SERIES OVERVIEW
Pastor Greg is teaching a seven-part Wednesday night series on the seven core values of our church and all of his life ministry.
This week is Core Value #4: Strategic Service/Meaningful Ministry
MESSAGE NOTES
Mana’o (Hawaiian)
Refers to Thoughts, Beliefs, Opinions, Core Values
Lōkahi (Hawaiian)
Harmony, Cooperation, Collaboration, Unity, Teamwork. It seeks the harmony of bringing people to an agreement. It seeks a spirit of cooperation or collaboration. It’s all about an experience of unity and teamwork.
Mana’o Lōkahi: Shared core values that we can have as brothers and sisters in Christ and especially as we function here as Waikoloa Community Church.
Before we get to STRATEGIC Service, let’s just talk about Service in general.
Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus … – Philippians 2:3-5 (NASB)
God calls us to have a Servant’s Heart. Having a servant’s heart is about humbly jumping in whenever and wherever there is a need. But I want to take it a step further and talk about STRATEGIC Service, which a local church needs to incorporate as a core value.
STRATEGIC SERVICE
In the local church, Strategic Service is more than just serving. It is serving as part of a specific strategy, part of a vision, part of plan, designed to most effectively spread the Gospel and lead others to Christ. All of us praying: “God, in light of what You have called us, as a church, to accomplish CORPORATELY, what do you need me to do INDIVIDUALLY?”
Now at this time while the disciples were increasing in number, a complaint arose on the part of the Hellenistic Jews against the native Hebrews, because their widows were being overlooked in the daily serving of food. ~ Acts 6:1
So the twelve summoned the congregation of the disciples [all the disciples, all the followers of Jesus – not just the original twelve] and said, “It is not desirable for us to neglect the word of God in order to serve tables.” ~ Acts 6:2
They made a Strategic Leadership Decision.
Therefore, brethren, select from among you seven men of good reputation, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we may put in charge of this task. 4 But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.” ~ Acts 6:3-4
The statement found approval with the whole congregation; and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, and Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas and Nicolas, a proselyte from Antioch. And these they brought before the apostles; and after praying, they laid their hands on them. ~ Acts 6:5-6
The word of God kept on spreading; and the number of the disciples continued to increase greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests were becoming obedient to the faith. – ACTS 6:7 (NASB)
MEANINGFUL MINISTRY: Your God-designed place of service in the local church where you can be both fruitful and fulfilled. (You are good at it and you love doing it.)
God has specifically designed each one of us for a certain kind of meaningful ministry at our local church. This is what we call our God-given S.H.A.P.E. for ministry.
Spiritual Gifts: The New Testament talks about a lot of different spiritual gifts. As a Spirit-filled Christian, you have AT LEAST one of them.
Heart: Or we could say passion.We all are wired differently by God. We aren’t all passionate about the same things.
Abilities: We all have thousands of different abilities.
Personality: Some of us our very outgoing. Some of us are shy and backward. Some of us are super structured. Other’s organize in piles. Some of us make decisions from our emotions. Others make all their decisions logically. Some of us have to really analyze things carefully from every angle before we make a decision. Others of us prefer to make decisions from the gut.
Experiences: We all have thousands of experience God has allowed us to go through, or in some cases, guided us through. We have good experiences and bad experiences. Happy and sad experiences. Painful experiences. Vocational, relational, financial, educational experiences. We learned something from every single one.
Put it all together, your specific, unique mix and levels of spiritual gifts, heart, abilities, personality and experiences, is unlike anyone else’s specific SHAPE in the whole world. God purposefully crafted, carved, sculpted, formed, allowed these things to happen in your life, shaped you that way, so that you would be exactly the person you are today. He’s got a special place where ONLY YOU FIT in His grand puzzle. If you don’t fill your place, no one else can do it. You are needed in the local church. You are needed in the Body of Christ.