Kim Melnick
Jul 28, 2025
Finding Joy in Service
As a church that meets in a public school, we don’t get the typical 7-day-a-week drive-by visibility that most churches take as routine. But, new guests still seem to find us every week and over the 3 and a half years since we planted as a church, I’ve had the opportunity to ask many of these guests how they heard about us.
Oftentimes I hear the expected answers:
A friend told me about the church or someone invited me to visit.
I found your website using a church finder and it looked faithful.
I drive by every Sunday and noticed the signs/flags and finally decided to try it.
This past Sunday, when I inquired of a woman who had attended twice, I received an unexpected answer- one I’d never heard before.
She explained that she lived nearby and had been looking for a church. She, like so many, had seen our signs. But, as our conversation continued, it was clear: it was not the signs that convinced her to worship with us.
It was an observation she made about our people - something we might take for granted, not recognizing how the Lord might use it.
She went on to explain that she sees people showing up early on Sunday mornings. And, she’s right. There’s a few men who typically show up around 7am to begin the set-up process for our 10:30 service. Over the next 1-2 hours, more people join them in transforming an elementary school cafeteria into a welcoming place for worship.
But, it was what I learned next that really captured her attention and compelled her visit.
“I’ve noticed that these people show up early every week and they always look so happy to be
here."
“Wow!” I thought. She’s right.
I see it in the faces of those who set up. I experience it myself. Sure, there are mornings when each of us feels tired or weary from a long week but even that often fades away in the fellowship of our church family as we serve and pray together.
The work is purposeful - it’s a great privilege to prepare a place for the worship of our Almighty God. The fellowship is sweet - some of my dearest relationships were formed in seasons of serving together.
But I would have never guessed that someone passing by would have sensed what we experience in those early, pre-service hours.
I believe that she observed the joy brought on by ordinary faithfulness being worked out in the people of God as they, by the Lord’s grace, serve Him on a day and at a time when the world tells us that we should be serving ourselves and doing what makes us feel good - “It’’s an early morning on a weekend,” they might say.
But these words come to mind,
“Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth! Serve the Lord with gladness! Come into his presence with singing! Know that the Lord, he is God! It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise! Give thanks to him; bless his name! For the Lord is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations.” Psalm 100
Our visitor saw God’s people responding to the Lord’s joyful call to serve and worship with glad hearts. This is a high and holy calling but it might feel unattainable to us.
Until we remember that God’s got it rigged.
He calls us to joyful service and worship and, in Christ, He gives us the grace to do it. He created us. He knows our limits and He empowers our service.
He doesn’t just command our gladness - He gives us the strength to walk in it.
In the words of John Owen,“God never lays a duty on us but He gives sufficient grace to
perform it.”
What a good and mighty God we serve!
May we spend our lives in joyful service to the One who gives us strength to do so.
May we know that no act of service or worship, however small, done for HIs glory is in vain.
And may we trust that He uses our unseen labor to build His Church.
To Him be the glory, now and forever!