Two weeks ago, I was chatting with a friend during a beach day on Lake Erie with some of our missionaries on a day off. As often happens, our conversation turned to how things are going in the life of making disciples. Eventually, we found ourselves talking about the importance of holiness and content consumption, particularly the widespread struggle with pornography.
My friend reminded me of something I used to say frequently. He said, “I’ll never forget what you said about overcoming pornography when I was still a student more than a decade ago. You said that if we want to overcome pornography, we should just serve more. It was true then, and it’s still true now.”
Serving Is More Than Volunteering
The pathway to almost all growth in the life of Christ involves serving others. In our discipleship pathway, we focus on three primary identities in Christ: child (and brother/sister), ambassador, and servant.
The identity of the servant is absolutely vital if we want to see mature disciples multiply. Serving reorients our attention away from ourselves and onto the things of Jesus. In this way, it sanctifies us. We cannot conquer sin by sheer willpower. But by fixing our gaze on Jesus and choosing to serve and love him, we will reap tremendous spiritual rewards.
It’s a mistake to confuse volunteering on a team with the identity of the servant. We are called to become servants, not just complete tasks or fulfill responsibilities on a team. Jesus is after the formation of our hearts to serve others, not simply the running of programs.
The Challenge of Sunday-Only Serving
Most serving in the life of the church happens on Sundays. But if our serving is limited to that context, there are significant downsides:
Limited opportunities. There isn’t enough work on a Sunday to involve everyone. A large gathering will only ever engage a small percentage of people. The role of the church is to equip everyone for ministry, not just recruit a few volunteers.
Too little frequency. Serving 1–2 times a month is not enough to cultivate true servanthood. A servant identity requires more than an occasional slot on a schedule.
A narrow view of church. If serving is restricted to Sunday, we unintentionally paint church as an event, rather than the launching point for ministry.
Stunted disciple-making. Sunday-only serving often reduces ministry to task completion, rather than activating and releasing disciples who make disciples.
Gifts left on the table. Sunday-only serving often activates a narrow set of gifts rather than the diverse array that the body needs. Tragically, this can lead to people concluding “the church doesn’t need me.”
The task of the church is to raise every believer for ministry. That means creating abundant opportunities for people to carry a real, meaningful, disciple-making ministry load.
How We Disciple People Into Servants
Here are a few practical ways we integrate servanthood into the life of our church:
Everyone is integrated into a house church. No one serves until they are first rooted in a context that multiplies disciples.
Everyone serves beyond Sundays. Gathering on Sunday is only one small piece of each person’s contribution.
We create new ministry opportunities. House churches launch initiatives such as evangelism projects, soup kitchens, street outreach, assisting local ministries, or weekend retreats.
Everyone cleans our building. We don’t hire janitorial staff; instead, house churches rotate to take care of the facility.
We have “everyone weeks.” At times, the whole church across campuses pulls together to evangelize.
A Higher Call to Servanthood
To think this way requires reimagining what church is. Our mission is to raise and send out passionate servants of the kingdom of Jesus.
Over the years, what people love most about our church is also what challenges them most: the high call to serving. For some, it can be frustrating. That’s why we constantly calibrate to ensure our leaders are equipped to thrive as they serve, not just survive.
But when our three core identities, child, ambassador, and servant, work together, we see healthy disciples of Jesus formed and multiplied.