Looking for life? Find a place to serve

I shared this quote from Michael Carl on social media this week:

As church attendance numbers fade across the nation and online services become very convenient it’s important to remember why church attendance for you and your family matters so much.

You can’t serve from your sofa. You can’t have community of faith on your sofa. You can’t experience the power of a room full of believers worshipping together on your sofa.

Christians aren’t consumers. We are contributors. We don’t watch. We engage. We give. We sacrifice. We encourage. We pray by laying hands on the hurting. We do life together.

The church needs you. And you need the church.

Mixed response

This quote created a mixed response amongst my friends. Many liked it and shared it, but others were upset by it.

Some thought it was insensitive to those who cannot physically attend a service. Some thought the reference to ‘sofas’ was pejorative and judgmental.

Others disagreed with the inference about ‘going to church’ in a traditional, Sunday format. They emphasised the broader expressions of faith which can take place wherever you are.

Community

It is great that technology increases accessibility for people with disabilities or other challenges. But this does not mean we should not encourage people to meet face to face as much as possible.

The key thing is being part of a genuine community which worships God together and, critically, serves each other. Where God’s grace overflows among us and beyond into the world.

Enriched

At our church yesterday, we had a great service including the baptisms of three young people which we celebrated as a community. I was on the coffee rota so I got to serve the many guests who came. It enriched my morning because I had a role to play.

Being part of a local congregation in the last 20 years has enabled me to be part of a richly diverse group serving our community through our youth club, night shelter, community fundays and Messy Church.

The reason I liked the quote above is because I believe that everyone needs a place to serve.

Consumerism

Authentic church should never become just a place of ‘service delivery’ shaped around professionals paid to provide certain activities. Sure, we can buy Christian books, music and consume all the sermons and podcasts we want. But none of these are church.

Consumerism is the way of the world. But Jesus turns this upside down. A persons’ life does not consist in what they own (Luke 12:15) and the greatest are those who serve (Matthew 23:11). These are the values which build community.

For everyone

I used to be part of a church with a woman who had complex needs and could be very demanding. I will never forget her once saying:

‘I don’t just like to take. I also like to receive’

She meant to say ‘I also like to give‘ – and it took her a while to work out why everyone was laughing. But the point she intended is vital: giving and serving is not just for a select group or just for leaders, its for everyone.

Everyone has a role to play in serving others. As Martin Luther King put it:

‘Anyone can be great, because anyone can serve’

Well-being

Service does not just benefit others, it is vital to our own well-being. It can save us from the spiral of self-focus and help us find belonging, healing and wholeness. This is why recovery programmes from addiction involve serving others.

Underneath all this is a truth about how people change which I believe in more than ever. We are not transformed simply by what we are given. We are transformed by what we give and contribute to.

We do not find wholeness and belonging by being a consumer or passive recipient of charity or religious teaching. We find it by being active and engaged in a community in which we have a role.

‘Doing life together’

Loving God means loving our neighbours. And that is best done when we ‘do life together’: accompanying others in the mundane, celebrating great moments and mourning together in grief.

At best, the church is a diverse community which serves and gives to each other as it follows Jesus. It is not easy but this sense of mutuality is what makes it life-giving.