NO PLACE TO SERVE?

Have you ever heard someone say that there just wasn’t any place for them to serve in their church? Or maybe you have said those words or felt that way but didn’t share your feelings with anyone. When Christians talk about serving in the Church, they are often referring to specific positions or roles, such as Sunday school teacher, youth group leader, usher, secretary, treasurer, song leader, choir director, deacon, deaconess, etc. In some cases it might also include serving as an elder or as an assistant or associate pastor. When these positions are filled, we will sometimes hear comments that there is no place to serve. As I considered this way of thinking that exists in our churches today, I could not recall a warning or exhortation from Paul or Peter or James or John or Jude that there would be some in the Church with no place to serve. In fact, the emphasis is on preparing us all for service.

Ephesians 4:11-12 says, “And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ”. Through the gifts that He has given, God is equipping the saints (Christians) for the work of service. He is doing so because there is much work to be done. I find one of the great mysteries of our faith in this discussion. The Sovereign and Omnipotent God is not dependent upon us. But He longs to work in and through us. The Apostle Paul was inspired by God to put this into perspective when he wrote to the Corinthian Church regarding divisions in the Church. In 1 Corinthians 3:5-7 we read the following words, “What then is Apollos? And what is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, even as the Lord gave opportunity to each one. I planted, Apollos watered, but God was causing the growth. So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but God who causes the growth.” We are privileged to be used as vessels of the One who is everything.

There are two specific areas of ministry, or service, that I would like to consider in this article. They are by no means the only areas where servants are needed. But I believe they are two of the most important ministries in the Church, but perhaps ones that are often unfulfilled. These are not positions of service but service itself, which I believe we are all called to participate in. I’m speaking of the ministries of encouragement and comfort. We don’t need to go to Bible College or seminary to be used by our Lord as a servant of His in these areas. But we need a heart for God, His people and for service. Again, God is the source of both comfort and encouragement but He wants to work through His children as He imparts these in our lives. We find a tremendous example of this in 2 Corinthians 7:4-7 where Paul wrote, “Great is my confidence in you; great is my boasting on your behalf I am filled with comfort; I am overflowing with joy in all our affliction. For even when we came into Macedonia our flesh had no rest, but we were afflicted on every side: conflicts without, fears within. But God, who comforts the depressed, comforted us by the coming of Titus; and not only by his coming, but also by the comfort with which he was comforted in you, as he reported to us your longing, your mourning, your zeal for me; so that I rejoiced even more.” And in verse 13 he wrote “For this reason we have been comforted And besides our comfort, we rejoiced even much more for the joy of Titus, because his spirit has been refreshed by you all.” We see here that the God of all comfort, the God who comforts the depressed, had used Paul to write a letter of loving correction to the Church at Corinth. We know from the second letter to the Corinthian’s that there was Godly sorrow, repentance and correction in the body of believers there. Titus, who himself needed a refreshing of spirit, was comforted by this positive change that God had brought about in their lives. And later, when Paul found himself in Macedonia “afflicted on every side: conflicts without, fears within”, God brought a spirit refreshed Titus alongside to comfort Paul and his companions. And look how God worked and used this comfort in Paul’s life. Paul states that he was overflowing with joy in all their afflictions. Praise the Lord!

Has God comforted you? Certainly He has. But He did so, in part, that He might use you to comfort someone else. 2 Corinthians 1:4 says that He “comforts us in all our affliction so that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.” Our wonderful God is able to comfort us and then use us to comfort others in the same manner in which He comforted us. This is an awesome truth.

In Romans 15:4 it says that “through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.” There is much encouragement in the word of God. But we must grow in our knowledge of the word for it to become more effectual in our lives and in the ministry of encouraging others. Romans 1:12 speaks of being encouraged by the faith of one another. Faithful lives are an encouragement to others and used by God to do so.

Encouragement is not simply a suggestion but something that is vital for the spiritual health of the Church and its members. As we see in 1 Thessalonians 5:11 we are called to “encourage one another and build up one another”. Encouragement amongst brothers and sisters in Christ is used by God in His work of building up believers to fight the good fight. I was recently reading through the third chapter of the book of Hebrews and was struck by what the author wrote in verse thirteen. It reads, “But encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called "Today," so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.” If we encourage one another at all, we seem prone to do so when we become aware that someone is down or struggling with a particular matter in their life. But I think we are missing something in doing this. In fact, the truth of this verse is so important that I hope to discuss it further at a later time, when I attempt to look at “the deceitfulness of sin” in a different article. But we see in this verse that we have been called to encourage one another “day after day”, not just when something bad has happened in our lives. And did you see the reason for the admonition to encourage one another here? The spiritual benefit of encouragement is worthy of our consideration. It says that the reason for daily encouragement is so that none of us are hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. This is significant. We don’t have to look very far to find members of the Way who have been hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. We may not have to look any further than ourselves. The results have been devastating to God’s Church and the lack of encouragement amongst those who are “members one of another” has played a part.

So yes, some may say or think that there is no place for them to serve in the Church. I would suggest that there are many opportunities for all of God’s people to serve in the ministry of comfort and encouragement. There will never be too many comforters or encouragers in the Body of Christ. What an area of ministry and service to be used in!

I would like to end with a verse of scripture that has been challenging to me. In 2 Timothy 4:11 we find Paul writing to Timothy, asking him to “Pick up Mark and bring him with you, for he is useful to me for service.” We must ask ourselves this difficult question. In my current relationship with the Savior, am I being useful for service in the Body of Christ? Is there really no place to serve or is there much work to be done and a great need for those who will be useful for service? Maybe we need a Godly sorrow leading us to repentance in some area of our life or maybe, like Titus, we need a refreshing of our spirit. Maybe we need comforted or encouraged.

Lord, help us to see the great need to encourage one another daily, to share a word of comfort and to comfort someone else in the same way you have comforted us. Help us, we pray, to desire neither title nor position, but to long for a life of useful service unto Thee. Lord, we acknowledge that the opportunities to serve are all around us. Please help us to grow in intimacy with you, that we might see those opportunities and walk in the good works you have prepared for us. Lord, use us to encourage or comfort a brother or sister in Christ this week.