Four Reasons to Serve the City this Saturday

City Life, Event, Serve the City, Teaching | by Pastor Adam Sinnett

This Saturday we are holding our second annual Serve the City project, in partnership with the Seattle School District, at Dunlap Elementary School in Rainier Valley. You can get all of the details here. Please arrive by 9:30am and go directly to the registration tent where you will be assigned to a work team. There will be various work projects suitable to a wide range of skill sets. Families are encouraged to participate. We are expecting to be done by 2:00pm. Snacks and water will be provided, but you will want to pack a lunch. Please RSVP so we have accurate numbers for supplies. Also, if you’d like to help as a team captain you can indicate that when you register.

So, all that said, why serve the city? Let’s look at four reasons:

First, we love this city, warts and all. Seattle is our home. This is where we live, work, play and raise our families. As a church, we are not here to look down on the city (in condemnation), or cower under the city (in fear), or mirror the city (in surrender) but to love and challenge the city with the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Fundamentally, we serve because we want to love this city as we’ve been loved by Jesus.

Second, there are great needs in our city. Like any city, Seattle is filled with significant needs to be met and this just one of them. Dunlap Elementary is one of the most culturally diverse and impoverished elementary schools in our region, serving subsidized or free lunches to over 85% of the students. Additionally, the Seattle School District lacks sufficient staff to keep up the grounds. Dunlap is just one of many schools without adequate funding that rely, almost exclusively, on community volunteer efforts. Therefore, we want to meet the needs of this city because when we were at our neediest Jesus came to meet our greatest needs.

Third, we have been served. If you follow Jesus, you have been radically served by God. Jesus lived the perfect life we should all live, but can’t. Then, he bore the just wrath of God that we deserve on the cross, in our place, and three days later rose to new life. In so doing, he conquered Satan, sin, death and evil on our behalf.  In so doing, he reconciles us to God, forgives our sin, adopts us into His family, seals us with the Spirit, gives us a new identity and promises us a new future. In other words, we serve because we have been radically served by God, in Christ. (cf Phil 2:4-11)

Fourth, we believe good news and should, therefore, be good news. Good news changes how we live. How much more should the good news of the gospel? We aim to be a declaring and demonstrating community. As you know, we take the declaration of the gospel very seriously as Jesus’ people. But, at the same time, we take the demonstration of its implications just as seriously. All talk, with no walk, leaves people skeptical. All walk, with no talk, leaves people confused. Therefore, we attempt to declare and demonstrate the good news of the gospel, without which no one will see the Lord. (cf Heb 12:14)

I’m looking forward to our time together this Saturday and hope you can make it out. Be sure to invite friends, family, neighbors, and co-workers. There is plenty of work to done and conversations to be had. I’m asking Jesus to use this opportunity to give us favor with the city, open up additional avenues of influence, and lead some to saving faith. I encourage you to the same. See you there!

Because we have been served,

Pastor Adam