When I was 15 years old, I began serving in my church. At the time, I just thought it would be fun and I could possibly get a few sweet babysitting gigs from the deal. What really happened was that God used that experience to call me into full time vocational ministry, specifically Children’s Ministry. I’ve been so blessed to get to serve children and their families for over 3 decades now.

God may not be calling you to the exact same thing or in the exact same way that He did me. All of us are unique and God’s calling for us is unique too. But He is calling you to something and whatever that is, often times it begins with a simple act of obedience to serve. When I think about serving in the church, here is what I know: serving is an act of worship to Jesus, you get to be part of seeing lives changed, Jesus gives you life-long friendships, and you get to experience His miraculous works.

The Bible tells us in Mark 10:45: “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and give His life as a ransom to many.” We are called to model Jesus in this way. 

I want you to hear from one of our amazing River Valley Children’s Ministry serve team members (Karyn Cummer) and how God has blessed her life by serving in the church: 

“I have had the pleasure of working in the RV Kids nursery for 2 years now. It has seriously been the highlight of my week the whole time. I love getting to love on those babies and their parents. It’s also tons of fun to catch up with other nursery serve team members each Sunday. It has been such a joy to see these tiny babies learn and grow and master new stills…and eventually move on to the toddler class.”

There are so many opportunities, across multiple ministry departments, to serve at River Valley like Karyn does. We want you to find the place where you can use your unique gifts that God has given you. We want you to experience the blessing of serving the Lord by serving others. We want you to realize that you will be more connected with God and more connected with His people when you serve. Taking this step is often a stretch beyond our comfort zone. It’s supposed to be challenging, to some degree. But we want to help as much as we can.

I want to encourage you to mark your calendars for ServeLink on Sunday, September 10, immediately after each service. We are going to have leaders available in the lobby to help you find a place to serve in the church. I love you church family! It’s an honor to serve Jesus with you!