Serving at Providence

At Providence Church believers should be serving the kingdom in three areas: The body, the community, and internationally.  

What does serving look like in these three areas?

Serving the Body

Serving the body can be anything from working the nursery on Sundays, to cleaning the building during the week. Serving the body should be done on a consistent basis or, in other words, week in and week out. These are the ministry teams that help our church function on a weekly basis. Without serving the body continually, the body won’t function as it is supposed to. We see this in the following verses.

In Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. (Romans 12:5)

Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it. (1 Corinthians 12:27)

The illustration Paul gives us in 1 Corinthians is that we are all apart of a body. If one part is not functioning properly, the whole body doesn’t function properly. It would be like the kidney saying, “I’m tired of cleaning up all the time. Get someone else to do it.” This would cause the body to suffer or die, just as if people in the church weren’t serving.

Serving the Community

Serving the community are acts of service that demonstrate God’s love and glory to our surrounding community of non-believers. Some examples of this at Providence are our After School Mentoring program, Gift Card Benevolence, Adopt-a-Highway, etc. We are to be an example to our community and this is seen in the following verse.

You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden; nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven. (Matthew 5:14-16)

At Providence, we serve the community individually in our own daily lives and through small groups. You should be a light to all who are around you daily, but we also get together in groups every couple of weeks. We also serve our community through church wide community service projects such as our Tools for Schools drive.

Serving Internationally

Serving internationally is done through a couple of ways at Providence.  It can be done through annual mission trips, supporting a long-term missionary, or even through programs such as Compassion International. We get the support for serving internationally from The Great Commission.