Time to Serve

This past spring, my senior pastor Mark Stewart attended a large church initiative at a (naturally) large Methodist Church in Alabama. He came back charged up with a zillion new ideas and hasn't stopped sharing them with the staff, leadership and congregation.

One of the key things he has emphasized to us is the principle that in church, every member is expected to serve, and at the large church in Alabama, every member is bombarded with opportunities to share his or her gifts. Obviously this isn't a new idea...I think I read it somewhere in Paul's letters, maybe that Rick Warren guy talked about it in his Purpose-Driven books. But for some reason, when I heard Mark share his thoughts on it time after time, an insight occurred to me:

Why does this only apply to the adults of the church?

Here I am, spending 50% of my job with teenagers, attempting to disciple them to be faithful Christians and members of a church. Why should I merely compartmentalize their experiences of service to a summer mission trip and a couple work projects during the school year? Why shouldn't service be integrated into their whole church experience from the beginning?

So this past summer, after our mission trip, I met with both my junior and senior high groups and gave them a challenge: "If you guys and gals want to be members of the youth group this coming school year, you are expected to serve."

I had sign-up sheets with different categories and specific projects:

WORSHIP/THE ARTS: Be a worship leader when Jeff preaches; join the youth praise band; do the Children's message in Sunday worship; assist with Children's church; join in "Neon Buzz" (Youth Drama Team).

OUTREACH: Help develop youth group website; invite unchurched friends to youth group; help planning local work projects and the summer mission trip.

LEADERSHIP: Serve on SALT (Student-Adult Leadership Team); be a youth representative on COM; lead games or devotions at Youth Group (juniors/seniors only).

FELLOWSHIP: Be a Youth Group Historian (make scrapbooks of youth events); manage the Youth Group Facebook Page; attend the mid-week in-depth bible study.

Two things have surprised me. First, how willingly each youth there signed up for at least one thing. Second, they have (with some gentle prodding) basically kept their commitments. What's amazing is, I'm getting the sense that they are enjoying the fact that they have taken more ownership in the youth group. They no longer come to have ministry done to them by me and other adults...they are ministers themselves. They bring friends to youth activities, and I know part of the reason is that they take pride in the ministry into which they have invested.

Jesus was the Son of God and could do everything on His own, yet He willingly empowered His disciples, saying that they would "do even greater things" than He did (John 14:12). May those of us who lead have that same humility and faith in our flocks, even it means letting them do greater things than we do.