Last week, we reflected on the calling to love boldly. Jesus told the disciples:
“By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
— John 13:35
And in 1 John, we are reminded that love begins not with us, but with God:
“Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God… for God is love.”
— 1 John 4:7–8
Today, we move one step further.
Because love is not meant to remain abstract or invisible. Love takes shape through service.
That brings us to the Gospel reading from Mark 10. James and John are thinking about greatness the way people often still think about it today — positions of honor, influence, and importance. They want to know who will sit closest to power when Christ comes into glory.
But Jesus completely turns their understanding upside down:
“You know that among the Gentiles those whom they recognize as rulers lord it over them… But it is not so among you.”
— Mark 10:42–43
The world often measures greatness by status, authority, and how many people serve you. But Jesus says greatness in the kingdom of God looks very different:
“Whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant.”
— Mark 10:43
Then Jesus goes even further:
“For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
— Mark 10:45
Jesus does not simply teach service as a moral lesson. Jesus forms a community shaped by service — a people whose lives reflect the self-giving love of Christ.
The apostle Paul carries that same vision into the life of the early church. Writing to the Galatians, Paul reminds believers that freedom in Christ is not freedom for selfishness or self-interest. It is freedom directed toward love, service, and the good of others.
Christian Freedom Is Freedom to Love
Paul writes:
“For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence, but through love become slaves to one another.”
— Galatians 5:13
At first glance, those ideas seem contradictory. How can someone be free and also a servant?
But Paul is describing something essential about the Christian life. The freedom Christ gives is not selfish independence. It is not freedom to live only for ourselves. It is not freedom from responsibility to others.
Christian freedom is not self-protection, self-importance, or separation from the needs of the people around us. Instead, freedom in Christ becomes the ability to love rightly.
Before grace changes us, people often become trapped by fear, pride, resentment, selfishness, or the constant need to protect themselves. Christ frees us from that bondage so that we can finally live differently — free to love, free to serve, free to care about someone besides ourselves.
That is why Paul says:
“Through love become slaves to one another.”
— Galatians 5:13
Not because Christians lose dignity or worth, but because love willingly gives itself for the good of another person.
Jesus says greatness is found in becoming a servant. Paul says freedom finds its fulfillment in serving one another through love. Both point toward the same truth: life in Christ turns people outward.
The church, then, does not exist merely for itself. It is not simply a community focused on comfort, survival, or preservation. The church exists to participate in the mission of Christ in the world — and that mission always moves toward love expressed through service.
Jesus Leads Through Servanthood
Everything Paul says about service is grounded in the life of Jesus.
“For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve…”
— Mark 10:45
That sentence would have sounded surprising to the disciples. The title “Son of Man” is connected to glory, authority, and kingship in Daniel 7. Yet Jesus describes that ruler not as someone demanding service, but as someone giving himself away for others.
This is the great reversal at the heart of the gospel:
- The King becomes a servant.
- The Lord kneels to wash feet.
- The Savior gives his life for others.
Throughout the Gospels, this pattern appears again and again. Jesus healed the sick, fed the hungry, welcomed outsiders, and showed compassion to those carrying grief, shame, or suffering. Jesus consistently moved toward human need rather than away from it.
And ultimately, Jesus gave himself fully on the cross.
Christian service, then, is never simply about being helpful or nice. Service flows from the very character of Christ. The cross reveals that the heart of God is self-giving love.
If the church belongs to Christ, then the life of the church must reflect the life of Christ. Service is not secondary to discipleship — it is one of its clearest expressions.
Joyful Service Is the Life of the Church
When we hear the phrase serve joyfully, it is important to understand what Christian joy means.
Joy does not mean pretending service is always easy. Serving others can be tiring. Compassion can be costly. Love sometimes asks us to carry burdens that are heavy.
Jesus certainly never treated service as shallow optimism or constant cheerfulness. The road to the cross reminds us otherwise.
But Christian joy comes from something deeper. Joy comes from knowing our lives are participating in the work of God.
There is deep meaning in becoming part of something larger than ourselves — in knowing that through simple acts of mercy, compassion, and faithfulness, Christ is still at work in the world.
This has always been part of the Methodist movement. John Wesley believed faith could never remain private or inward-focused. Grace was meant to move outward through acts of mercy and service.
Early Methodists:
- cared for the poor,
- visited prisoners,
- supported education for children,
- organized relief for struggling communities,
- and cared for people society often overlooked.
They did not believe service earned salvation. Rather, they believed transformed hearts naturally produce transformed lives.
Love moves outward.
Connection Multiplies Mission
A single congregation can do meaningful ministry. Every week, churches worship, pray, teach, care for people, and serve their communities in important ways.
But some needs are bigger than one church alone.
That is why connection matters.
When churches work together, ministry expands. Together, churches can respond after disasters, support pastors and leaders, care for people in need, and participate in mission work across the world.
Connection is not just about organization. It is the church serving together as the Body of Christ.
This is one of the gifts of the Methodist tradition: churches pray together, serve together, and share in Christ’s mission together.
Gatherings like Annual Conference remind us that we are part of a wider movement of grace, compassion, and service in the world.
The Church Follows a Servant Savior
Annual Conference is more than reports, schedules, and voting. At its heart, it is the church gathering together:
- to worship,
- to pray,
- to discern where God is leading,
- to strengthen ministry,
- and to celebrate the ways Christ is already at work among God’s people.
It is one of the places where the connectional nature of the church becomes visible.
Churches come together not simply to manage an institution, but to support a shared mission that no single congregation could sustain alone.
Together, the church coordinates ministries of compassion, leadership development, disaster response, outreach, and mission across many communities.
And local congregations are already part of that work — through prayer, generosity, service, and participation in the life of the church.
That is part of what it means to be connected in Christ.
We do not serve alone.
We serve together as the Body of Christ in the world.
Serving in Ordinary Ways
At the center of everything we have heard today are these words from Jesus:
“The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve.”
— Mark 10:45
That is the pattern Christ gives to the church:
not power for its own sake,
not status or self-importance,
but lives shaped by humility, compassion, and self-giving love.
The church follows Christ by serving others. And we are connected not simply for organization or institutional maintenance, but for mission.
Together, the church can serve farther and more faithfully than any one congregation could alone.
Together:
- we respond to suffering,
- we support ministry,
- and we carry the love of Christ into the world.
And just as importantly, we serve in the ordinary places of everyday life:
through kindness,
through generosity,
through compassion,
through burdens shared and hope offered.
When the church lives this way, something beautiful happens:
Christ becomes visible.
Compassion reaches outward.
And the world catches a glimpse of the kingdom of God.
May we continue growing as a people who love boldly, serve joyfully, and follow faithfully the One who came not to be served, but to serve.
Pieces of the Puzzle 