Northwest Yearly Meeting of Friends (Quakers)

Gar Mickelson, here with his wife, Vicki, serves NWYM as associate superintendent of Local Outreach and Pastoral Care. They came to faith through the ministry of Hayden Lake Friends Church and have two children and three grandchildren.

As I was growing up (spiritually speaking) my pastor would often use the phrase “We are working our way up to servanthood.” This saying had a tremendous impact on my life because it invited me to live life with a radically different perspective. Instead of a self-referenced perspective, this shifted my focus to those around me and challenged me to see myself as their servant. I didn’t know it at the time, but this lifestyle choice—living as a servant to others—would completely transform who I was. Along the way I’ve learned: True service is focused first and foremost on God; servanthood cannot be about gratifying self; and servanthood draws us into community with others.
Living as a servant flows out of our ministry to the triune God. In and of ourselves, our attempts at being true servants are anemic at best. Our humanness often distorts our attempts at “service” into self-centered activities. In my journey as a minister I have experienced times of great disillusionment. During these times the Spirit showed me that the focus of my service to others was actually me. I realized I had come to depend on the good reputation and status of my ministry for my sense of well being. When we focus on serving only God, the natural outflow will be authentic service to others. Serving from this perspective changes the very essence of how we serve and where we serve because our whole focus is not on ourselves but on God.
Servanthood cannot be “me” based, and should not be motivated by bringing attention and kudos to “self.” Many well-intentioned people end up becoming dour and disillusioned in their servant-ministry because their service is rooted in a desire to extract something for themselves. If our service to others is dependent on the good feelings or rewards we receive, we will quickly become disheartened because people will constantly let us down. By training ourselves to be rooted in God, our service is an offering of worship to God—not to other people. Serving from this perspective enables us to serve with delight even when people do not notice or appreciate our efforts.
Living as a servant leads us into community with others. The sum total of who we are includes our community identity, that is, who we are in both our faith community and the local community in which we live. Without community we are alone; there is no one to serve but ourselves, and we become the primary focus. Living in community with others teaches us how to be God-rooted servants. When we engage and interact with the community around us, we begin to discover just how magnificent and diverse God is in his love and grace. We need community to truly discover the uniqueness of who we are as human beings. Only when we are rooted in God can we find comfort in letting go of “self ”and trusting him to affirm our uniqueness, which helps us to maintain healthy self-identity.
Working our way up to servanthood is a magnificent journey in which we’re all invited to participate. Along the way we discover our identity and our purpose in this life. More importantly, though, we discover who the Triune God is and how worthy he is of our love, worship, and service.

Gar shares these insights from his own experience, but also has the opportunity to see service-in-action around Northwest Yearly Meeting. Stories about how local churches are reaching out into their communities are being gathered and constantly updated at Local Voices.

To share:

• How is your meeting reaching out and expressing service to your community?
• What is most difficult or challenging for you personally about living with a service-orientation?