Main Thing Podcast
This podcast encourages others to love God and people by leading them to know and follow Jesus’ truth.
Main Thing Podcast
Leading Others in Discipleship
"Love God, Love People, and Lead Others to Do the Same." Pastor Steve explains that serving is essential for spiritual growth, and the greatest blessings in Christian life come when we fulfill the servant role God created us for.
• God doesn't call people to ministries they hate—He gives a love for what He's called you to do
• Jesus modeled servant leadership by making everything about the Kingdom rather than himself
• Many churches have lost focus on biblical servitude by trying to look like the world
• When families prioritize serving, their decision-making changes to put God first
• True fulfillment comes when we discover what God has wired us to do and pursue it
Thank you, reminder for us to recall in today's divisive and dark culture, from foundational truths and scripture to the hot topics of today's culture. Allow this podcast to inspire and motivate you on your faith journey. Well, good morning, pastor Steve. Good morning, glad to be with you yet again. Good to be here. We are on episode 19, and we have been doing this for a while now and it's been a good time. I appreciate your time and giving us some of those wisdom nuggets that you've developed through the years.
Speaker 2:I don't know about that but happy to be here.
Speaker 1:So just to give you guys a recap of what's been going on those of you who are listening or watching we're going through the mission, our mission statement as a church, which is love God, love people and lead others to do the same, and we talked about loving God and the ways we do that through worship in episode number 17. And then episode 18, we talked about loving people and the ways that we do that as a church as well. So today we're going to talk about leading others to do the same, which is the other part of our mission statement. And the main idea is as we grow in faith, we are called to serve others and lead them toward Christ. And the scripture passages we have today the first one is Matthew 20, 26 through 28.
Speaker 1:But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave, even as the Son of the things, for building up the body of Christ. You know, pastor Steve, one of the things that I know personally, that you and this church has helped me when I first came to know the Lord was allowing me to serve and really just allowing me to do what God was calling me to do and that really helped me find my way. And I love that about you and I love that about our church, because many churches you go to they have these parameters around what you can do, how you can do it, and we have some of that because we want the mission and the vision of the church to be the same, but you really allow people to fulfill the calling that God has over their life and I think that's such a valuable thing.
Speaker 2:Well, thank you, I try. I think that's the goal. None of us exist just to take up space. God saves us for a purpose, and so anytime somebody is trying to live their purpose in Christ, you want to facilitate that.
Speaker 1:Right, Steve. Why is serving others a crucial part of discipleship?
Speaker 2:Well, it's the very essence of Christianity, it's the very essence of being a child of God. You know, scripture tells us Jesus came not to be served but to serve. Not to be served but to serve. We are little Christ, literally what the word means, and our heart, our spirit ought to be to serve. And that can be misconstrued in many ways. You know, I often tell people I'm here to serve you, but you are not my master. I'm here to serve you in my calling, as God has called and gifted me to do so. I'm not here to serve you in your expectations of what you think I ought to be doing.
Speaker 2:And that's hard for a lot of people because we live in such a selfish world today. A lot of people because we live in such a selfish world today. The other side of that is we never ask people here to do multiple things. Some do, but we certainly don't encourage that. We want them to find that thing that God's given them a passion for, and plug in and do that thing Right and do it well. That's what our desire is, and so, in the very simplest form, our heart and our mind's attitude ought to be okay. This is the place God has put me in. Why am I here, right? What is it I'm supposed to be doing to bring Him honor and glory, and that's what it means to serve.
Speaker 1:Yes, amen. I remember when I first started the Living Water ministry and I began to serve and one of the things that I realized early on was the fulfillment that I gained personally for doing that. And what are your thoughts on? What do you think people are missing out on? Or maybe some of your experience in the pastorate? You know what are some things that people struggle with if they're not serving, if they're not plugging in, if they're not doing fulfilling the calling that God has on their life.
Speaker 2:Well, first of all, I don't think they're going to adequately grow in their faith walk. You can't grow. It's just like working out physically If you don't stretch those muscles, they can't build.
Speaker 1:That's right.
Speaker 2:And we have faith muscles, I believe, and if you're not exercising them, doing what God put you here to do, your faith's not going to grow any deeper, it's going to be a stale faith. Furthermore, I think you're cheating yourself out of beautiful blessings. You know, I love when we carry somebody off on a mission trip somewhere, and you can see it in their posture, in their words, in their attitude. When they come home, all of a sudden, they're way more grateful than they were before they went and God just seems to do a work in them as they give to others. That's right. So I think God's greatest blessings are reserved for us when we're living that servant role that he created us to live, servant role that he created us to live, and so the joy of the Christian life, I think is experienced at its best when we're serving Amen.
Speaker 2:How does Jesus model this servant leadership for us? Oh my goodness, yes, you could spend a week on that. Jesus was the epitome of being a servant. Everything he did was about the kingdom. It was never about him.
Speaker 2:And even though we get up in our pulpits and we preach that concept, we have to be honest. In the religious environment we live in in America today, it is all about us. If you'll just watch the marketing of the average preacher, the average church, oh, they're telling you how cool they are. We got the greatest church. You need to be over here. We're the ones this or we're the ones that.
Speaker 2:So what you see in Jesus is the true picture of humility. He never needs credit. He knows he's the Son of God. He knows who he is. Now we ought to know who we are. But especially in denominationalism you can see it. All the posturing and the politics and all the stuff we do. That has nothing to do with humility and service. Right, absolutely nothing. As the Christian church. In my humble opinion in America today is that we are spending so much of our time trying to look like the world and we don't want the world to think we're weird. So Satan's won a major battle right there in our walk and in our lives and that we want to do our marketing like the world. We want our church to be comfortable to the world. You know we don't want anybody to be offended with us. Well, we know the gospel is offensive to people who have not accepted it. Some will even be antagonist toward the gospel, will even be antagonist toward the gospel, and that scares us, it bothers us. So you can't be an effective servant if you're like a four-year-old looking for the approval of other
Speaker 2:people. One of the things I tell my grandchildren, trying to help them understand who they are in Christ. They'll come home from school sometime and you know how school is. Some kid's been mean to them or something, and I'll go through it and they've come to hate it. You know, because they know what's coming and I'll say is that individual that ruined your day? Is that your mama, your daddy, your brother, your sister? Is that your grandparents? Is that your mama, your daddy, your brother, your sister? Is that your grandparents? Is that your God? Then nobody else matters. Why do you care what that person thinks?
Speaker 2:You're letting someone who has no investment in your life decide what your day is going to be like, and so what we've done in the Christian church is, I think we've totally lost the focus of being a servant in the spirit of Christ. Because even this is one of my pet peeves. You see it on social media all the time. Somebody, you know, gives a guy $2 on the street corner, but they got to post and take a picture and tell everybody what they did. Well, jesus, is pretty clear. You've just got your reward. You've received it.
Speaker 2:So, don't look for anything in heaven for that $2, because you gave yourself your reward. So I think we're at a very dangerous time in the church in that we don't at all understand biblical servitude.
Speaker 1:That's good. What are some ways that people can serve in our church?
Speaker 2:Oh my goodness, there are dozens and dozens and dozens of ways. You know a lot of it's within the church walls. I believe the most important person here on a Sunday is a greeter. You know, welcoming people when they hit the parking lot, when they hit the hallways, getting out of your chair in your comfort zone, speaking to someone you never met in a worship service, people who take care of babies and preschoolers and children, to give these mothers an opportunity, who've had a stressful week, to have an hour that they can be in church and worship and be able to focus on their relationship with the Lord. You know it goes on and on and on. There's so many ways inside the church, but there's so many ways outside the church, outside the walls, and I think that's where we do our best service. You know, from time to time, sitting with someone so somebody can work you know we see this all the time. A young family nowadays has become. Our lifespans have gotten longer, but the quality is not any better, I don't think. And so you have all these young families trying to care for their parents and work, and we've got several that do it. That'll go sit with someone just so somebody can go get groceries, or so they can get away for a few hours. Go get groceries, or, you know, so they can get away for a few hours. Somebody that'll minister to special needs families outside the walls of the church, taking meals to a family that maybe you know they've had a major surgery. Something's going on. There are dozens and dozens of ways that you can plug in and serve, but here's the main way.
Speaker 2:I don't believe God calls anybody to do something they hate. I believe now, you may hate it initially, but I believe when he calls you, he's going to give you a love for what he's called you to do, and so I encourage people ask yourself what has God wired me for? What do I get excited about? And that's an indicator of the direction where you want to go serve. You know we've got so many people here.
Speaker 2:We've tried this so many different ways, as you know, in the past. We've taken Wednesday nights and gone out and served in the community. We've picked up trash, We've prayer walked, We've worked at the food banks. We've done all kind of things like this, and we have a lot of people who've come to the Lord and are now members here as a result of getting outside the walls of the church, and so I hesitate to say here's what you do, because I think God can use things we don't even imagine sometimes in a person's life, because we're all wired a little bit different. Right, Because we're all wired a little bit different. So I would encourage people, our members in particular, but anyone listening ask yourself what is it I get excited about? How can I use that for the kingdom?
Speaker 1:And get busy, right, and, I think, to go along with that. I know you'll agree with this because we've talked about this many times, but people will come up to me and say, hey, I think we should do this, and my response is well, why don't you get started on it? If the Lord is calling you to do that? See, why don't you take steps down that path? You know, and that usually shocks people and normally and I think it just has to do with the culture too I think some people expect the professional clergy to do their idea, but really it's God calling them and they would be robbing themselves a blessing if we began to do it. For them?
Speaker 2:Yes, absolutely. I find that everybody I meet has a better mousetrap. They know how to do it better than we're doing. It is a better mousetrap, you know. They know how to do it better than we're doing it, and I wouldn't disagree. Maybe some of them do, but I learned this many, many years ago I'd say decades ago. I'll simply ask, as you feel like God's calling you to lead that, and because I believe that the greatest tragedy in the Christian church is the model that we had for many decades in my lifetime in the ministry, where we would start something, then try to recruit people to do it.
Speaker 1:That's right.
Speaker 2:And I firmly believe if God wants you doing a ministry, he will raise up someone who will have a heart and a passion for that ministry. One of my biggest frustrations and I'm not putting down the Catholic Church, I'm just speaking reality. They are designed on a religious, professional model the priest or everything. And again, I'm not putting that down but because we're in an environment where most of our people have grown up in that culture. If one of us as a minister is not leading something, they're almost afraid to step out.
Speaker 2:Yeah that's right. They're afraid they're going to mess it up. They don't know what they're doing, and the hardest job that we have in front of us is helping them understand that God is adequate in your life. What he calls you to, he will equip you, he will make it possible for you to succeed, because it's his calling, it's not your venture. Amen. And so, yeah, we struggle with this all the time. I've noticed on mission trips we've just, in the last few years, been able to get people to go on mission trips that one of the pastors wasn't leading. You know, I'm so excited about that because if we've got to lead everything that happens, then in reality we're crippled in our ability to do the work of the kingdom.
Speaker 1:That's right and I look at. You know, 90% of our churches in America are ran by committees and nominating committees, and one of the things that floored me when I first was introduced to this church culture was the fact that they meet once a year and they basically say, oh, so-and-so sounds like a good name for this committee, so let's call them and put them on that committee. And I began to ask the question, you know, could it be possible that no one's on this committee because God doesn't want this team or this committee to be here at church, to your point, god raising someone up to lead it, if that's what he wanted in the body.
Speaker 2:Yes. Well, when I came to be pastor, we had 17 committees and I think it was such a dishonoring thing to the Lord's work because you would elect a nominating committee and then they would go to work trying to fill committees and their usual line was hey, chet, would you like to serve on the properties committee? There's nothing to it. And not realizing that if Chet's got a busy life, a family and a job and children and he's trying to do life every day, you just ask him to do something, that there's nothing to it, it doesn't matter, he's just filling a spot. So it took years slowly loving and teaching to get our people to understand that was a dead system. If you don't trust me as your pastor to run the day-to-day operations of this ministry, then you've got the wrong pastor.
Speaker 2:And I have check and balances. We have redesigned it over the years. We now have two committees finance and personnel and those two committees are charged by the church with doing the work of the church in between our two, our semi-annual and annual meeting. So I tell them pay attention to who you put on these committees, it's important. And then we have an executive committee which is the chairman of each of those two committees and myself, and there are many things that you just need to bounce off somebody. You don't need an official meeting, you just need to get some feedback before you make a decision, and that's the role of that executive committee, and so it has freed us to do ministry, you know, and we don't hide anything.
Speaker 2:Everything's transparent. We want it that way. I don't write a check. I'm not on any forms at the bank that allows me to do anything with money. I don't want that, and so it protects me. Finance committee all get a posting journal at the end of every month with every dime that's spent, by whom and where it went. So I tell them it's up to you. You have responsibility to read this report, and I'm proud to say that our two committees do their job. They really do. We get a lot of feedback from them and get a lot of questions, and we never get offended or aggravated because they're questioning, because they're protecting us in doing so.
Speaker 2:They're protecting the ministry. Yes, Amen.
Speaker 1:What are some common excuses, steve, that people use for not serving, and how would you address them?
Speaker 2:Yeah, it drives me bonkers. One that I hear that's just a lazy excuse is I'm retired. I did my time. It's time for the young people to step up. That's an excuse to do nothing. You don't find the concept of retirement in Scripture.
Speaker 1:It's not there.
Speaker 2:All you find in Scripture is the concept is to expire, not retire, right? And so we're to serve the Lord to the day he stops putting breath in our lungs. And so we've taken this American ideal of retirement and we've transferred it over to the church and the Lord's work, and so, yeah, I've retired. I do nothing now, anywhere, you know. So, basically, you're now a waste of human flesh. You're just sitting there watching TV all day. God didn't save you for that, right.
Speaker 2:The other one is and I think some of Satan's better work is I'm not equipped. I didn't go to Bible school or seminary. I don't have the skills. You know. Those are lies of Satan. I have seen God in my lifetime use people over and over and over and over again that have no special skills that's right that have no special training, and so I would encourage people if you feel God leading you, reach out to somebody, get some encouragement, talk to your pastors, get an idea of how to start. We're here to help you succeed. We'll help you get started, but we're not going to do it for you, right, because you cannot do what God called me to do and I cannot do what God called me to do and I cannot do what God called you to do. You have to do what he called you to do. So those are the two biggies that I run into over and over.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I've found too, whenever someone gets past that and actually starts just to your point earlier, the blessing their eyes open up and you can see a change.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, look, we've got a woman in this church in her 70s and her husband too. They're both in their mid-70s and one of them's in the parking lot every Sunday greeting people, welcoming them to worship. The other one's working in the sound booth, leading, celebrate Recovery, going to the prison, working with inmates. They get it, they get it. You know, neither one of them went to college, neither one of them has any special degrees, but they know God put them here for a reason.
Speaker 1:That's right.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And they have a fulfilled life. Yes, and God takes care of them.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and we've touched on this, but what are the biggest positive changes you see in individuals' lives and families' lives whenever they get bought into the ministry and start serving the Lord?
Speaker 2:It'll revolutionize your life and your family. When you do start serving, the excuses go away. I'll give you an example. We have travel ball families in our church That'll make church four or five times a year because they got a ball game. We have one travel ball family in particular that I'm thinking about, that'll drive all night to be back on Sunday because, although they love sports and they want to do sports, their first commitment is to the Lord and that drives their decision making. See so, when you as a family get into serving the Lord, your goals will change the Lord, your goals will change. The object of your goals will change. The Lord will become the most important thing driving what you're doing. We all got to live life every day Right.
Speaker 2:And so, you know, the concept that many of them don't understand is that I'm representing Jesus wherever I am today, whatever I'm doing today, and so I think when they get that understanding, it revolutionizes their family.
Speaker 1:Amen, amen. Well, I appreciate you, pastor Steve, thank you for being with us today. Thank you, my pleasure, and until next time. We'll see you, guys, again.