SERVING: The Sin Of Self-Service

By Kyle Baker, Elder

A music pastor friend of mine had a difficult conversation ahead of him. He was preparing to ‘swap out’ one longtime volunteer running the sound board for a new member who was looking for a way to serve the church. The new member was a single young man who happened to have an audio engineering degree from a first-rate university – quite more than an average sound board hobbyist. The pastor thought this would be a great way to get the young member connected into the body of believers at their local church and it would prompt the tenured music volunteer in finding another way in which to serve others. I sensed the possible tension as my friend described the impending conversation. Like Indiana Jones swapping out the bag of sand for the idol, you could see that things might not go as planned. The longtime member took exception to the fact that he was ‘losing his job’ even claiming that the pastor was ‘taking away his spiritual gift.’ “What am I supposed to do now that you took my position away?” the member asked.

Search Your Heart

What happens when we are removed from our post? When we feel like our spot in the church has been taken away from us? These are excellent questions to ask ourselves. Putting ourselves in the member’s shoes who ‘lost his church job’ we may ask ourselves, how we would react if ‘our position’ was taken away? If we search our hearts honestly, I think we will find that we have a natural affinity for certain areas of service. Those who are gifted in singing look for opportunities to sing. Those who love children lean towards children’s ministry. Those with the cheeriest of dispositions love to serve as greeters. The first thing I want to point out here is that there is nothing wrong with being good at something and wanting to use that gift. Peter reminds us that “just as each one has received a gift, use it to serve others as good stewards of the varied grace of God” (1 Peter 4:10). Notice, he starts by reminding us that we have truly received gifts and that these gifts we received are meant to be used. But looking at what he writes next, it isn’t just that we have received a gift, it isn’t just that we are to use this gift but that it is to be used to serve others for the Lord. And if we are truthful with ourselves, we know that we can be guilty of serving ourselves even when filling the needs in the church body. And sometimes, all it takes is for us to lose our longstanding ‘church job’ to unearth our heart’s real desire.

As an example, if you love being part of the church music team but you’ve been asked to step down for a season to make room for others, what is your reaction? Are you upset with your pastor? Do you feel as though you’ve been demoted? If our initial, ungoverned thoughts were broadcast across our foreheads, what would they say? The sin of self-service can be especially deceitful as it can masquerade as serving the church. Self-service may only be the frothy top to a stew of sin issues bubbling inside us. In considering our sin, we may find that we serve to be seen by others – pride. We pursue ways to serve that bring us joy first, maybe over the more pressing needs of the church. We may even refuse to serve when we don’t see anything that highlights our gifts.

Or maybe the attention of serving in front of others isn’t a struggle for you at all. Perhaps, serving away from the limelight is more relatable: cooking, cleaning, running slides, etc. In these instances, we find that we can still struggle with pride. What if it becomes your expectation to be thanked for serving? What if the appreciation goes away? What if someone new comes in, starts serving in the same ministry, and won’t ‘stay in their lane’? We naturally want to be valued for the work we do, and we can care deeply about a particular type of ministry. But this becomes a problem when bitterness creeps in. We make the ministry all about ourselves, not about serving God by serving others. We become guilty of seeking our own agenda; ‘our way’ becomes the only way. Sometimes these habits are slow to develop. Through a moment of clarity after months or years of serving the church, God may reveal to us that our motivation for serving veered away from glorifying Him and has been more about our own satisfaction. Praise God for these sanctifying interventions in our Christian walk, but also know that proactive examination of our motives can be a preemptive strike against the sin of self-service.

God has called us to serve Him alone. Peter goes on, “If anyone speaks, let it be as one who speaks God’s words; if anyone serves let it be from the strength God provides, so that God may be glorified through Jesus Christ in everything. To him be the glory and the power forever and ever. Amen.” (1 Peter 4:11). Why do we serve? So that GOD may be glorified, not ourselves. To whose glory do we serve? GOD’s glory. Because God calls us to serve and worship Him alone, our motives deserve prayerful investigation. We ask ourselves whose glory we are seeking when we serve our local body. If we claim the name of Christ and have died to our old selves, should the fight against self-satisfaction not make it all the way into our Sunday routine?

To compound our selfishness, another sin can cloud our ability to think rightly about serving God in the church; lack of humility. Specifically, I’m talking about humility in how we view our own giftedness. Take a moment to praise God for gifted people in the local body; the church is filled with devoted teachers of great skill, part-time concert pianists, and ‘baby-whispers’ who have the natural ability to stop any child from crying. But if we think for a minute that the strength to perform these gifts comes from within ourselves instead of God, we will surely turn from any notion of humble service. When Peter says serving should “be from the strength God provides,” he corrects our self-focus by reminding us that even the talents that we have are not our own! Peter points out that we have received these gifts to be used for God’s glory. Remembering this should drive us towards using our God-given abilities with thankfulness and humility. God pilots us down a path of sincere service by directing us to consider and emulate the ministry of His son, the humble servant who was strengthened by God the Father (Isaiah 42). Faithful, God-given humility may look like stepping away from serving in some areas despite our gifts so that we combat pride, be brought low, and submit to Christ.

Putting on Christ, claiming (as we sing) that his love is so amazing that it ‘demands my soul, my life, my all’, should compel us to serve him with our whole heart. When we search our hearts, we should pray asking God to humble us as we serve the members of our local church. Broken people serving other broken people will always call for a great deal of humility. This humbling process can change the way we think about serving others and compel us to love others selflessly, even guiding us towards serving in ministries we never thought we would be a part of. In the next post of this ‘Serving’ series we will turn to how we can ‘fill the gaps’ in our church body.