Family Guide: Service

What comes to mind when you hear the word “service”? What do you think it means to serve someone? 

Give space for answers.

There are different types of service we see around us everyday. Someone who works at a restaurant may serve food to people. A school bus driver serves the kids they drive to school. Parents also serve their kids by providing things they need. Service is seeing someone who doesn’t have something they need, and showing love by doing what we can to help meet that need. Who has served you recently? When have you served someone recently?

Give space for answers.

As followers of Jesus, we want to do the things that Jesus did. Another good way to think about that is, what would Jesus do if he were me? If Jesus was you, who do you think are the people he would help and serve? 

Give space for answers.

Those are great answers! Let’s continue to think about this as we look in the Bible to see how Jesus served the people around him. 

Have you ever played outside on a rainy day or stepped in a puddle and your shoes got muddy? Did you or your grown up have to clean them up? When Jesus was alive, people didn’t wear the kind of shoes that we do now. They mostly wore sandals, so their feet often got pretty dirty from all the dust and yucky stuff in the roads. So whenever someone came into a home, the first thing they did was wash their feet. Usually a servant in the house would wash feet; it was an icky job, and servants were seen as less important than the family who lived there.

Let’s open the Bible together and look at a story where Jesus teaches his disciples what service looks like by doing a job no one expected him to do.

Read John 13v4–5 & v12–17 aloud and then work through these questions together:

• What surprising thing did Jesus do in this story? 

• What did Jesus tell his disciples afterwards?

• What does it mean to wash someone’s feet? Why was it so unexpected that Jesus did it? 

• How would it make you feel to have Jesus wash off your feet after walking barefoot through a stinky puddle?How would you respond if Jesus asked you to do something you really didn’t want to do to serve someone?

We don’t really wash feet anymore, but there are small and simple things we can do to serve others like Jesus served his friends. Maybe you help with family chores even when you don’t want to or it’s not “your job.” Maybe you share food with someone at school who forgot their lunch, or you can serve someone by being extra friendly to the kid in your class no one else talks to.

In the Bible, we see lots of examples of Jesus serving others. There are so many stories of Jesus seeing people who are blind, sick, hurt, or lonely and meeting their needs through his love and power. Jesus told his disciples that he did not come to be served but to serve others. How cool is that?! The King of the whole world came to serve us. And that’s not all: Jesus lived his life as an example of how we are to live, and just as Jesus served others we are to do the same.

However, serving isn’t always easy is it? Serving means to see someone who doesn’t have what they need and doing what you can to meet that need. You could see someone with dirty feet, a friend without food, or dirty dishes in the sink, and not want to help meet that need. Sometimes we don’t know or even like the person we are serving. We also may not have the resources to help someone when we want to. We may feel tired, upset with our parents, or that we have too much school work to get done. 

How does it make you feel to know Jesus has invited us to serve others just like he did, even when it isn’t easy?

Give space for answers.

Jesus told his disciples whenever they gave food to someone who was hungry, or a glass of water to someone who was thirsty, or visited someone who was in the hospital to comfort them, it was like they were giving those things to Jesus himself. When we are having a hard time serving others, we can remember that we are serving Jesus.

Alright, let’s get creative and think of some ways we can start practicing serving others like Jesus did! Let’s think of ways we can serve our friends, our neighbors, and our community!

Idea 1: Helping someone we love

One of the ways we can practice Service is by helping our parents, family members, and neighbors. Jesus didn’t only serve strangers and people he didn’t know; he served his disciples, friends, and family. Let’s think of one person or one family we can serve this week, how we want to serve them, and when we can do this. 

Adults, some examples might be raking an older neighbor’s leaves together, surprising a sibling by doing a chore they dislike, or something else creative.

Idea 2: Sign up for the Hospitality Team

Families can serve together at Bridgetown by signing up to serve on the Gatherings Hospitality Team. Every Sunday, new people and families come to our church, and we want to be as welcoming as we can be to them. Helping greet or make coffee could be a great way to serve together as a family. Note to adults: If there are middle school or high school students in your family, they can help serve on the Kids Team, and maybe even help out with their brother or sister’s class! 

Idea 3: Serve with our Bridgetown Community’s monthly Mission Rhythm

Families who are part of a Bridgetown Community have the opportunity to serve together every month! Communities go and serve in the city together by serving food, handing out blankets, and even washing feet.Depending on the organization your community serves with, kids can participate in several service opportunities, such as passing out hot chocolate at Night Strike, building welcome kits with Refugee Care Collective, and writing cards to the women at Coffee Creek! Let’s work as a family to join in on what our community is already doing. 

Adults: if your Bridgetown Community doesn’t have a clear entry point for kids to participate in the Mission Rhythm, consider asking your leader what opportunities there are for your kids. A majority of our Justice and Mercy partners do include options for kids to get involved. A list of partners who offer kid friendly service opportunities can be found at bridgetown.church/proximity

How do we want to practice Service in this upcoming month? Let’s pick an idea to try, pray about who Jesus is inviting us to serve, and plan when we’ll do it!