All Youth Serve Initiative

“And Jesus called them to him and said to them, ‘You know that those who are considered rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. But it shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.’” - Mark 10:42-45

These words of Jesus show his very heart: a heart of service. The God of creation came down in humility, served His creation, and died in their place taking on their sins. We can point to many different passages to see the heart of Christ. One passage that speaks volumes on this very topic is Philippians 2. Jesus showed his servant heart by “...taking on the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself to the point of death, even death on a cross (verses 7b-8).”

The All Youth Serve Initiative

In response to Jesus being a true servant, last Wednesday night (August 27th), Rooted launched our All Youth Serve Initiative. The purpose of this initiative is to promote different opportunities for service across Cornerstone Church and give students the opportunity to participate as volunteers in various ministries. We believe that the youth are not just the church of tomorrow, but they are the church of today. Every believer is valuable, gifted, and needed in the body (1 Corinthians 12:12-31). If they believe in the gospel, they too have a spiritual gift (Romans 12:6-8, 1 Corinthians 12:4-11, Ephesians 4:11-13, and 1 Peter 4:10-11). Spiritual gifts are used to build up the church, and they can be found and confirmed through serving. Students already serve in so many different areas of the church and both the students and ministries themselves have grown because of it. We also believe that when Christians serve, their love of God and their love of others will grow. When believers serve others, they also serve Christ (Matthew 25:34-40).

The Response

We encouraged students to talk to their parents about the various ministries they were interested in. We hope that they went home that night and talked about this with you! We saw lots of interest across all grades and genders and were very encouraged by the number of responses. Rooted’s goal is to be a community that loves Jesus, and because of this love, we want to serve his body well. Getting to see students want to serve the bride of Christ shows their heart for the Lord, and it can be extremely encouraging to see. If you are also interested in serving, here is a link to our service page on our website.

The Possible Challenge

Serving can be hard. It takes time, effort, sacrifice, and discipline. It’s easy for us to say, “someone else will do it,” or “this is just too hard.” I’ve been there and have thought that more times than I’d like to admit. Something that I need to hear often is that Jesus, the Lord of all creation, served me first. Jesus never promised an easy life. In fact, he promised a more difficult one (John 15:18-20).

The Encouragement

While the Christian life is not easy, Jesus does promise us an abundant life (John 10:10b). A life of freedom, grace, mercy, love, and joy. When we serve, we live out the abundant life. How we serve will show the love of Jesus to others. This will ultimately result in us looking more like our Lord and savior. As students participate in the body through serving, they are learning what the abundant life can truly look like. Jesus was our perfect example of what it means to serve, even down to washing people’s feet (John 13:1-20).

What now?

Here are a few things you can do to help this initiative be a fruitful one:

1.        Connect – If your student is looking to serve in the body, we would love to help them get connected to a ministry they are interested in. Please let us know how we can help your student, or even your whole family get involved!

2.         Pray – Pray for the students that are beginning to serve for the first time. It can be an adjustment for each of them, but we pray it will grow them to look more like Jesus.

3.        Encourage – If your student is considering serving, encourage them to try it out. Even if they didn’t like one service opportunity, there are many more opportunities in the church. Encourage them to keep trying things out!