Why do you serve?

Every Christian is called to ministry! No, not every Believer will be a pastor, missionary, evangelist, or employed full time by a church. But, God gives each of us a place to serve Him and others in this world and service is ministry. Why we serve is one of the keys to being effective in our work for God; and as Pastor Rick Warren says in the opening line of his best-seller, The Purpose Driven Life, "it's not about you!" The Lord wants us to forget ourselves, forget the rewards, forget recognition, forget fulfillment - and just serve for His glory alone.

When 'servants' get out of line about the 'why' of their service, what they do for Christ becomes less effective no matter how skillful, hardworking, or gifted they may be. A question we all need to ask ourselves again and again is: Is this about ME or the mission? The answer isn't always obvious. There are a couple of clues that help us discern when the 'why' is wrong.

*The first is that we become territorial. In your service do you make it difficult for others to serve with you because you communicate by your actions if not your words - 'this is my ministry?' Are you threatened by others who want to learn from you or help you in what you do? Some Believers defend 'their' ministry like a Doberman defends a home! Their ministry is numero uno. If someone dares to reduce funding, they blow up. If the board of Deacons allows another group to share 'their' space, they provoke a war. They don't teach anyone to do what they do, never think about who will take over when they cannot serve, because it is 'their' ministry. They mistakenly try to own what belongs exclusively to God.

*The second is that we lose our perspective and cannot see what we do as part of a larger mission! If we build our personal identity around a ministry, sooner or later, we will become an obstacle to God's work. Ask yourself - "if I could no longer serve as a _______________, would I leave the church or become bitter?" If you answered, 'yes,' you probably have lost touch with the larger mission of Christ! In my own life, I remind myself that I am Jerry Scott, first, and Pastor Jerry, second. My sense of value cannot be based on my position in the church. If it is, I will hurt the work more than helping it!

Ministries are not eternal. They have an effective life cycle and then they die or evolve into something new. You can't tell that to someone who is serving for their own needs rather than for the mission, to a person who has built his entire Christian identity around being a Deacon, a Sunday School teacher, or a ____________. He cannot grasp that a ministry has out-grown his skills or that the ministry which he served so faithfully is not a part of the church's present mission. The work of God is crippled by people who hang onto 'their place' long after their effectiveness has been lost. Growth and change are not a part of the self-focused servant's (talk about an oxymoron) vocabulary. They firmly believe, "If it was good enough for the church in 1975, then, by God, it's good enough for the church in 2005." That's not faithfulness, that is mistaken stubbornness. Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever but the ministries in which we serve are not. If we want to be effective and useful to the Kingdom of God we must be humble enough to remain life-long learners, to grow our skills, and to adapt to the ever-changing needs of the world in which we are serving.

Serving Jesus and His people is incredibly fulfilling, deeply satisfying, and brings us rewards -- but those are not the reasons we serve. Paradoxically, IF we slip into serving for those reasons, those things slip away from us. Jesus' wisdom is - “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must put aside your selfish ambition, shoulder your cross (crosses were instruments death!) daily, and follow me. If you try to keep your life for yourself, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for me, you will find true life." Luke 9:23-24 NLT

Here's a story Jesus told. Meditate on it. IF you read it and say, "That's so unfair!" - it's time for a deep evaluation of your understanding of the meaning and reasons for serving in the Kingdom of God.

• “Suppose one of you has a servant who comes in from plowing the field or tending the sheep. Would you take his coat, set the table, and say, ‘Sit down and eat’?
  
  Wouldn’t you be more likely to say, ‘Prepare dinner; change your clothes and wait table for me until I’ve finished my coffee; then go to the kitchen and have your supper’? Does the servant get special thanks for doing what’s expected of him?
  
  It’s the same with you. When you’ve done everything expected of you, be matter-of-fact and say, ‘The work is done. What we were told to do, we did.’ "
  (Luke 17:7-10 The Message)