Stephanie | Serving

I've been coming across for about 1- years. I serve in the cafe and I've been doing that for about 5. I got plugged into serving at Crosspoint through a Sunday where they had cards to indicate where you were interested in serving. I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to commit long-term but I just wanted to give it a try.

How I feel about serving now is very different than how I felt about it when I first started. 

When I first started serving, I think I was doing it more because because of that card and I thought, “Okay, I'm making excuses for not volunteering at the church and I need to volunteer somewhere because that's what you're supposed to do.” 

Where I am now, every time I serve - whether it is in the Cafe or Homeless Serve or the CWOP dinners… I do those things because every single time I do, I feel a little closer to God. It's like listening to worship music because you get that connection… for me, being in that parking lot at homeless serve, I get that connection. Serving in the Cafe, I get that connection.

What I would say to encourage someone who is interested in serving but might not feel that they have enough time or they have too much stress is to just try it. Just to see what it's like.

Once you are serving others, you get out of yourself, you get out of your own mind where you're focused on your own problems in your own life and your own schedule… You are filled with the Lord and your love for the Lord and his people. Once you experience that, you don't want to go without it.