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Pillar 9. Serve Others

(helper/service/healing)

a. FMC is committed to taking our next steps towards Christ together by serving, helping, and healing others

b. FMC affirms that all help, service, and healing is done in the name of Jesus and with a heart that reflects His great love

c. FMC plays an outsized role in serving neighborhoods/communities/schools throughout the Tri-State Region & beyond

d. FMC establishes and nurtures relationships with key influencers across the region to capitalize on emerging opportunities

e. FMC identifies needs, plans a response, resources the plan, and implements service efforts deliberately

f. FMC is always postured for a spontaneous response to an unanticipated need

g. FMC has an eye toward team building and sanctification in all helper, servant, and healer engagements; friend and foe alike

h. FMC focuses all helper, servant, and healer efforts across the full spectrum of human ecology: body, mind, heart, & soul

"So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you."
Rom 12: 1-2 (The Message)
"And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved."
Acts 2:42-47
"For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads, with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness."
Rom 12:3-8
"Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, helping, administrating, and various kinds of tongues. Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? Do all possess gifts of healing? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret? But earnestly desire the higher gifts."
1 Cor 12: 27-31
"And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love."
Eph 4: 11-16
"For the ministry of this service is not only supplying the needs of the saints but is also overflowing in many thanksgivings to God. By their approval of this service, they will glorify God because of your submission that comes from your confession of the gospel of Christ, and the generosity of your contribution for them and for all others."
2 Cor 12-13
"In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive."
Acts 20:35
"God is not unjust; he will not forget your work and the love you have shown him as you have helped his people and continue to help them."
Heb 6:10
"You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love."
Gal 5:13
"But be sure to fear the LORD and serve him faithfully with all your heart; consider what great things he has done for you."
1 Sam 12:24
"Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be. My Father will honor the one who serves me."
John 12:26
"The greatest among you will be your servant."
Matt 23:11
"Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms."
1 Peter 4:10
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Reformed [ECO] Theological Tenets

Q. 78. Whence ariseth the imperfection of sanctification in believers?

A. The imperfection of sanctification in believers ariseth from the remnants of sin abiding in every part of them, and the perpetual lusting of the flesh against the Spirit; whereby they are often foiled with temptations, and fall into many sins, are hindered in all their
spiritual service, and their best works are imperfect and defiled in the sight of God.

Q. 103. What does God require in the fourth commandment?

A. First, that the ministry of the gospel and Christian education be maintained, and that I diligently attend church, especially on the Lord’s day, to hear the Word of God, to participate in the holy Sacraments, to call publicly upon the Lord, and to give Christian service to those in need.

Second, that I cease from my evil works all the days of my life, allow the Lord to work in me through his Spirit, and thus begin in this life the eternal Sabbath.

Saints by their profession are bound to maintain an holy fellowship and communion in the worship of God, and in performing such other spiritual services as tend to their mutual edification; as also in relieving each other in outward things, according to their several abilities and necessities. Which communion, as God offereth opportunity, is to be extended unto all those who, in every place, call upon the name of the Lord Jesus.

Through His regenerating and sanctifying work, the Holy Spirit grants us faith and enables holiness, so that we may be witnesses of God’s gracious presence to those who are lost. The Spirit gathers us in a community that is built up and equipped to be light, salt, and yeast in the world. Christ sends us into the world to make disciples of all nations, baptizing in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that Christ has commanded us. We are now in service to God’s plan for the fullness of time: uniting all things in heaven and earth to Himself.

To this end, we preach Christ, calling all persons to repent and believe the gospel. We also care for the natural world, claim all areas of culture in the name of Jesus, serve the poor, feed the hungry, visit the prisoner, and defend the helpless. We do this work not with any thought that we are able to bring in the kingdom, but in the confident hope that God’s kingdom is surely coming, a day when suffering and death will pass away and when God will live among His people.

Recommended Books

Venues to Implement this Pillar

1. Volunteer as an auxiliary deacon

2. Volunteer during B&G project days

3. Serve your neighbors by assisting them whenever they are working on a self-help project

4. Contact 1 person a day from the contact list on your phone and ask them how you might serve them today.

5. Add a bullet to your “to do” list where you serve a stranger at a store or restaurant.

Platforms & Exercises to Develop this Pillar

  • Make a list of all the people in your life, family, friends, neighbors who God has called you to serve.
  • Break into small groups of 2-3 people and discuss how you can express the Gospel message when you serve others.
  • Serve at the Center in an area where you are gifted. Then serve at the Church in an area where you are not necessarily gifted. Write a 1-pager on the experience and how God uses your service when you are gifted & when you are not gifted at something.
  • Layout a proposal for all the things you would do to establish a cancer support ministry that serves people who receive a cancer diagnosis.
  • Find someone in your life that is difficult to love and serve him or her.
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