Reflections on Service Part 4

By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another. (John 13:35)

Happy Thursday Good Shepherd! I pray that your Thursday is blessed and that you are growing in holiness and love for Christ. As we’ve been discussing service lately, it feels like the perfect time to lean into one of the most important reasons for serving in the church. When people talk about first impressions of a church, one of the first things to catch someone’s attention is the love, or lack thereof, that they experience. Doctrine is important. The Sacraments are important. Still, we can easily see Saint Paul saying something like “Yes this liturgy is beautiful and the words are right, but without love do you really think it matters?” Love is one of the key foundations of the church. When we offer up our time, talents, and energy to the church, we are expressing love in a tangible way. When we go out of our way to greet visitors and fellowship with one another, we are expressing love in more than just kumbaya slogans. 


As the world becomes more fragmented and digitized, true community can seem impossible to find. You can look at the stats and see loneliness, depression, and any number of social ills increasing as society begins to lose all of its roots. Thankfully, Christ has offered us a place with roots too deep for man’s activities to disrupt. When we approach our time in the church as a place to exercise genuine love for one another, we can be a refuge in the face of a world so conditioned for apathy. This doesn’t mean that I want us to swarm guests and visitors with an overly corny and faux love, but it does mean that we need to take a real interest in one another and our body. People will pick up on the energy that we give whether we want them to or not. Let us serve with love. Let us worship with love. Let us engage with one another in love. If we do these things, they will know that we are His disciples, and our church body will be filled to the brim with Christ’s holy presence. God bless you all, and go forth with love today and everyday in your service to the Lord. 

Your Brother in Christ, 
Ashton Hutchinson