Service in the church is something that I have been wrestling with for the last couple years and Pastor Carl has spoken about it in his sermons for the last two weeks. So here we are...
My thoughts always come back to the bigger churches that I 've been to, where people are so eager, or they feel compelled to serve their church. I haven't figured out yet if it's because they understand the heart of service and what it means for the church or if it is just because everybody else is doing something and they feel the need to tag along.
But friends, service is so important. What are we even doing in the church if we aren't serving?!
Are you a bench warmer? Or are you a servant?
I understand being busy, but we can also be busy with the church. Where we spend our time and what we put our focus on is where our focus is.
Pastor Carl challenged the church, in one of his recent messages, to look at what our individual giftings are. "Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone" (1 Corinthians 12:4–6)
Maybe you don't know what your gifting is, or you don't know how to use it in the church context, but let me tell you- the church needs accountants, business people, waitresses, gardeners, teachers and even scholars. If there is one thing I have learned from working in ministry these last few years, it is that in order to serve we need to be prepared to deny ourselves a lot. And that is difficult, and most times it sucks (I'm really winning you over now), but that is the Christian walk. It isn't easy. But it is necessary.
The church is never not in need of servants, or as John Mark Comer calls us "apprentices".
The book of Acts always gets me excited about the possibility of the church serving as one body, giving their belongings away, worshipping together, eating together. And I do believe that we can get there again, but are you prepared to work for that?
"In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’ ” Acts 20:35
"Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others." Philippians 2:4
I don't have the answers to this persisting problem in the church.
But I do know:
that God knows,
that we should ask Him about our gifting,
that we should be seeking His heart for the church,
that we should be taking up our crosses and denying ourselves- daily.
Friends, I urge you to pray about 2021 and how you can be part of something that may not seem too big now. Ask your leaders questions about where you can serve, and if they don't know then pray, pray, pray.
-Caryn
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