Why is it so Important to Serve in the Church

Corporations understand how powerful service is in developing a faithful clientele. This has been the secret of corporations as diverse as Neiman-Marcus and Frito Lays. They serve their customers.

Service is the hallmark of the Ritz-Carlton Hotel chain. From the moment one arrives, each staff member is mindful of one thing: serving guests. The hotel's corporate motto for their staff is this: "You are ladies and gentlemen serving ladies and gentlemen." Employees at Ritz-Carlton are empowered to correct problems or handle complaints. The stories describing the lengths to which staff members have gone to serve customers are legendary. When a guest thanks a waiter, a maid, or a concierge, rather than responding, "Hey, it's no big deal;" or "It's no problem," the employee is trained to look the guest in the eye and with a smile, respond: "It is a pleasure to serve you." Ritz-Carlton is the perennial recipient of the hotel industry's most prestigious awards.

Jesus, of course, taught us about the power of service 2000 years ago. Matthew 20:24-28,

When the ten heard about this, they were indignant with the two brothers. Jesus called them together and said, "You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave-just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."

Service is the Missing Ingredient in Christian Growth
If you were to ask most evangelical Christians how people grow, we would say that you need to have a devotional life and you need to be in a small group. But if you were to actually look at how Christians grow, what you would discover is that almost always Christians grow as they get involved in meaningful service to others. In fact, apart from service to others, it is very difficult to motivate people to practice spiritual disciplines, or to motivate people to want to learn about sharing their faith.

Once we get involved in service, we experience a need for deeper devotions and a need to be able to explain our faith better. People return from serving saying: "Hey, can you teach me how to pray, how to understand the Bible, and how to share my faith?" or "I was helping out at the food pantry and I had to pray for someone and I realized I didn't know how to. Can you help me?" or "I was helping out at the medical clinic and I realized that I didn't know how to share my faith. What should I say?"

It is only as people get outside their comfort zones through service that they grow. Many churches make service the very first thing they encourage for new converts.

Dr. Howard Hendricks, from Dallas Theological Seminary, once said: "We begin to grow when we take responsibility for the growth of another person. Ministry to others is not an add-on to our growth, it is an essential ingredient."

Service is the Missing Ingredient in Church-Connectedness
Erwin McManus, who pastors Mosaic Church in Los Angeles, wrote a book called An Unstoppable Force. He said, "A person who attends, but does not begin to serve, will drop out within a year. One can ponder all the research…on how to assimilate…new believers in the Body of Christ, but it comes down to one simple variable, if people begin to serve, they stick."

We have had lots of discussions over the past several years about how to close the backdoor of our church. I think we often underestimate the importance of service. We talk about small groups and connecting people in small groups. But the picture I got as I was writing this is that it is almost as if we are trying to pick up food with one chopstick - the stick of small groups. We need a second stick, and that is the stick of service. Our new Community Center will provide us with a second chop stick by offering increased opportunities to serve.

Service is the Missing Ingredient in Christian Fulfillment
I had a conversation a year ago at a Leadership Network Conference with a church leader from Colorado named Eric Swanson. He had a really interesting insight from Ephesians 2:8-10,

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith-and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God-not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

He said evangelicals almost always omit Ephesians 2:10 in our understanding of what a person needs. It is true that every person has a God-shaped void, as the mathematician Pascal put it. But there is a second hole inside of every person, a purpose hole. And the purpose hole cannot be filled by prayer or bible study or small group attendance. The purpose hole is filled by engaging in the good works that God has prepared beforehand for us to do.

Have you discovered a place of service here at the Vineyard? Let me suggest a few possibilities.

• Have you considered teaching or mentoring kids? We have hundreds of opportunities available including everything from teaching in Children's Ministry, tutoring in our After-School Program and assisting with sports ministry.

• Have you considered serving the least and the last in our city? We have many opportunities to serve in our free medical clinic to feed people at our food pantry to minister to prisoners or to reach out to women in battered women's shelters.

• Have you considered using your musical talents by serving on one of our many worship teams, singing in our choir, or leading worship for a small group?

• Ho you like people? How about helping out on Sunday morning by greeting, ushering or volunteering in the bookstore or café?

If God is nudging you and saying - it's time for you to give back to the church through service - contact Diane Bauman, our volunteer coordinator at 890.0000 x3180 or you can contact any ministry in our church directly andsimplyoffer to serve.