Why Should I Serve In Church?

Sometimes church leadership can come across as people who are constantly begging others to serve. We need more people for kids ministry. We need greeters. We need help with this event. We need somebody to do this or that. And honestly, I get how that can get tiresome. I’ve thought that myself before as a volunteer in church. Sometimes you just want to go to church without somebody asking you to do something.

But hear me out, because I think sometimes we look at serving completely backward.

One of the main reasons people come to church, outside of obviously knowing Jesus, is that they are looking for a place to belong, a place to heal, and a place to find purpose. You start to belong when you come, and people talk with you, befriend you, learn your name, and you begin building relationships. Ultimately, of course, you belong when you accept Christ and become part of His Church.

You begin to heal in many different ways. Maybe you join a small group. Maybe you get counseling. Maybe you build friendships with people who walk through life with you. Hopefully you're listening to messages and teachings about the Bible and actually applying them to your life, and over time those things begin to transform you.

But what about purpose?

I think one of the ways we find purpose is by serving something bigger than ourselves. For me personally, a huge part of my purpose in life is helping people better their lives. I love doing that. It gives me purpose, identity, and honestly a lot of joy. There are a bunch of different ways I get to do that, but two of the main ways are through my work at church: serving and being the Lead Pastor.

Jesus said in Mark 10:45 that He didn't come to be served, but to serve. So serving isn't just something churches made up because we need somebody to watch the kids on Sunday. It's part of following Jesus.

And here's something I've noticed in my own life: serving other people helps you too. There's something incredibly healing about serving somebody in a way that actually matters to them. Go mow somebody's yard when they're sick and can't do it. Give food to somebody who's hungry. Pray with somebody who's broken. Sit with somebody who's grieving. Help a family that's struggling. Those things help the other person, obviously, but they do something inside of you too. There's joy in knowing, "Man, I actually helped somebody today." I think that's where serving at church can become something much bigger than filling a volunteer position.

Go with me for a minute. Imagine at some point in your life you went broke. I mean really broke. Something happened, and your family barely made it. You skipped meals. Maybe there were months when you didn't have power or running water. Maybe you relied on the generosity, or sometimes lack of generosity, of other people just to survive. Now fast-forward a few years or maybe even a few decades. You're doing okay now, and then you meet another family in almost exactly the same position you used to be in. You know what that feels like, so you want to help.

And by yourself, you can. You can buy them a meal, maybe two. You could buy their kids some clothes or help with some school supplies, and that's great. But you probably can't do everything they need.

Now take that same desire to help and join it together with 50 or 100 other people who also want to help. Suddenly, we can do something none of us could have done by ourselves.

That's what we've watched happen at Passion through our Life Pantry. Together, we've given out more than 8,000 items in nine months. I couldn't do that by myself. You probably couldn't do that by yourself either.

But we can do that together.

I think that's one of the coolest things about serving through a church. You get to join something bigger than yourself. Maybe you were the kid who didn't have school supplies, and now you're handing school supplies to another kid. Maybe somebody brought groceries to your family when you were struggling, and now you're putting groceries into somebody else's car. Maybe somebody sat with you during one of the worst moments of your life, and now you're the person sitting beside somebody else.

That's purpose. And it doesn't have to be some huge dramatic thing either. 1 Peter 4:10 says, "Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others." Whatever gift you have. Maybe you're great with kids. Maybe you make good coffee. Maybe you can fix stuff. Maybe you're really good at talking to people. Maybe you're actually terrible at talking to people, but you're great behind the scenes. Maybe you've been through something difficult, and you can help somebody who's going through it now. Maybe you're strong and can move tables. That's a gift too, especially around here.

There are a million ways to serve, and one of the things that happens when you start serving is you start connecting too. This actually goes along with something else I've been talking about lately: people wanting to feel seen at church. One of the easiest ways to become connected is to start doing something alongside other people.

You show up early together, make coffee together, serve food together, clean something up together, and start talking while you do it. Before long, these aren't just random people you go to church with anymore. They're people you actually know. Some of them eventually become your friends.

So serving can actually touch all three of those things we started with: belonging, healing, and purpose.

Now, I also want to be careful here because I don't think the answer is that everybody should serve every time the church asks for something. That's not healthy either. Sometimes you're tired. Sometimes life is crazy. Sometimes you need a season where you're the one being served. Sometimes you really don't have time. Churches can absolutely burn people out when we make them feel guilty every time they say no, and I don't want us doing that either.

But sometimes we probably say, "I don't have time," when what we really mean is, "I don't want to give my time to that." Those aren't always the same thing.

So maybe the next time you're at church, and you hear about something that needs to be done, and you have that little thought of, "You know, I could help with that," don't immediately talk yourself out of it. Don't automatically think, "Maybe next time." Try it. Go serve somebody. Join a team. Help with an event.

Give somebody some food. Mow a yard. Make some coffee. Hold a baby so a tired mom and dad can sit together in church for an hour. Stand at the door and make sure the person walking into church scared to death at least has somebody smile at them and say they're glad they're there. You might find out you're pretty good at it. You might make some friends. You might find something you're passionate about. You might help somebody more than you ever realize. And you might find that while you thought you were going there to help somebody else, God used serving them to do something in you too.

So yes, when churches say we need people to serve, sometimes it's because we legitimately need people to serve. 😂 I'm not going to pretend otherwise. But I don't want us to miss the other side.

Sometimes we need to serve.

We need something bigger than ourselves. We need to know that what we do matters. We need relationships. We need opportunities to take what we've been through and use it to help somebody going through it now.

After all, isn't that a huge part of what we're here for? To know and love Jesus, and to love other people well.

Serving is one of the simplest ways I know to actually live that out.