Called to Serve

Seeking to be an authentic community of disciples, becoming more like Jesus - walking in step with God, alongside each other and seeing lives transformed

Having looked in more detail at our Vision we're now starting to think about our Core Values here at CBC. We have adopted seven Core Values which shape everything that we do and say.

We started to think a bit more about these Core Values three weeks ago - if you missed these posts then use the links below to catch up - or the Values label at the bottom of the page.

Our Core Values: Loving, Welcoming, Missional, Servant-hearted, Biblical, Spirit-led and Prayerful.

Last week, when we were thinking about what it meant to be Missional, I ended by saying that being missional is for the whole church - it is not something that is reserved for the 'professionals', or the 'elite', or the 'fundamentalist fringe'. It is not something that is the responsibility of someone else. As a disciple of Jesus, his expectation is that we will be fruitful, and will disciple others - first by introducing people to Jesus and then helping them to grow in their journey.

In the New Testament, Paul uses the image of a body to describe how the church should work - our mission is to be achieved as every 'part' functions as it should (e.g. 1 Corinthians 12:12-31). So, each person who makes up the church has a role to play, and the whole only works as it should when everyone is playing their part.

Each part is therefore important. But this also requires a servant heart - because we are called to serve. Service is costly and it requires sacrifice - because it requires us to do something that someone else wants us to do rather than what we might want to do ourselves. It means we put someone else's priorities before our own.

In the first century, as the New Testament was being written, servants and slaves were very much a part of life. As a slave you were not your own. You had no rights. You were owned by your master and he told you what to do. And this master-servant relationship is one that is used to describe our relationship to God - although God is portrayed as a good master - just as early Christians we encouraged to be good masters recognising that their servants were not property but people loved by God.

But a Christian is someone who has chosen to become a servant of God. At CBC, as in many Baptist Churches we have a team of 'deacons'. The word 'deacon' comes from a Greek word - diakoneo - which means to serve and is used as a noun 'servant' (e.g. John 2:5). It is interesting to note that many churches are replacing the term 'deacon' which is not really understood outside of the church, with the term 'leadership team', which is widely understood outside of the church - but is not often associated with the qualities of being a 'servant'.

But we are all called to serve - not just a few.

Someone was once asked, 'how will I know whether or not I have a servant heart?'

The answer came back, 'by how you react when you're treated like one.'

How do I react when I'm treated as a servant? When I'm taken for granted. When no one acknowledges my behind the scenes efforts. When I'm left to do it on my own...again. Our responses to these situations will often reveal whether or not we have a servant heart and whether we're serving God or looking for reward elsewhere.

It is appropriate that we look at this theme on Good Friday. Yesterday, we remembered the Last Supper and how Jesus washed his disciples' feet and instructed his disciples that they were to serve each other.

Today, on Good Friday we remember Jesus' death on a cross - obedience to God, even to the point of death.

We follow the one who even though he knew all authority was his, got up and wrapped a towel around his waist and took on the role of a servant to serve his disciples. The one who said to God, 'not my will but yours be done'.