WONDERFUL OPPORTUNITIES TO SERVE JESUS AND HIS CHURCH
How would you like the opportunity to spend an hour on Sunday mornings helping a high school senior grapple with their Biblical faith as they prepare to launch out into college? Or help a 3rd grader act out the story of David and Goliath, and then explain how they can access that same faith of David to face their own scary giants around Leon County? Or be the warm smiling face that receives a fussy preschooler, so a mom can enjoy a peaceful time of Bible Study and worship? Or even be that wonderful servant of Jesus that takes on an awkward and fidgety group of 7th grade boys, only to pass them on a few months later as a close knit group of young men who love Jesus?
These are not ‘manufactured’ opportunities! Opportunities like these happen every Sunday morning on the campus of FBCTLH. And we need people like you! Servants of Jesus to be the caring adults! Loving adults to be a stable caring presence in the lives of preschoolers, children, and youth! Research has shown that: Children and adolescents who have formal and informal ‘mentor-like’ relationships with someone outside the home (that would be ‘you’ in SMBS) are less likely to have externalizing behavior problems (like bullying) and internalizing problems (like depression). And, when you add that the ‘mentor’ is teaching these young people Biblical truth: It’s a win-win all the way around! (Do you want to gripe about the world or make a real impact??)
We also have opportunities to serve within our Adult SMBS ministry! It’s always a good time to begin some new Adult SMBS groups, and the first step in the process is identifying folks who would like to help me lead the effort and begin some new studies! You do realize that ‘New SMBS’ groups grow faster and deeper than ‘Established SMBS’ groups…
Paul writes to the church in Ephesus, that Jesus himself gave to church leaders and teachers the task of: “equipping his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.” (Ephesians 4:12-13 NIV)
My question is: are we a ‘sitting church’ or a ‘serving church?’ And, if we’re a ‘serving church,’ how long is it appropriate to sit in an Adult SMBS group before one steps out to serve others in SMBS? The way I read what Paul wrote to Ephesus, if we want to ‘reach unity’ and ‘have the knowledge of the Son of God’ and ‘obtain the whole measure of the fullness of Christ…’ Well, that’s not going to happen while we continually sit in an Adult SMBS group… Those ideals will happen when we begin serving!
I look forward to seeing you step up and step out to serve in SMBS! You’ll grow more than you ever imagined!
— John Rice