other bands and stuff at Coliseums and concerts, doing professional audio, and then he on the side, he also did some for Christian bands.

11:20 Andrew Carpenter: But now he dedicated his gift of helping churches and the church that he attends with doing sound and setting it all up for them so they can just worship, team, come in and play, and it's dedicated 100% to God.

11:35 Don Carpenter: Okay, so we've had two or three stories.

11:37 Don Carpenter: Yeah, I've asked you here.

11:38 Don Carpenter: How do you know?

11:40 Don Carpenter: This is like almost like any gift how do you know if you have the call for the gift of helps?

11:47 Andrew Carpenter: I feel like inside of you, like, oh, I see that that they got five light bulbs burnt down in the church.

11:53 Andrew Carpenter: I would love to just donate some bulbs, come in and replace them for them and they don't have to worry about it.

11:58 Andrew Carpenter: Gift of helps is kind of like a Relief for a lot of church ministries and a lot of pastors, because people have expectations on church leaders like they got to do everything Right.

12:11 Andrew Carpenter: But it's just like even in this verse in Corinthians here, where you know God has appointed in the church, you know, apostles and prophets and teachers, and then for the gifts of healing and then for the gift of helps.

12:24 Andrew Carpenter: Well, these other gifts, you know, can come alongside our church staff, our church leaders, like the pastors, children's minister, etc.

12:32 Andrew Carpenter: And come in and lighten the load.

12:34 Andrew Carpenter: Okay, so the gift of helps can come in and you know, if you really feel like, oh, I just want to help them out, I want them to relieve some of their stress, don't want our pastor to burn out, so then you come into the church and just help out wherever you can.

12:47 Andrew Carpenter: That's why it's called gift of helps right.

12:50 Don Carpenter: You know, no matter where you look, whether it's a family, you know there's needs in the family to whatever.

12:58 Don Carpenter: How do you go about determining?

13:01 Don Carpenter: How do you know who you should help?

13:05 Andrew Carpenter: Well, I mean, the Bible doesn't really say that you should help some and don't help others.

13:10 Don Carpenter: Right, but you only got so much time, right.

13:13 Andrew Carpenter: You don't want to burn out yourself, because a burnt-out Christian is not an effective Christian.

13:17 Andrew Carpenter: Right right, how can you spread the gospel if you've got no energy to even do anything?

13:21 Andrew Carpenter: Your back is pulled sore, so you kind of got a.

13:25 Andrew Carpenter: I Don't know.

13:26 Andrew Carpenter: Figure out the priorities like oh well, if they're my family, then they're a priority before helping out friends and stuff.

13:32 Andrew Carpenter: But just do what you can, but don't.

13:36 Don Carpenter: So you would prioritize?

13:38 Don Carpenter: Have you ever helped those strangers?

13:39 Don Carpenter: Yeah like you know, you've never met them before.

13:42 Don Carpenter: And God, does God speak to you?

13:45 Don Carpenter: Does he say to you more?

13:50 Don Carpenter: You sense I need to help them, I've got to help them.

13:52 Don Carpenter: Do you ever get that sense?

13:54 Andrew Carpenter: no, but I do have one story here.

13:56 Andrew Carpenter: I was working just cleaning up cables and organizing at the church I was a worship leader at and I heard a knock on the door.

14:03 Andrew Carpenter: And this was like 11 o'clock at night.

14:05 Andrew Carpenter: I was about to go home.

14:08 Andrew Carpenter: I heard a knock on the door, which was odd for that time of night yes and so I go to the front door of the church and there's a homeless gentleman that came up and he's like I saw the light on, I saw your truck here.

14:20 Andrew Carpenter: He's like I need help.

14:23 Andrew Carpenter: I don't have a phone, I need to make a couple phone calls and I need to get to the closest homeless shelter, right.

14:29 Andrew Carpenter: So I was like, let me see what I could do.

14:33 Andrew Carpenter: And I walked into the room.

14:34 Andrew Carpenter: I'm like, okay, lord, guide me here, because I have no idea what I'm doing.

14:38 Andrew Carpenter: Yes, and I don't know if it's legit, if it's real or if he's just gonna want to ask for money or whatever.

14:43 Andrew Carpenter: But he only asked where the homeless shelter was and if I could drive him there.

14:48 Andrew Carpenter: Well, long story short, we called, they were closed and they were closed down due to due to COVID.

14:54 Andrew Carpenter: That was going on, and so there was nowhere for him to go.

14:57 Andrew Carpenter: And I'm like, okay, well, what can I do now?

14:59 Andrew Carpenter: So it wasn't like God was telling me I do this.

15:05 Andrew Carpenter: It was just like, okay, do I do?

15:07 Andrew Carpenter: I have the ability to be able to help this man, even if it's just a little bit?

15:11 Andrew Carpenter: I had 16 dollars cash in my pocket.

15:13 Andrew Carpenter: I gave it to him, took him to Burger King right down the street.

15:16 Andrew Carpenter: They were open you never met this guy before never met him before, took him to Burger King, got him a burger five minutes before they closed, just in time.

15:24 Andrew Carpenter: Went back to the church.

15:26 Andrew Carpenter: I went inside the church and found a moving blanket.

15:28 Andrew Carpenter: I'm like, look, it's cold, it's raining, but there's some trees in the backyard of the church, so I'm gonna set you up, right, this is a gift of help, right?

15:38 Andrew Carpenter: And so I went and got him a moving blanket, got like five or six cardboard boxes, cut them up, built them a shelter out in the rain.

15:46 Andrew Carpenter: We carried it out to the woods and he did.

15:48 Andrew Carpenter: He slept in that and next morning he came up to the church and he talked with the pastor, gave his, gave his life to the Lord.

15:56 Andrew Carpenter: That morning they took him out to McDonald's to get breakfast and gave him a hot shower and everything to come to the truck stop and all that.

16:04 Andrew Carpenter: And then another homeless shelter in another city, next door, about 30 minutes away.

16:09 Andrew Carpenter: The pastor and a couple other people drove them to there and dropped them off.

16:14 Andrew Carpenter: Yeah, none of that would have happened if I didn't take that step of faith.

16:18 Andrew Carpenter: Just saying you know I'll help him with my ability.

16:21 Andrew Carpenter: I got cardboard boxes and moving blanket and $16 cash this.

16:25 Don Carpenter: This is a case here where you're led by the spirit absolutely like you know it's it's it's not everybody has compassion.

16:31 Don Carpenter: I feel well they should if they don't, but every believer does.

16:34 Don Carpenter: But like, like we're talking about here, you only do so much right and whatever, whatever ability and resources we have, and so God leads us by this, by his spirit.

16:47 Don Carpenter: You know, andrew, I got to go back to where the scripture is that.

16:51 Don Carpenter: We read it here in first Corinthians 12, 28 God has appointed in the church right, and when I hear that, it just seems to me like, do we have an option?

17:05 Don Carpenter: We don't have an option like.

17:07 Don Carpenter: God's appointed this to happen right, and helps is what he's placed there, and people who, who are help, do helps, should never feel that they were any less than the apostle or the administration, whoever those people are.

17:24 Don Carpenter: The ministry of helps is vital for the welfare of the church and people like you I mean all my Christians, I'm sure help in some way with some things, but there are those that really feel that this is their calling, absolutely, and I'm gonna get you today to just pray, sure, simple.

17:48 Don Carpenter: Whatever you, however, you want to do it.

Discovering the Gift of Helps

17:50 Don Carpenter: For those who may be, does God they're asking this question?

17:55 Don Carpenter: Does God want me to do the ministry of helps?

17:59 Andrew Carpenter: let's just pray here, absolutely well, lord, thank you for your word today, and we thank you that we can learn more about you and the gifts that you give each and every one of us.

18:09 Andrew Carpenter: So I just ask that you reveal to your people today, if you have given them particular gifts and in this case, the gift of helps.

18:19 Andrew Carpenter: Lord, reveal it to them, show them in their spirit, man, quicken them to action.

18:25 Andrew Carpenter: And Lord, open up the doors where they can help and they can serve and they can worship you with their gift of helps.

18:33 Don Carpenter: So we thank you for who you are today and who you will always be in your name, amen, amen and now you've prayed like this, I really feel that God is speaking to people right now, so it's going to be very effective.

18:48 Don Carpenter: Thank you for joining us today.

18:50 Don Carpenter: I really feel that this was a timely subject that we brought up, and if you'd like to have more ministry, you can contact me.

19:04 Don Carpenter: Just go to my website at stonkarpenterca and you will find some encouragement and help there, and also, if you want to send me an email or whatever, we'd love to hear from you, and God bless you until the next time.