Table Talk 8:
How Do We Serve?
How Do We Serve?
When we think of serving the orphaned and vulnerable, many of us think about service projects and mission trips. But what does service look like in a season where travel isn’t possible? And what do we need to consider when we think of the word“service?”
Jesus says, He did “not come to be served, but to serve.” If you look up the words serve, servant and service, you’ll see that all focus on a posture of care. The definition of the word serve is “to act as a servant." A servant is “a person in the service of another." And service is “an act of helpful or useful activity." What does it mean to be truly helpful, and for our activities to be useful to someone else? What might we ask or consider in determining how best to serve others, especially the orphaned and vulnerable?
Questions:
- How are you using your gifts and talents today, right where you are, to prepare you to better serve the vulnerable, the orphaned, and the widowed tomorrow? What might that service look like?
- Think of examples of Biblical servants or service. Think of non-Biblical examples of servants or service. How are these examples similar? How are these examples different? Which characteristics from these examples would you want to emulate?
- In Acts 1:8, Jesus tells the disciples that they will be witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea/Samaria, and the farthest parts of the world. Likewise, we can apply this to how and who we serve in Christ’s name. What does serving others look like in your own community(Jerusalem)?What does it look like in your state or country?(Judea and Samaria)? And what might true service look like for you as you consider the world?
- Now that you have learned more about the orphaned and the vulnerable, how have your thoughts about how to care for them changed? If someone you meet says they want to serve the orphaned and the vulnerable in other countries, what will you say to them?