Evangelism Reflection: Evangelism is about serving in ways so others know Jesus

Something that strikes me as I read the scriptures is that whilst God selects individuals for specific roles, everyone lives out their roles in collaboration with others. That is how the Body of Christ works. Living as a Christian is never an individual only experience, it involves us relating to others, working with others and supporting each other so people get to see and experience what God is about.
And over the last 12 months, I have really appreciated how willingly a majority of people in our congregation are prepared to serve others both in the church and in the wider community through the various opportunities that exist through our congregation.
A congregation our size needs a system in place to help us co-ordinate our service.
One way we aim to help people discover and take advantage of the opportunities that exist through our congregation is through the Talents and Gifts survey which we distributed last week. This is a very helpful way for us to quickly capture where you are interested in serving with others and where we need to encourage others to fulfil the various roles in our congregation. Serving in our congregation is not simply putting your hand up to fill a position, rather as Christians our service should take on an evangelistic emphasis. This occurs when:
• We ask the question, ‘how can I make what I do and say help others know more about Jesus?’
• Our attitude for serving is to glorify God and encourage others to develop a relationship with God and other Christians. Put this in contrast to someone who serves because they want others to see how good they are, they wish to exert some power or they want something for themselves or things done their way.
• We recognise that we are part of a team, and that we contribute to the direction that the congregation needs to move and has agreed to move.
• We consider how best we can help others to hear and experience God’s Good News, even if this differs to what helps us.
• We serve because others need it, not because we have the desire, all the skills, all the wisdom or all the talent, instead relying on God’s strength and seek his guidance and training as we serve.

Please keep exploring how you can be evangelistic in everything you do, because as we do we will change the lives of the people in our congregation and in the wider community, because God is working through us.
PS. If you haven’t already done so please get your Gifts and Talents Surveys in this week as our nominations team and team leaders will use these surveys to help them in their roles in co-ordinating service in our congregation.