7 Practices for Spiritual Growth | Session 2: Serving Others

Download Serving Others Curriculum Here

Serving Others

• Introduction
  • Matthew 20:28 “I have not come to be served, but to love others…”
  • Matthew 25:34-40
  • When was a time that you served other people? did you treat them as if you were serving Jesus Himself?
  • Are there any ways that you’ve been wanting to serve others but haven’t done so yet? If so, what’s holding you back?
• Servant Leadership
  • Not every Christ-follower has the “gift of serving” but we are all still called to serve one another in love.
  • Philippians 2:3-4
  • What does Servant Leadership look like to you? This could be in your job, church, school, home, etc.
• The Science of serving others.
  • It can promote physiological changes in the brain linked with happiness. It also improves our support network and in turn can improve our self-esteem.
  • It provides us with a sense of belonging and these “face-to-face activities” of serving others helps to reduce loneliness and isolation.
  • “There is some evidence that being aware of your own acts of kindness, as well as the things you are grateful for, can increase feelings of happiness, optimism, and satisfaction. Doing good may help you to have a more positive outlook about your own circumstances.”
  • Serving others can actually lower depression. What they found was that the “heightened levels of self-focused attention that’s common in depression” was lowered because they were focused on others rather than themselves.
  • There is neural evidence that suggests a link between generosity and happiness in the brain.
  • When we help others “navigate their stressful situations, we are enhancing our own emotion regulation skills, and thus, benefiting our own emotional wellbeing.”
• God created us as humans to live in community together and to serve one another.
  • The state of America.
  • Do we see the trend? Higher rates of narcissism. Higher rates of depression. Yet we have everything we could ever want.
  • Galatians 5:13-14
    • What are some narcissistic behaviors that you’ve seen in yourself? Does your “screen use” contribute to them?
    • Do you think that serving others will help you in your self-esteem and/or morale? Why or why not?
• History of Serving Others
  • Jesus at the Last Supper/Seder
  • Luke 22:24: “Who is the greatest?”
• Practicing Serving Others
  • Wash the feet of one another literally.
    • This helps us to recognize that we are all called to be humble and never lord things over others.
    • We are all called as Christ-followers to be servant leaders.
• Ways to serve other people in the curriculum.