Starting tomorrow - A one-week bible study about what service means, and how we get on with it

Introduction

We should be experts in service. In the UK, virtually none of us are self-sufficient – we rely on other people to meet our basic needs such as growing our food, building us a place to live, providing clean water to drink, etc. We pay for these things with the money we make serving others, doing things they are willing to pay for – things which meet their needs and wants. We can live because we can serve.

The quality of service we receive has a massive effect on us. Service which meets our needs but also exceeds our expectations makes us feel good for lots of reasons. Great service can put us in a good mood, making us feel loved, valued and understood – it doesn’t just fulfil what we wanted, it meets needs we might have forgotten we had. We want to tell others about great service. So if we want to do the best job we can for our employers, we need to provide great service to our customers, who will then promote our business to others, and keep us in a job.

Yet although service is so important to us, we know we’re not all brilliant at it. We all have experiences of receiving poor service and, if we’re honest, we’ve probably got experience of giving poor service too. Sometimes we don’t feel like giving our best, other times we try but don’t seem to satisfy the person we want to serve. Poor service, given or received, can make us feel terrible because we know how it can have the exact opposite effect of great service – it can make others angry, attract complaints, difficulty and stress, and turn customers into active campaigners against us, putting other people off dealing with us, and putting our jobs at risk.

Service is important for more than just keeping our jobs. As followers of Christ, we need to remember that we live and work for God. To do the best job we can for him, we need to provide great service not just to our customers, but to our fellow employees, our friends and family, and the other people around us. Whatever our position at work – from top boss to newest apprentice – service is what we’re meant to do. Jesus set the example for us – he is the “servant king”, the world’s best leader and the world’s greatest servant. Commitment to serving the people around us is obedience to God, following Jesus’ example, and opens the way for us to build trust, develop relationships, practice using the gifts God has given us and find the purpose, satisfaction and happiness God intends for us. It also happens to be good business!

For these reasons and more, there is nothing more important for us to master at work than the art of service. This is why we will spend this final week of “Mission To Work” studying God’s word on service, what we should aim for in great service, and how to get on with it.

I hope it will leave you with a desire to serve, and explore further how to be a great servant.

Day 1 – We need to know who we are serving
Day 2 – We need God’s heart for service
Day 3 – We need to know what people need
Day 4 – We need to meet people’s needs
Day 5 – We need to rely on God and give him the credit

Bern Leckie