Dave, thanks so much for such a challenging question! I’m reading your question something like this: “how can people sit back and do nothing whilst others attempt to carry an ever increasingly heavy load in the church?” There is certainly plenty of anecdotal evidence for this from churches in the UK. Take for example the 80/20 rule – that in many churches, 80% of the workload is carried out by 20% of the church family (wonderfully, I don’t think that is the case here at Kingsgate!). However, I want to take your question and use it as a mirror for each of us (uh-oh, that sounds worrying). You see, we live in a ruthlessly consumerist culture, which means that each of us (including me and you) have been affected by a “what can I get out of this?” mentality. In addition, as Paul Tripp writes, ‘In 2 Corinthians 5:15 Paul argues that the DNA of sin is selfishness. Sin is self-focused, self-absorbed, self-defensive, and self-aggrandizing’. So here’s the rub: Servanthood and selfishness are not comfortable bedfellows! In light of this, one of the ways that we could rework Dave’s question is to put it like this: Why am I selfish and why is my heart to serve so temperamental? Put like that, suddenly the question has got past the rib cage and is penetrating to the very heart of who we are!
Jesus said ‘whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first among you must be your slave’ (Matthew 20:26-27). Just stop and think about these words for a moment. In Jesus’ kingdom, greatness doesn’t look like profile, prestige or prominence but rather, rolled up sleeves, inconvenience and a dirty apron (a servant). In fact, Jesus pushes the image even further and says that to be first (or top of the chart) your life does not look like awards and accolades, but rather the joyful loss of your rights and your constant service to your new found king (a slave)! This is topsy turvy talk and honestly, so easy to dismiss: Jesus didn’t really mean this, did he?
So why do we find servanthood so challenging? When we strip away all of the excuses (and I’m really good at excusing myself), the primary reason is that servanthood presses so powerfully on the indwelling sin of selfishness. Servanthood, as it were, shines a light on all the areas of our lives where selfishness is poking its ugly head up and so we try to avoid it. Or we try to recraft servanthood in a way that is convenient to us and gives the impression of serving whilst never actually losing control and never actually taking on the insignificance of servant. We try to craft a servanthood that still has status and prestige. This is certainly why servanthood is a daily battle for me, because selfishness is a constant and persistent battle in my life. What about you?
So, how do we fight selfishness? One of the best ways is to belong to a church community because engaging with other people is one of the quickest ways of revealing the strongholds of selfishness in our hearts and then, to willingly choose to serve (1 Peter 4:10; Gal 5:13) that same community, relying upon the grace of God to overcome your selfishness and to learn how to love and cherish the joy of … serving others.
You can always give without loving, but you can never love without giving.
– Amy Carmichael
Want to get started today? Email: volunteering@wearekingsgate.org and you can find out where you can roll your sleeves up and get your apron dirty 🙂