Ministry Emphasis Day 2011 at SMBC

This Sunday is Ministry Emphasis Day at the Shiloh Metropolitan Baptist Church. And I can’t wait!

One of the key factors in my spiritual growth over the years has been the responsibility to serve others that I have been entrusted with. The fact that I am called to serve has been a God-given and built-in means of accountability in my spiritual walk. And I do not want my congregation to miss this important means of spiritual growth.

Mark it down. To come to church and be ministered to week-after-week without ministering to others stunts your growth. What happens if you keep eating without exercising?

So we will be encouraging our members this Sunday to get off the bench and into the game. Representatives from our various ministry programs will be set up around our campus. And we are encouraging our members to hang around after the services to get information, ask questions, and get plugged into a place of service. We will also have listings opportunities to serve members can participate in without making a long-term commitment to a particular program.

I am really looking forward to Sunday. I plan to preach on the greatest reason I know why we should serve one another: Jesus was a servant! In John 13:1-17, Jesus gives us an example to servanthood to follow and even announces divine blessings on those who obey his call to service.

Our volunteers make it happen at Shiloh. We are able to do what we do because of their faithful service. But we still have a long way to go. And I trust that or Ministry Emphasis Day will be a step in the right direction that reminds us that we are saved to serve. May Shiloh increasing become a culture of servanthood that encourages our members to join in the great adventure of Christian service.

My prayer is that 1 Peter 4:10-11 would be fulfilled in and through the body-life of SMBC: “As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace: whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies – in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.” (ESV)