Serving | Spiritual PracticesSýnishorn

“Each person is given something to do that shows who God is.”
– 1 Corinthians 12:7 (The Message) –

Author and theologian, Leonard Sweet, says each of us has a ministry to the body and a mission to the world. That ministry to the body is the body of Christ, the church. That mission to the world is about bringing God’s kingdom to a people and place where things are a far cry from God’s goodness and will.

Each of us. Every single one. Including you.

Today we’re reading 1 Corinthians 12. It talks about how each of us has an important role to play in God’s kingdom. A purpose, call, and ministry.

When Christian theologians like Leonard Sweet use the word ministry, they’re just playing into the old Latin way of referring to service. The word “ministry” comes from the Latin ministerium, which means “service” or “office.” Around the world governments have prime ministers, which basically means “first servants.” Churches have ministries, ministers, and offices too. These roles are important. But what 1 Corinthians 12 tells us is that every Christian has a ministry – a place of service – too!

Too often people fall into the trap of thinking that only certain paid professionals have ministries in the church. Some even call these paid professionals “ministers.” Others think they have to be on a team or committee in order to serve. (It’s not uncommon for teams and committees to spend more time talking about ministry than actually doing ministry, and for churches to focus more on filling positions than having those positions fill a purpose, but that’s another story.) Teams and committees have roles to play too. But ministry is not about titles and positions. It’s about serving.

Rick Warren has another saying. He says too many churches are like football games – twenty-two exhausted players on the field, and 22,000 people in the stands who need to get in the game!

If you are in Christ, God has commissioned you to bring his goodness and presence to others. He equips you, empowers you, and will work through you. Even if you don’t understand how. Jesus calls this being salt and light (Matt 5:13-16). It’s not limited by specific roles or actions, but a mindset, attitude, and lifestyle bent on blessing others.

If you are in Christ, God has poured out his Spirit on you to serve in special ways. Which means in his kingdom, you have a role to play. No matter how young, how old, how battered, how bruised, how used, how broken, how inadequate or unworthy you might be, God wants to bless others through you.

In 1 Corinthians 12 Paul talks about how every believer in Christ receives gifts of God by his Spirit, and these gifts are meant to be put into practice by serving others in the body of Christ and the world.

God has gifted you. You might not even know how. But he has. And will continue to.

More often than not you’ll find your role by serving and doing. So experiment. Try things. Get in the game. Over and over again. Sometimes it’s a process of elimination, but eventually you’ll see what makes a difference, where God animates you, and others through you. It won’t always be joy-filled, but sometimes it will be. And don’t be surprised if your struggle and sacrifice is met with joy over time. God has you on a journey. God hones the gifts he gives you (and gives new ones) through repeated serving. The most greatly-gifted people often didn’t know their gifts starting out.

The church is a great place to learn how to use those gifts in service to others, and prepare you to better serve the world. The church is also a place that needs you so it can function effectively. When someone doesn’t serve the body, the whole body suffers. (Not to mention, the world.)

That’s what being a part of the church is about. 1 Corinthians 12 talks about the church as Christ’s body by comparing it to a literal human body. In a body, each part is important (even if some people don’t understand what every part is for). It’s what the word “member” means, like a body part. (We don’t talk about body parts too much that way anymore, but just think of a word like “dismemberment.”)

Church “member”-ship is not an entitlement. Some join a church, and then ask how the church can serve them and meet their needs. Others warp their serving roles into an entitlement, thinking they’re owed a spot or opportunity. That misses the point. Membership is about striving to give more than you receive, feeding before being fed, and serving rather than being served. It’s about living for something more than ourselves and pouring our lives into Jesus’s greater call. It’s about a commitment to serving for the sake of the body and God’s mission to the world, not yourself.

Questions
Serving is about living into a purpose God has given you. How can you use the way God has blessed you and wired you to serve the church? How might that benefit the greater world? Pick 1-2 ways and get in the game at your local church today.