Living the Christian Life – Chapter 7: Opportunities for Service

Churches and Christian fellowships by their nature provide opportunities for service within the community. We are created for the purpose of doing good works to glorify God and to demonstrate His love to other people.

While you and I were being formed, God infused into us His plan for our lives, and that included the manner with which we would shine His light in tangible ways to people in our family, in our neighborhood, in our community, in our country, and around the world. The psalmist poetically describes this wonderful genesis:

“For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s
womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful
are your works … Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book
were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me,
when as yet there was none of them” (Psalm 139:13-14, 16 ESV).

Every life has purpose. You were created with a plan in mind. The prophet Jeremiah declares:

“For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope” (29:11 NLT).

Have you identified the talents and spiritual gifts that God has created in you? Do you know how God wants you to use those gifts to bless other people and point them to him? By being a committed member of a local church you can receive help in first discovering what those gifts and talents may be; then you can receive guidance, teaching, and training to develop those spiritual gifts and natural talents; and finally you can find outlets to use or deploy those gifts in the church, community, and even around the world.

We read in the book of Acts that service within the community was part of the DNA of the first-century church. In Acts chapter 6, we see that the church had grown to the point where the apostles could no longer tend to the feeding of the poor and the care of widows while also doing the teaching and preaching. They decided to appoint seven men to oversee these duties. This care for those in need was a part of the day-to-day functioning of the church—and it should be the same in churches today.

Throughout the New Testament, we see examples of the local churches caring for the poor and needy in their communities. This is another way that believers, both individually and corporately, can fulfill the second commandment of Jesus to “love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 29:39 NKJV).

Fellowship with Others is a Gift

Scientific research has confirmed what the Bible has said from the beginning—and that is the fact that God created us with a need for relationships. That is why Scripture encourages us to find a community of believers in a local church and in Christian Bible studies or smaller fellowship groups. When you walk in fellowship with your brothers and sisters in Christ you will grow, they will be blessed by what you bring to the relationship, and the community is touched with the love of Jesus through you.

As we fellowship with other believers, we grow in maturity and in personal holiness. Learn more about these virtues in chapter 8.