Do you currently serve at church, or have you served in the church before? What has your journey in serving been like? As I think back on my own journey, I remember first becoming more involved at church through worship ministry. I gained an interest in playing the drums when I was in high school, inspired by a friend of mine. Soon enough, my ability was recognized at church, and I became the main drummer in our youth group. Playing the drums led to an interest in playing the guitar, which led me into prayer ministry, and the rest is history.
Of course, your journey may not be like mine, and you may serve in a different ministry at LifeSpring or you may not currently be serving at all. Your serving may have started decades ago, or perhaps your journey is just beginning. Whatever the case may be, I truly believe that serving others is such an important aspect of our faith.
1 Peter 4:10 says it well.
Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms.
I love how practical this verse is. God gives people gifts in many forms. Whatever gifts you have are from God. Use the gifts God has given you to serve others. This is how you steward your gift well.
The Greek word for “serve” here is diakoneó, which means to serve, to take care of, or to minister. It’s the root word for “deacon.” When we think of deacons, we may think of those who lead certain ministries at LifeSpring, whether the worship ministry, prophetic ministry, Wildfire ministry, or other. But the truth is that everyone is called to serve and minister. Everyone is called to steward the gifts God has given you to serve others.
Have you ever felt a call to ministry? I hope so! The truth is that every Christian is called to minister. Of course, that doesn’t mean that every person in the church should go into full-time pastoral ministry. God gives people many gifts beyond pastoral ministry, much less full-time ministry.
But that desire to serve others, that itch to use our gifts for the kingdom and for the church family, should be shared by us all. We should all feel called to serve and minister. We have a letter for this at LifeSpring, the letter “T” in the word IMPACT. The letter T reminds us that we are all called to invest our time, talents, and treasures for the kingdom. And as we do, we are fulfilling the idea behind 1 Peter 4:10, that we would steward well whatever gifts God has given us by serving others faithfully.