Page 4 - The Standard Volume 1

WHAT SERVANTHOOD IS NOT
Servanthood is defined as a person who performs duties for others especially a person employed in a house on domestic duties or as a personal attendant. Duties may be performed however, the servanthood we’re talking about is not an act. Servanthood from a cross perspective is a genuine love which comes from within. It’s not like an actor who plays a role in a movie; they might look wonderful on screen, but when you see pictures of them at a red carpet event you wonder, Wow, what happened to them? In like manner, some people look good in church, but not so good outside of church. We have to graduate from being actors to being persons who have genuine love that comes from within.
Servanthood is also not a show. It is not a production where we say, “Lights! Camera! Love people!” No, servanthood is the lifestyle of a servant, but unfortunately some people do not make very good servants.
Servanthood is definitely not a game. It is for serious-minded, mature persons who love people. Church is in the business of LOVE. The Bible says in the beginning of John 3:16, “For God so loved...”. The love business requires you to have one characteristic that will carry you through for
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the rest of your life. I learned it from a man who has served the same Pastor for close to thirty years because he decided one thing was going to be apparent in his life: he was not going to be offended.
Love does not get offended, but if you love people, you will have many opportunities to be offended! At some point in life, somebody is going to say something that you don’t like!
Immature people don’t last in serving because after a while, servanthood will wear on your body, it will wear on your mind, and it will tax your time. If life is all about you, you will eventually quit. Yet, it’s easy for it to not be about you. How? Because Jesus did not make life about Him in order for life to be about you.
WHAT SERVANTHOOD IS
Servanthood from a Cross Perspective is the bearing of the cross of Jesus Christ, to present Him and His ways to His Body and the lost, to be used by Him as His Spirit leads, and to aid others according to His will.
If you are the sound person in your church and you brought a microphone with new batteries to the front of the Sanctuary so someone singing can continue to be heard by all, you are bearing your cross. By you
Archbishop Wayne R. Felton
bringing the mic up to the front, you kept the singer in their realm and bore the cross by taking the time to change the batteries and bring it to them. It sounds so simple, yet it kept them from having to stop and deal with it themselves.
The Scriptures clearly show us the dynamic parallel between bearing your cross and servanthood. When everyone doesn’t bear their cross, the Kingdom of God suffers.
WHAT DID JESUS HAVE TO SAY
There are times when I hear people complain about their servanthood responsibility. The Bible tells us Jesus was despised and rejected and yet He opened not His mouth (Isaiah 53:3, 7). We must learn how to serve and yet remain quiet.
Minnesota winters sometimes require snow and ice to be removed off of a car’s windshield so one can see to drive. If you clean off the snow and ice from someone’s car and it’s only five degrees outside, it makes no sense to come back inside and complain about how cold it is. The very fact that your hands got cold is the “cross you bore” to present the love of Jesus and His ways to that person whose car you cleared off.
It is the way of Jesus to help elderly people
A Cross Perspective of Servanthood