Serve
The activity of using our God-given gifts and opportunities to edify the Church, be a blessing to the world, and bring glory to God.
Serving is a fundamental part of what God has modeled and what he has called us to emulate. There are three aspects to consider when it comes to being a disciple that serves: spiritual gifting, calling and necessity.
Spiritual Gifting
Upon our belief and trust in Jesus, the Spirit takes residence within the lives of believers and equips them in unique ways to edify the Church, be a blessing to the world, and bring glory to God. Several gifts are listed in 1 Cor. 12, Rom. 12, and Eph. 4 that are the result of the Spirit working in us. These are not exhaustive lists but are a helpful starting place for you to determine how God may be calling you to serve. The point isn’t that you must identify a skill within these lists, but that you identify an area of participation that you both sense the Spirit’s work in, and see the spiritual results. Your spiritual gifts are not one-time deposits, they are dynamic, and you can have one or many, you can use them once or a thousand times, but the key is that they show people God in a way that the Church is edified and God is glorified. If you are having a hard time identifying what your spiritual gift may be, try out this spiritual gift test.
Calling
A calling is something God places on our life to accomplish for his life at a specific time in life. It isn’t always easy to determine what God has called you to, but he has. No one is without a calling. Tim Keller suggests using this metric in determining what that may be:
What are you skilled in?
What are you passionate about?
What do you have opportunity for?
When those three things align, it may very well be what God is calling you to.
Necessity
Serving doesn’t always have to be about flexing our spiritual gifts or enacting God’s providential calling; sometimes, it is simply meeting the needs around us. Whether this is inside the church holding doors, serving the Lord’s Table, or teaching students, or out in the world picking up trash, volunteering at a food pantry, or feeding the homeless, the point is that we would see the need and meet it. Below is a link where you can see where some needs are in our church family.
Pathways Podcast:
Why Do I Serve?
also available on these platforms
Pathways is meant to show you key avenues to commune with God, so that our lives are characterized by living them with him. Through Pathways we can KNOW GOD, GROW IN GOD, and GO WITH GOD.
Have questions?
Contact Scott.
