Growing disciples: serving | Vision & Mission
Over these weeks I am reflecting on our vision & mission document. It is available on our website and printed at church, and fits on a side of A4 with relevant Bible verses on the back.
Our mission statement is – making, growing, sending disciples of Jesus.
Growing as disciples of Jesus means we all live as God calls us to live: as God’s holy people, filled with his Spirit, built up in love and unity – becoming who we are more fully, to please God
We do that by serving, listening and walking; today we are looking at serving the Lord our Father and one another in love every day.
Here are some Bible verses to help us see what it means:
Joshua 24.15: [Joshua said,] ‘Choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve… But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.’
2 Corinthians 8.5: They gave themselves first of all to the Lord, and then by the will of God also to us.
Galatians 5.13: You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love.
Revelation 1.5-6: To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood, and has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father – to him be glory and power for ever and ever! Amen.
First, serving God is a choice. Everyone serves something or someone – so serving God involves choosing to serve him rather than something or someone else. That’s what Joshua meant: the people were living in the land of Israel surrounded by idols and idol worship, so they had a choice… to serve God or to serve the idols of the other nations.
The idols around us today are more subtle, more along the lines of Paul’s warning to the Galatians: do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love. What does indulging the flesh’ look like in your life – and how can you turn away from those idols?
Second, the opening to the book of Revelation summarises the gospel: not only what Jesus has done for us (love us and set us free from our sins by his blood – that is, his death on the cross), but why he did it. He set us free so we can be part of his new kingdom, so we can all be priests, serving God and giving him glory. Serving God is not something only for leaders or vicars – we are all priests of God, we are all called to serve him.
Finally, that verse from 2 Corinthians is one of my favourites. Paul is talking about the Christians in Philippi and speaks with such love about them: they gave themselves first of all to the Lord, and then by the will of God also to us. God isn’t greedy with us – his will is not that we are separated off in some holy huddle, but that we serve one another. And as we do that, we grow as disciples of Jesus.
How can you serve God this week? How can you bless someone else in our church family this week by serving them?
Let’s pray.
Almighty God, our heavenly Father,
thank you that because of your great love
we can be called children of God.
Help us to make new disciples of Jesus:
sharing and showing his way, truth and life.
Teach us to grow as his disciples:
faithful to your Word and full of your Spirit.
Send us out into the world as his disciples:
worshipping you with our whole lives.
Pour out your Spirit upon us:
fill us and make us new day by day,
that we might bring you glory and praise.
Amen.