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If service, in our serving! (Romans 12:7a, ESV)
During 49 years of pastoring, sometimes I walked into the church building and wondered if I was even needed.
Before I stepped behind the pulpit to open my Bible, the real ministry had already happened. I arrived that morning to find a clean building, hot coffee already brewed, a sound system working without a single snap, crackle, or pop of interference, classrooms ready for children, and the nursery lovingly staffed.
Yes, even the nursery staffed!
None of it happened by accident. It happened because of people operating in the spiritual gift of serving.
At its core, the New Testament word for serving—diakonia—literally means “to wait tables or serve food.” Yet in the life of the church, it does a lot more. The gift of serving is the God-given ability to spot a practical need, feel a genuine conviction in your spirit to meet it, and quietly see the task through to completion—not for applause, and not out of mere duty, but because you love Jesus.
This highlights one of the most striking contrasts in the local church. As a preacher, you often receive immediate affirmation every Sunday. People shake your hand at the door and thank you for a good sermon. Sometimes, if I’m honest, if someone didn’t come up to me and say, “Grant, that was a great sermon,” I would sink into the doldrums of disconsolation.
But the servants at the church where I pastored didn’t need an ego boost to minister. They unlocked doors, stacked chairs, and fixed what was broken, too often without anyone noticing—and regardless, they continued unlocking, stacking, and fixing!
There is something miraculous about this kind of quiet devotion. While the pulpit and worship team get the visible praise, the servant receives honor from God—and deep, lasting honor from those who truly understand how the Kingdom works. The Apostle Paul specifically addresses these unseen, behind-the-scenes members of the body of Christ…
The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and on those parts of the body that we think less honorable we bestow the greater honor (1 Corinthians 12:21-23a, ESV).
In his classic book, Celebration of Discipline, Richard Foster captures the heart of this spiritual discipline when he writes about the difference between choosing to serve and choosing to be a servant. Foster notes that when we choose to serve, we decide whom we will serve and when we will serve, and, in a sense, remain in charge. However, when we choose to be a servant, we give up the right to be in charge. Foster reminds us that true service is free from the need to calculate returns or seek recognition—it simply sees the need and responds out of love, freeing us from our ego’s demand for attention.
After nearly five decades in ministry, I have come to realize that a church cannot survive on sermons alone—even my supposedly “great sermons,” as church members describe them. The church thrives on the gift of serving, on those who prepare the tables so the rest of us can feast. In the eyes of heaven, there’s no greater honor.
Thank you, servants of Jesus!