Rev. Barry Hidey, Lead Minister

Day One Server
I CAN’T WAIT TO SERVE!

Read Romans 1:8-10
Barry, the phone’s for you. Who is it Mom? Somebody from church who needs your help. Groan! Okay. Hello. Hi, Mr. Harrison. Yes, you would like me to help you with the Church supper? What do you need me to do? Really? Great! I can’t wait! See you on Saturday at 8AM.

Now, I don’t know about you, but it isn’t that often that I call someone to ask him or her to serve and I get a…Great! I can’t wait! Now, I must admit it does happen and when it does, it means that what I was asking the person to do fit into something about which they were passionate.

It is much easier to serve in an area where we have a great interest. If you are concerned about the poor and the homeless, you are ready to serve in Manna House or the Homeless Shelter. If you are concerned about youth, when Tom Hodges calls, you will be willing to listen. If you are good with numbers, then a request to join the Sunday counting team will end up with you saying yes. Our passion or our interest in something is what makes us change our schedule, make sacrifices, and go above and beyond.

Now, you might wonder, what motivated a 14-year old, young man to get up early on a Saturday morning and spend the whole day helping Mr. Harrison? Well, it was Mr. Harrison’s ministry to make all the homemade ice cream for the church supper. I got to taste every batch to make sure it was fit enough to sell!

What is it that gets you excited? Is it AIDS in Africa? Is it elderly who need someone to talk to? Is it using your skills to repair something or build something? Then don’t wait for someone to call you up!

Reflect: What is your first response when someone asks you to help? What do you have a heart for? Where could you serve God with all your heart?
Pray: Lord, help me to connect my heart with a place to serve. Guide me this week, as I take new steps in my journey as a server. Amen.

Read Galatians 6:2-5
Barry, we are taking a VIM trip to Denver to help construct a Habitat House in two weeks during the UM General Conference. Will you and Holly be on the team? Well, I knew that I would like to go to Denver and I wanted to be at General Conference…but to help build a house? I told him I had no useful building skills, but he said, don’t worry, all you need to do is make yourself available and God will do the rest. After some thought and prayer, we said yes, and we joined with this pastor and a team of 10 others and went to Denver.

A server is someone who makes him or herself available. I think that about 99% of the time, the only thing that is keeping us from serving is making ourselves available! I had all the excuses for not going—no skill, busy ministry life (I almost didn’t go because a key member’s funeral was the on the day we were to fly out). The VIM trip just wasn’t what I felt called to do.

First day on the site, (I had hoped would be a time for Holly and I to work together but they had her off laying brick, which she had never done before) I was asked to put up a chain link fence! I tried to explain to Dave that I didn’t know how to do that, but they said they would teach me and by the next day, I was teaching someone else how to do it. It was amazing to realize what can happen when you make yourself available to God!

Reflect: Can you think of some opportunities missed; when you didn’t make yourself available? Who does Paul say we are if we think we are too important to help someone in need? This week, find one person that you can serve, without being asked.
Pray: Remind me, Lord, that you open the doors that I need to walk through. Make me available to you and the needs of others this week. Amen.

Read Acts 6:1-7
Bob, I have an idea that I would like to share with the Building Committee. What about if we build the addition ourselves? No one said it, but I know they were thinking that I was crazy. I began to lay out the vision of us tackling this huge project with the majority of the labor being our members serving with their hands! God must have been in it because the idea became a reality. We had hoped to have a summer full of VIM teams but permits and weather and the foundation took longer. Instead we started the day after Christmas 1997.

In one week, we had all the walls up, and by the second week we had all the trusses up and the roof covered with tarpaper and then it was the greatest Saturday ever. It was the day when we nailed about 80 squares of shingles on the roof and installed all the windows. It was an amazing team effort, as we covered that roof with people who carried shingles, moved nail guns, held people in place and no one got hurt!

It was a difficult day for me. I don’t like heights! Yet, I decided that a server makes himself available, so I worked on the roof with the deepest drop! I found rather quickly that the safest way to not fall was to keep my seat on the roof. So I moved up and down the rows, wore the pocket off my pants, but didn’t fall.

There is something powerful when the church serves together. There was laughter and joy. We looked out for each other, helped each other, encouraged each other and even made fun of the pastor’s pants when he came down. Christ’s body all worked together. New friendships were made; spiritual conversations took place and we even prayed (Lord, I am so scared, don’t let me fall!)

Reflect: Think about a time when you decided to trust God and you took a step forward. How does it feel to see God meet you in your need?
Pray: Thank you Lord for helping me to walk to the edge of my fears and take your hand. Help me to not step back from any service that you are calling me to do. Amen.

Mathew 25:31-46
Recently, I ran across the journal that I kept back when I was working at my home church, Salem UMC, as the summer intern. Let me share with you what I wrote on August 18, 1978.

“Today I helped serve my first communion. Rev. Byron Brought and I gave communion to a group of people at Chapel Hill Nursing Home. It went well. Some of the people knew Pop-Pop Hidey. It is sad to see those lonely faces and realize how these people must feel and how they hurt. Lord, help me to do something about those needs. Give me the willingness to help where I can. Remind me of this so that my church might do more.”

Now, I wasn’t surprised by that entry. I look forward to doing communion services at several of the area senior care facilities. I enjoy making them smile, kidding them, praying with them, encouraging them and serving them communion. When I walk into the room, I seek to make sure that it is all about them.

Isn’t that what serving is all about? It is all about the one you are serving. It is about the “least of these,” as Jesus said, and when we serve the least of these, we are serving Jesus.

Reflect: Who are the least of these in your life right now? Seek them out this week. Pray for them, serve them, give to a ministry that helps them.
Pray: Open my eyes this week to those that I just walk by in my hurried life. Let me make a difference in someone’s life because you have made a difference in mine. Amen.

Read Philippians 2:1-8 & John 13:1-17
Sometimes it becomes too easy for me to think that because I’m the pastor, being a server doesn’t apply to me. I am supposed to be the leader, so everyone else is supposed to do that server stuff. In those moments, I return to these two passages and I am reminded that I need to serve like Jesus!

What greater act of service than for Jesus to step into human flesh and give his life for us? As I spend time in the Philippians passage, I see what true humility is. Then I go to John and I find Jesus’ words so powerful after he washes the disciples’ feet. “I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you…servants are not greater than their master” John 13:15-16 (TNIV) Who am I that I would not be willing to serve as Jesus my master did?

I think a church that grows is a church that serves. A server slides down the pew when someone needs a place to sit. A server seeks out 2 or 3 people each week, and welcomes them. A server parks further away in the parking lot so someone else can get a closer spot. A server say yes to greeting or helps a family figure out where a Sunday School class is meeting.

Do you know that most people decide to return to worship in their first 15 minutes in the building? A server is on the frontline and looks for ways to make a difference in the small ways each day. Holding the door for someone, encouraging a co-worker, letting someone else go through the line first. It is the small things that help a server to make a daily witness by a humble and loving attitude.

Reflect: Where will you model Jesus today? Find 3 ways you can serve someone today. What will you do this Sunday to model server?
Pray: Lord, it isn’t easy to wash feet, but help me to model you in a new way today. Amen.