2024 YOUTH LEADERSHIP PAPER

SERVICE UNTO GOD AND HUMANITY

Presented at the 2024 Youth Leadership Conference of Calabar Baptist Association

held at Gateway Baptist Church, Calabar on Saturday 20^th January, 2024

By

Rev. Tamunoibi. R. Miller (08037718335; 08141631469)

Pastor, First Baptist Church, Calabar

revrt.miller@yahoo.com; revrandymiller66@gmail.com

Preamble: It is indeed exciting that youths at the beginning of the year will organize such a leadership seminar to set themselves ready for their various leadership roles in their Churches, the Association and beyond. The topic Service unto God and Humanity is a central focus in leadership especially as it relates to Church leadership. It is not out of place to begin this discussion from the perspective of  leadership.

Who is a Leader: Bennis (1985:3) in his book “Leaders: The Strategies for Takin Charge” defined a leader as “one who commits people to action, who converts followers into leaders, and who may convert leaders into agents of change.”  

In the view of Means (1989:19), leaders infuse vision, motivation, direction, teaching, care, nurture, and inspiration to bring vitality and dynamism to the body.

Janvier and Thaba (1997) considers a Christian Leader as  “one who is passionate about God’s work and willing to lead others in fulfilling his kingdom here on earth”. The direction is towards God and people.

It is in this sense Burma (1997:25) say “a Christian leader is someone who is called by God to lead; leads with a Christlike like character; and demonstrates the functional competencies that permits effective leadership to take place”.

What is Leadership: Leadership according to Kauzes and Posner (1987:1) is “the art of getting others to want to do something you are convinced should be done”. As an art, imagination, thought and skill is required for the individual  in the use of special talents  or gifts with willingness, carefulness, and diligence by applying all the laws that govern that specific art.  Leadership as an art also combines ideas, people things, time, and faith to achieve predetermined objectives

Spiritual Leadership: Since we are talking about Sacred leadership, it can as well be seen as Spiritual Leadership which is the ability to influence others to achieving God’s agenda.

We need not forget that there is a relationship between leadership and followership. It is in this sense that followers desire to see or admire qualities like honesty, competence, looking -forward (proactiveness), credibility  and a clear sense of direction and , credibility. It is obvious therefore that leadership is not just occupying a position, not a personality and not lordship.

 What is Service: Service according to the English dictionary means: “to be useful to; to meet the needs of; to have a given purpose; to function for something or to do something”. It applies in every facet of life as long as we interact and relate with the secular and sacred society.  Someone therefore says, “service is the rent we pay for our existence on earth”

The call for service unto God and humanity can become a reality on the basis of the encounter of persons –“in Christ Experience. Christian experience does not depersonalize men and reduce them to a monotonous uniformity. It heightens every individual power they have. Paul in Galatians 2:20 said, “I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in me. The life I live now I live by the faith of the son of God”. It is this person with Christ -experience that will have a clear understanding that because he belongs to Christ, his motives must be the mind of Christ.

Service to God and Humanity: It is essential to quickly establish the fact that serving God is the whole duty of man. Scripture puts it very clearly, we should  “Fear God and obey His commands, for this is everyone’s duty.” (Ecclesiastes 12:13 LT). Apostle Paul, while ministering in Thessalonica, in one of his missionary journeys, stated: “for in Him we live and move and have our being…” (Acts 17:28). What this means is that we owe our very existence to God and serving Him is the least we can do.

Besides, the literal meaning for ministry and minister is service and servant respectively. It is therefore right to use servant and minister interchangeably while referring to those who work for God. What we need to get very clear is that every Christian is a servant/minister of God. Just as have been established above: every human being is created to serve God. If we take Ecclesiastes 12:13 from the Amplified Classic version of the Bible, it reads  “All has been heard; the end of the matter is: Fear God [revere and worship Him, knowing that He is] and keep His commandments, for this is the whole of man [the full, original purpose of his creation, the object of God’s providence, the root of character, the foundation of all happiness, the adjustment to all inharmonious circumstances and conditions under the sun] and the whole [duty] for every man” (with emphasis).

The truth must not be misconstrued, there is no difference between difference between worship and ministry/service. In the simplest way possible, everything a Christian does that gives glory to God is worship and service or to put it in another way, ministry is one of the ways we worship God or worship is the totality of our offering to God – our service is one of the activities that constitute our worship. So, we worship God with our service/ministry just as we do with our singing, offering/sacrifice, lifestyle, etc.

Service to God and humanity cannot be disconnected. In our service to God, He expects us to serve humanity. It is as simple as that. The reason Jesus Christ was so critical of the religious leaders of His day was that they failed in this very aspect of service to humanity. In fact, they did the very opposite thus, attracting the criticisms of Christ. Also, the reason Jesus Christ and the apostles spoke so much about love is that that is the foundation of our service and the basis upon which we shall be judged.

Matthew 25:31-46 narrates how the “Son of Man” will judge the people of the earth – “for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me.’ (vs 35-36 KJV). How we respond to people’s need for these things that appear as simple necessities will be the basis for our service/ministry and judgement.

Service to humanity, in essence, is the act of helping others without expecting anything in return. It transcends the boundaries of race, religion, and nationality, focusing solely on the alleviation of suffering and the promotion of well-being. This altruistic act can take many forms, such as volunteering, philanthropy, or simply being there for someone in need. There are others ways we serve; service through paid job; service through our family where every member of the family is cared for and the lifestyle of caring for others is inculcated in them; service through volunteering for your community and contributing to its development; through homes visitations to strengthen the weak; through hospital visitations to pray and give to the patients; through teaching or guiding a child in his academic lessons; through donating clothes and other material goods; by serving children in the church, school or organization; to mourn with those that mourn and giving them hope again; through sharing your skills and talents; through serving as a missionary; through working in a unit of your local church; using your creativity to help others etc.

Wrong Attitudes of Service

Wrong attitudes in service must be avoided. Some examples include: engaging in long discussions or chatting when you should be attending to people waiting for you; collecting bribes even in a service that you are paid monthly salary to offer whether as a civil servant, clerk, exams a  nd record officer, immigration officer etc; asking students for “tipping” before you process their certificate collection; asking pensioners for bribes before their papers will be moved to the next desks; employing your service to payback your enemies; unjust calibration of discharge pumps; the usage of cheap and inferior materials in construction works as a civil engineer; when a police officer extort people unlawfully; a lecturer demanding sex or money from students before they could pass examinations; giving your body to customers because you want to make sales or hit targets as an insurance or bank marketing agent; giving or demanding for immoral favour before an actress or actor will be given movie roles to act etc. Some of these attitudes in services had brought shame to our faith.

Some Lessons from the Texts:  1 Timothy 1:12, Genesis 41:46; 1 Samuel 16:21-22; Daniel.1:19

These passages present to us some lessons to learn as leaders. Some of the lessons are;

1. We are called to service, God gives us strength to serve (I can do all things), He expects  faithfulness in our services; and the is a time of accountability (judgement). These were the words of Paul to Timothy his son in the Lord. (1 Timothy 1:12).
2. God creates opportunity for us to serve as youths. At 30years Joseph became a Prime Minister in Egypt. He has demonstrated true service in faithfulness and holiness, so God lifted him. This is God’s expectations for us as young persons.  (Genesis 41:46).
3. We must serve God and humanity with the fear of God but with faith and confidence. David came into the service of Saul and because of his loyalty and trust in God, he was used by God to deliver Israel from the hands of Goliath. 1 Samual 16;2-22.
4. We must serve God in excellence and holiness like the Hebrew brothers who never defiled themselves with the king’s meat.  Thus Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah were outstanding among other leaders. (Daniel 1:19)

Be a Servant Leader:  It is essential to reecho  of the need for us to adopt the Servant Leadership model as demonstrated by Jesus Christ. A Christian’s goal is to be like Jesus. Servant leaders;

1. Have an authority of function not status.
2. Their leadership comes not from human effort, but from his relationship with God through Jesus Christ.
3. Their leadership finds it almost impossible to distinguish the small from the large service. True servants seems to be often drawn to the small service, not out of false modesty, but because they genuinely sees is as the important service.
4. They welcomes all opportunities of service.
5. They ministers simply and faithfully because there is a need.
6. Listen with tenderness and patience before acting.
7. Quietly and unpretentiously goes about caring for the needs of others.
8. Jesus as the supreme example in Matthew 20:26-28 made servanthood
9. The measure of greatness
10. He watched the disciples’ feet (John 3:12-16)
11. At the cross, servanthood reached its greatest place.

Conclusion: Be sure in your leadership, you

1. Impact lives, be productive.
2. Be proactive
3. THINK before you speak

T   = Is it True?

H   = Is it Helpful?

I    = Is it Inspiring?

N  = Is it Necessary?

K  = Is it Kind?

• Be the FAT Person God is looking for.

F     =    Faithfulness. To be faithful means to be dependable, loyal, trustworthy and stable. Faithfulness is an essential quality for anyone to be an effective worker or leader in the Kingdom of God. 1 Corinthians 4:2 says, “Moreover it is required in stewards that one be found faithful” (NKJV). God rewards faithfulness.

A    =   Availability: To be effective, a worker must be available to serve. “Then I heard the Lord asking, ‘Whom should I send as a messenger to my people? Who will go for us?’ And I said, ‘Lord, I’ll go! Send me’” (Isaiah 6:8 NLT). Service cannot be done without investing time – workers need time to pray and do the business of. Anyone who intends to serve must be ready to create time for it.

T    =   Trustworthy: God need those He can trust with the Kingdom business.

Finally, as you are serving, besides the many benefits you learn the followings;

1. Responsibility and Accountability. You grow to own up every action.
2. Problem-solving skills. You become proactive and help to solve problems.
3.  Confidence. You lead to confront challenges in leadership.
4. Healthy Relationships. You lean to work with others
5.  Find mentors. You grow through their examples
6. Realize their gifts and/or talents. You maximise your giftedness
7.  Encouraged to lead. You are ready the take challenges to lead
8.  Put others before themselves/ Selfless life
9. Make new friends and Relationships
10.  They become an example for other.
11. Growing in Faith