No Sidelines: Why Serving Matters
Our No Sidelines series began with a simple idea: the church isn’t a crowd in the stands. It’s a team on the field. Following Jesus leads us toward serving others, and every one of us has something to contribute.
Over four Sundays, we looked at serving from several directions: making ourselves available to God, recognizing that the church needs all of us, finding where our gifts fit, and then putting those gifts to work. We don’t have to know exactly where we belong before we begin. Sometimes we find our place by serving, paying attention, and trying again.
But some of the best preaching during this series didn’t come from the pulpit.
We heard people from our own congregation talk about why they serve.
One person joined a Care ministry because of struggles she had experienced herself. She had been through something difficult, learned from it, and realized that what she learned might help someone else going through the same thing.
Adults talked about investing their experience in younger people, who are encouraged by having adults who know their names, care about their lives, and cheer them on.
Others talked about the friendships they’ve found through serving. You work beside somebody, learn their story, laugh together, solve problems together, and get to know each other in a way that rarely happens from a seat in a worship space.
And sometimes serving is much simpler than we make it. It might mean welcoming a child, delivering a meal, moving a chair, or pushing a button at the right moment. None of those things sounds particularly impressive, but each one matters to somebody.
So why does serving matter? Because people matter.
Serving puts us in each other’s lives and gives us a chance to use what God has given us for somebody else. And in the process, we often learn something about ourselves.
There’s a deeper answer, too. Jesus served, and he called his followers to do the same. Serving is part of following Jesus.
The series is over, but you can still sign up. If you’ve been thinking about serving or wondering where you might fit, you don’t have to figure it all out first. Try something and see.
