Indeed one cannot exercise spiritual gifts without a faith community. Who are you going to teach, serve or preach to? Yourself? Even if it is your family unit, surely there will come a day when the reading and proclamation of Scripture will compel us to follow Christ's beckoning, which often involves a certain "neighbour."
This is personally very real to me, because there are some professing Christians that I rather not count as my brothers in Christ. I would rather a distance be kept, not because of any offence or unforgiveness, but because I really do not like them. I therefore struggle with Jesus call for me to love my neighbour. Just like the expert of religious law's reluctance to mention that it was the Samaritan who proved to be a good neighbour to the man who was robbed (Luke 10:37), I too am extremely reluctant to regard some as my brothers. I do not think that Christ would excuse me just because I do not see any displayable attributes of a born again life in another person.
Help me a Lord I pray. I confess I do not desire to love the unlovable.
From Page 32 and 34 of: Called to the Ministry
Within the church of Christ, the mutual ministry of gifts moves constantly to the pulse-beat of the life of the Spirit. The body grows through the organic interdependence of each part... that means that you cannot grow without ministering to others and receiving the ministry of others...
You cannot bring your gifts to mature function apart from the mutual ministries of Christ's church. Therefore no Christian can determine his calling in isolation from the throbbing organism in which he is called. No doubt a Christian who is joined to Christ can exist outside the fellowship of the church, almost as a surgically removed bodily organ may be kept alive if the links of arteries and nerves are unsevered. But a living brain on a laboratory stand is a monstrosity. There are emergencies which may require surgery: Christians may be forced to separation, and Christ himself warned of the necessity of cutting off an offending member of the body (Matt. 18:7-9, 17). But the Christian is endued of his Lord for corporate life. His freedom and growth are found in fellowship.
No Spiritual Inventory Test can measure your gifts and capacities in Christ's service. Such a test may help you not to think of yourself more highly than you ought to think; it may reveal unsuspected abilities and strengths. But Christ's own test is not the [Spiritual Inventory Test]; it is administered only in action. We might call it the Service In Fellowship Test. As you labor with other Christians, hidden gifts are brought to light and new gifts are received.
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