Family

really serving

kevinhaglund Leave a comment

Suzanne and I and our kids had the opportunity to do a service project this past Saturday, Valentine’s Day. It was an incredible experience! We served alongside a number of our friends who are starting browns mill church with us. The day was a bit of a struggle for some of us more “take charge” personalities. I had to keep reminding myself that my job for the day was that of servant and servants don’t have an agenda!

I’ve seen some churches do service projects and while they did actually help people, it seemed to be more of a publicity stunt to garner more buzz about their church. One church I visited promoted a 30 day “love our community” campaign. They did some extraordinary acts of service, captured it on video and then came back to their auditorium and showed everybody the footage.

A few days before our service project, I was reading through Matthew 6: “Be careful not to do your ‘acts of righteousness’ in front of others, to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven. So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. Then you Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.”

The problem is, we want to leverage our serving opportunities. We think, “If people see us serving, they will see that we really care about people and come to one of our services and give their lives to Christ.” We have it backwards. What if our acts of service are not a means to an end, but rather an end in themselves. Maybe our acts of service are for our ultimate good and not for others. When we really serve, we are humbling ourselves, turning over the control to someone else–we have no agenda other than what is given to us. If we serve with our own agenda, that is not at all the case. When was the last time you served with no agenda?

upside down Christmas

kevinhaglund Leave a comment

First, my family and I wish everyone a very Merry Christmas. God has blessed us richly with such wonderful family and friends. We look forward to spending time with many of you during the next few weeks.

In many ways, this has been an upside down Christmas so far. Since I left my position at Dogwood Church on December 5th, I have been without a regular daily routine and without a weekly worship service to plan and lead. I have to admit that, in some aspects, it has been nice, however, on Christmas Eve, it was a little depressing for me to be an observer instead of the leader of a Christmas Eve service.

The family and I attended a Christmas Eve service at a nearby church and during the service, I was struck with a thought. We, in local church ministry, have Christmas upside down. We often spend lots of money making the auditorium or sanctuary look beautiful, we spend lots of time programming the service complete with music, multimedia, drama and a compelling Christmas message. In short, we put on a huge show in the name of celebrating the birth of Christ–not that there’s anything wrong with that (to borrow a line from Seinfeld).

The funny thing is that when Jesus was born, it was anything but a show. The shepherds who happened to be the outcast of society were the only ones who got a show from the heavenly host and it scared the fire out of them! The stinky stable with its incarnational events unfolding inside was anything but a show and those in attendance probably didn’t leave commenting about what a great experience they had–the sights, the sounds, the message, etc. They left in wonder and amazement at having been in the presence of the King of Kings.

During this Christmas season, I challenge you to remember that, yes, we are celebrating Christ’s birth. But more than that, we are celebrating the fact that God Himself left heaven and put on our damaged and weak skin in order to demonstrate His love for us. If He did this for us, how can we possibly refuse to leave our “heavenly realm”–our Christian protective bubble to put ourselves in the dark and damaged world of those who are still walking in darkness. It is only when Christians decide to live like Jesus and to lead others to do the same that we will find fulfillment and purpose in our identity as Christ followers. That is what God has called us to do and that is what we intend to accomplish through browns mill church.