How to Decide What and When.
Do you serve at church on top of working and possibly serving with other ministries? A lot of people ask me if I serve at church. Honestly, I wrestle sometimes trying to decide whether I should or not. If this was 10 or 12 years ago, my whole life was spent in the local church serving in our high school and college ministries.
Now things are a little different since I travel more than ever before, work long hours, and have a 4-year-old and a daughter on the way.
I know this is a question that some people have wrestled with and so I wanted to share a few guidelines that have helped me in the last 10 years.
First and foremost, no matter what we do, our service should bring glory to God. Everything we do can help to advance the gospel of Jesus Christ in some way. Acts 1:8 says that we are to take his word from Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.
However, does that mean we should take every opportunity that comes our way to serve? Here are a couple of questions to ask that may be helpful in deciding when to serve and when not to serve in your church:
1 – What are your areas of strength, passion, or gifts?
There are 20 spiritual gifts according to Scripture given specifically for the upbuilding of the body of Christ: administration, apostleship, compassion, discernment, evangelism, exhortation, faith, giving, healing, helping, interpretation of tongues, knowledge, leadership, miracles, prophecy, servanthood, shepherding, teaching, tongues, and wisdom.
What are the activities that you enjoy doing? Things that give you energy? How has God gifted you? What does it mean to have a passion for something?
It’s not always related to being gifted. Passion is what drives you to do your best because you care. It …