Tuesday, October 2, 2007

The perks of service

Sunday evening was really cool. I say it all the time, but it's true: baptism is my favorite thing that we do at Freedom! Thanks to Lance and Amanda for allowing us to use SSI for our baptism party once again. If you couldn't be there, be sure not to miss the next one.

I had a couple of different conversations this weekend that reminded me of something that I wanted to share with you. I talked to a friend who has been going through some pretty difficult times recently. He volunteers tons of his time in many ministries, one is specifically dedicated to helping young men grow into leaders. He told me about how he spent an extended period of time serving in that capacity recently and how blessed he was by God in doing that. Think about that, he put in a lot of time and hard work to serve these young men, yet he was the one who received a much needed blessing. That conversation along with a couple of others reminded me of this fact: when we take time to serve God by serving others we get to be a blessing to those people, but we also receive a double blessing! It's one of those things about God that doesn't seem like it makes sense, but it always works out that way.

There's another benefit to serving especially in regards to your connection with Freedom. One of things we have learned since beginning Freedom is that serving along side someone is a great way to develop relationships. When people tell me that they need to develop more friendships at Freedom I always encourage them to find a place to serve. Through that type of action you have a chance to get to know a whole new group of people.

2 comments:

Chip Reeves said...

I blogged about perks, too, but it was about two church members who gave me fresh shrimp!
You're right about that service thing also.

Cliff Marshall said...

Chip, you're making my mouth water. We don't get fresh shrimp up here so eat a pound or two for me!