Leaving a Spiritual Legacy of Service
Wednesday, May 31, 2023
"Time is not standing still and to continue waiting to find the perfect ministry should not be an option. And who said that we must be limited to just one huge project that needs to be accomplished for the Lord; there are thousands of opportunities if we will just look.” – Bob Williamson
From February 1983 through December 1993, I served as the Director of Recreation at the Wiley Christian Retirement Community in Marlton NJ. I purposely used the word “served” instead of “worked” because I saw my 11 years at Wiley as a form of ministry to the elderly residents who lived there.
During those same years, Deanna and I also “served” as junior high youth leaders at our church, where I later “served” as both a deacon and a Sunday School teacher.
From January 1994 through July 2011, I “served” as the founder and executive director of The Saints Prison Ministry in Moorestown NJ. Simultaneously, I also “served” as the coach of whatever baseball, basketball, softball, or soccer teams our kids were playing on. Then in 2008 and 2010, I ran for the U.S. House of Representatives because I honestly saw “serving” in politics as a ministry opportunity, not as a career.
Since relocating to Florida to launch Risk Takers for Christ and “serve” as its president, I have also been privileged to “serve” as a pastor, an interim pastor, a hospital chaplain, a club chaplain, a deacon, a Sunday School teacher, and an HOA president. Each of those offices was – and in some cases, still is – a ministry opportunity that I take very seriously.
Whether I have “served” effectively won’t be revealed until I stand (or more probably kneel) before the Judgment Seat of Christ. However, in the meantime, I am content to follow in the footsteps of my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who wrote the book… literally and figuratively… on servanthood.
My friend, just like Bob Williamson said in today’s quote, don’t wait for some grand and glorious opportunity to come your way. Simply start serving where you are and go from there. Before you know it, you will have compiled a spiritual legacy of your very own… all for the glory of God!
“And whoever desires to be first among you, let him be your slave - just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.” Matthew 20:27-28 (NKJV)
- Rev. Dale M. Glading, President
