Unpacking Our Mission Statement: First instalment - SERVICE

Mission: To serve the people of the Comox Valley, introducing them to Jesus Christ, welcoming them into His family, equipping them to follow Christ's example, and loving Him with all that we are.

Jesus’ teaching can be summarized by two statements: the Great Commandment and the Great Commission.

Great Commandment:
Mark 12:29-32 (New International Version)
29"The most important one," answered Jesus, "is this: 'Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ 31The second is this: 'Love your neighbor as yourself. 'There is no commandment greater than these."
Great Commission:
Matthew 28:19-20 (New International Version)
19Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."
From the Great Commandment we get the purposes of service (love your neighbour as yourself) and worship (love the Lord with all your heart, soul, mind and strength); from the Great Commission we get the other three purposes: evangelism (make disciples), fellowship (incorporation into the family of God through Baptism), and discipleship, (teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you). All that Jesus intended his church to be and do can be distilled into these five purposes. Of course, different churches might describe them differently or major on some more than others. However, balanced, authentic Christianity encompasses these five purposes: service, evangelism, fellowship, discipleship and worship (in the order found in our Mission Statement, though worship is at the heart of all that we do, as the most important of these purposes).
First Instalment
Today we talk about service: Amongst Christian churches there is a tendency to specialize: either emphasis spirituality (eg worship) or social action (eg the liberation theologians or social gospel movement). It is natural for some organizations’ or individuals‘ gifting to be weighted more in one direction or the other. However, biblically-faithful Christianity strives to hold all these purposes together. The Christian faith cannot be reduced to social action or good works. They are the practical out-working of the life of faith. Jesus is our example: the limitless demand of the crowds for miracles of healing and food-multiplication could have occupied all his time. He used his miracles as illustrations for his teaching about the Kingdom of God. Although he served to the point of exhaustion at times, he also left the crowds to concentrate on training his 12 disciples, and took time out to pray alone as well as going to the synagogue or temple for worship.

COOL’s Mission: To serve the people of the Comox Valley, introducing them to Jesus Christ, welcoming them into His family, equipping them to follow Christ's example, and loving Him with all that we are.

Readings: Micah 6:6-8, Philippians 2:2-13, John 13:1-17, Luke 22:24-27. Let us look at the example of Jesus.


1. Jesus knew the SOURCE of his authority and power. That is why he spent so much time in prayer, before every major decision and when most exhausted from ministry.
2. Jesus did not let the world or culture of his day SET his agenda. He refused to let them force him into the role of revolutionary or earthly king in rebellion against Rome. The church should likewise be involved in social justice issues without allowing the political special interest groups to determine what the church’s position should be.
3. Jesus left an example to follow in his STEPS.

• Jesus served without self-pity: he knew he was about to be betrayed, yet he washed Judas’s feet along with the others; he knew he was about to die for them yet he put their needs first. He continued to teach them despite his own impending suffering. He modelled a new kind of leadership: servant-leadership. Christian service means serving when you’d rather not. When it is inconvenient.
• Jesus served despite the unworthiness of his disciples. Judas would betray him. Peter would deny him. The others would abandon him. He did not ask them to clean up their act or to fully understand his teaching before he would serve them. He did not ask them to prove themselves worthy of his service. They did not earn it. Christian service means loving the unlovely, as God has loved us.
• Jesus served without arrogance. He had been God from all eternity, yet he humbled himself to take on the role of the most menial slave and to die the most degrading death Rome inflicted on slaves and traitors. Christian service means serving with humility but without condescension.


One of the first things the early church did after Pentecost was to select a group of seven men to look after the needs of the Greek-speaking widows as they were being neglected by the Hebrew Christians (Acts 6:1-6). From this arose the order of deacons or the diaconate. Deacon or diakonos means servant. Diakonia means service. These words are used in multiple occasions in the New Testament, sometimes in a non-official sense, sometimes of government officials (much in the same way we speak of government Ministers in Cabinet), sometimes the apostles called themselves deacons. The word is occasionally used of Christ himself. Every presbyter or bishop first has to be a deacon; this emphasises the service aspect of Christian ministry. There was no social welfare in the first century: it was up to the family or the church to look after the poor or those who had nobody to support them. Orders of virgins and widows, deacons and deaconesses were enrolled to serve the needs of church members and the poor. The qualifications for deacons were very similar to those required for bishops (1 Timothy 3), indicating that the church did not regard service to be a secondary matter for those who were less spiritual.

There was a division of labour according to vocation and gifting: the apostles’ role was chiefly to teach the faith, start new churches and oversee them, as is the role of their successors, the bishops. The deacons chiefly had the role of looking after the material needs of the believers. Nevertheless, as the church developed, deacons also had liturgical and teaching roles. Stephen was the first martyr. Phillip was an evangelist as well as a deacon. The apostles also were concerned for the well-being of the poor: Paul and his closest assistants raised money from amongst the other churches to help aid the poor in Jerusalem during a famine, for example. We cannot use the excuse that because our gifting is washing dishes we don’t need to share our faith with our friends and neighbours, or, that because we are gifted at preaching we have no responsibility to the poor or suffering.

Throughout history practical service has been part of the ministry of the church. Christians were known for taking in orphaned or abandoned children. Some sold themselves into slavery to share the gospel with slaves or risked leprosy to minister to lepers. Monastic orders founded the first hospices or hospitals. The evangelical revival in the Church of England during the 18th and 19th centuries was accompanied by an outpouring of concern for social issues such as child labour, factory conditions, prison reform, alcoholism and slavery. It was evangelical Christians who brought about the end of slavery within the British Empire. The 19th century missionary movement combined educational and medical missions alongside preaching the gospel. Unfortunately, during the 20th century, social concern and faithfulness to scripture tended to be separated as what used to be called the mainline churches promoted social justice while fundamentalist churches concentrated on the evangelism and doctrinal purity. This is a false dichotomy.

We serve because the Father expects it, the Son modelled it and the Spirit equips us for it.

How should we serve? We can serve with our time, talents and treasure. This coming week think about how you could use your time, your talents or your treasure to serve others in Christ’s name. He said even a gift of cold water in his name is as though we did it for him.

Examples of how COOL members serve:
Africa Community Technical Services, a non-profit which provides clean water and other development projects in Africa.
Compassion: sponsoring needy children in the third world.
Habitat for Humanity: building houses for people who could not otherwise afford them.
L’Arche: friendship in community for mentally challenged adults.
Order of St Luke: healing prayer.
Sonshine Lunch-club soup kitchen.
St Joseph’s Hospital: healthcare for the community.
Transplant Society
Tutoring
Visiting Extended Care Unit
Youth Unlimited.


Finally, Pope Benedict is reported to have said that the greatest service one can do for someone is to introduce them to Jesus Christ. Next time we shall look at how to do that.

Acknowledgements: To Rick Warren, author of Purpose Driven Church and Purpose Driven Life and to Timothy Keller, author of Ministries of Mercy, The Call of the Jericho Road.