{"id":1336,"date":"2013-02-26T16:52:23","date_gmt":"2013-02-26T21:52:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/davidcprice.wordpress.com\/2013\/02\/26\/your-serve"},"modified":"2013-02-26T16:52:23","modified_gmt":"2013-02-26T21:52:23","slug":"your-serve","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/davidcprice.com\/your-serve\/","title":{"rendered":"Your Serve"},"content":{"rendered":"

I meant to post this here earlier in the month of February, but this is article from our monthly RoadSigns mag:<\/span><\/p>\n

Quick question: Why are you here? No, not why are you on this earth…why are you at this church? Or <\/span>any<\/span> church for that matter? Does it make you feel good? Is it sort of a responsibility you have since you\u2019re a Christian? Do you like learning more about the Bible or more about God; you like being spiritually fed? You like to worship with other Christians? Maybe there are other reasons. I wonder, though, if we\u2019re ever a part of a church for the right reason.<\/span>
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OK, let me quickly say that there is nothing <\/span>necessarily<\/span> wrong with any of the above reasons (and all fit in there somewhere), but I think we often miss the main reason. What is that, you ask? Good question. I\u2019m going to give you a reference, but I\u2019m not going to spend a lot of time on it at this point, but maybe soon. Here it is: 1 Corinthians 12:12-31. Alright, take a look at it right now and I\u2019ll just wait right here.<\/span>
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Got it? Good. So, what was the common theme in that passage that relates to being a part of a church? Was it any of the things listed up top? Hmm. Not really, was it? So, what is the theme? Here\u2019s a hint: everything we listed above has to do with what you GET. Even, arguably, worship <\/span>could<\/span> be included here if you mainly come to and pick a church because of what YOU like. Ouch. <\/span>
<\/span>
What, then, is Paul talking about in the passage? Not what you GET but what you GIVE. Jesus said he came not to BE served, but to serve, right? Are you His disciple? Fair question, I think. A disciple has the same values and acts in the same manner as his master. So, are you a disciple? Is serving your primary interest within the church or are you more interested in being served? These are tough things for us to talk about, but absolutely imperative if we\u2019re to be a healthy church.<\/span>
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I want to encourage you to give yourself an \u201cattitude adjustment\u201d (much the same way we ask our kids to do for themselves…before we have to). I want to encourage you to change your own vocabulary so that when you hear of an opportunity to serve in any capacity, you no longer mentally ask yourself, \u201cWhy should I do that?\u201d It\u2019s the wrong place to start for a disciple of Jesus. The question we must all ask is, \u201cWhy should I NOT be involved?\u201d This puts us in a place of getting really honest and we will probably learn that there are really very few legitimate (non-selfish) reasons why we shouldn\u2019t. If you\u2019re a disciple.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\tTweet<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I meant to post this here earlier in the month of February, but this is article from our monthly RoadSigns mag: Quick question: Why are you here? No, not why are you on this earth…why are you at this church? Or any church for that matter? Does it make you feel good? Is it sort…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[4,1],"tags":[683,685,419,421],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3jKZO-ly","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":854,"url":"http:\/\/davidcprice.com\/real-community\/","url_meta":{"origin":1336,"position":0},"title":"Real Community","date":"March 23, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"I've been thinking about the real purpose of church and what we're supposed to be about.\u00a0 Ultimately, of course, it's to glorify Christ by making disciples (Matt. 28:19-20), but how do we do that together...as a church; a family? Hebrews 10:24-25 came to mind: 24\u00a0And let us consider how to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Christian Living"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":683,"url":"http:\/\/davidcprice.com\/church-7-days-a-week\/","url_meta":{"origin":1336,"position":1},"title":"Church, 7 Days a Week","date":"November 16, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Love this video. Don't know where this church is, but if they're also preaching the Gospel like they seem to be living it, they've got it going on. This needs to become the goal of The Gathering (and every other New Testament church for that matter).","rel":"","context":"In "Church"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":916,"url":"http:\/\/davidcprice.com\/on-mission\/","url_meta":{"origin":1336,"position":2},"title":"On Mission","date":"March 29, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"The report yesterday on the mission day in Atlanta was awesome.\u00a0 I'm excited about the opportunities that lie ahead for The Gathering.\u00a0 So many important doors are being opened and it's incredible to watch our people excited about walking through them. 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We pray your heart is challenged and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Christian Living"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1549,"url":"http:\/\/davidcprice.com\/a-church-that-fails-to-pray-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":1336,"position":5},"title":"A Church That Fails to Pray…","date":"March 8, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"(This post is re-published from the March edition of Road Signs, the monthly informational newsmag of The Gathering, Chattanooga.) A church that fails to pray, fails. I believe this statement and am coming to understand it more and more.\u00a0 How easy it is to become so busy that the very\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Christian Living"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/davidcprice.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1336"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/davidcprice.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/davidcprice.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/davidcprice.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/davidcprice.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1336"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/davidcprice.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1336\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/davidcprice.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1336"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/davidcprice.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1336"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/davidcprice.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1336"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}