Once upon a time on a trip to Glasgow I arrived at my nice clean hotel room, and was very quick to put the kettle on, make a cup of tea, and eat those 2 biscuits they give you. I got comfortable on the bed, put the TV on, and called reception to get the WIFI code. 48 hours later, I was on my way home. The bed wasn’t made; towels were on the floor, the free wash products had been used, and the rubbish was everywhere.

Whilst this sounds normal, what if we treated church in the same way as a hotel?

We arrive at church at 10.30, grab a cup of coffee, eat the free cake and get comfortable on a chair. We listen to the sermon; receive the message of the day, and maybe get some prayer. 12 o’clock comes and the coffee cups aren’t washed, cake spilt on the floor, and chairs everywhere.

Sometimes we treat church as a hotel rather than a home.

One of the greatest choices I ever made was deciding to serve my church in a number of ways. First I started helping the set up team, and then I served on the kid’s team followed by joining the worship band. Why should we serve our church? We serve, because Jesus first served us. Jesus served people in numerous ways but he served us most by dying on the cross for us. Jesus tells us to daily pick up our cross. So let’s do what Jesus did, and serve others. 1 Corinthians 12 tells us that we’re all one body, we’re a family, and I’ll tell you what I found when I started serving church: Church becomes so much more of a family.

And as a family you look after your home, work hard in your home and serve others. Shall we do the same for church? If you’re a student who has just started church or arrived back at your university church, have you jumped on a team? Have you started serving your family?