What can you offer?

 “We loved you so much that we shared with you not only God’s Good News but our own lives, too.” ~ 1 Thessalonians 2:8

Last week, I mentioned how this verse is a perfect fit for our current focus to step up and personally getting involved in your home, your church and your community. 

So after looking at the home last week, today, let’s look at what this means for your church.

There is a prevailing view of the local church that does nothing good for the church worldwide.  It actually brings great harm to the local church.  What is this view?

What can a church offer me and my family?

Why is this so detrimental?  The danger is that such a view makes one think the church is here to meet me and my family’s needs.  If every person came into church with the thought, “what can this church offer me?”  Then nothing would ever be offered.  This is actually the underlining issue behind most failed marriages. 

If a husband begins to think his bride is not meeting his needs, he will begin to get frustrated, perhaps angry and resentful to his bride and if left unchecked will likely go find a way or his needs to be met elsewhere by something or someone.  The same is true when a bride starts saying, “he doesn’t provide what I need.”

In marriage, God is the one who is the provider, not your spouse.  The beauty of His provision is that He has designed it so He can use the husband for his bride’s needs and the bride for her husband’s needs.

So what’s this got to do with church?

The proper way of viewing a church is not “what can this church offer me?” but rather “what can I offer this church?”

And believe me, you offer quite a lot for any church.  And at New Life, we know that God has provided what we need through each of you that calls New Life home. 

At New Life, when it comes to families, we desire to partner with parents, serve families, and impact kids’ lives, but that is not done without the amazing people who step up to personally get involved.  These are people who have decided to ask themselves, “what can I offer New Life?”  As a result, parents are partnered with, families (including their own) are served and kids’ lives are impacted.

When you go to church thinking, “what can I offer this church?” you go with a mentality that is seen all throughout the New Testament.  There are some 50-60 verses that use either “one another” or “each other” to describe how those in church work together.

So as you ask yourself, “what can I offer this church?”  and then go offer it to those who lead and serve you at your church.  At New Life, we can help show you ways you can personally step up and get involved.  There is no better opportunity than on Sunday, May 22^nd at our Taste of Ministry.  There you will see first-hand the areas of ministry where you can offer what you have and you can choose to step up and get involved.