Sharing and Serving:
We want our faith in Christ to make a difference, so we seek opportunities to share the good news of Jesus Christ and to compassionately serve others in the church, our local community and the wider world.
Our fourth Key Priority as a church is Sharing and Serving. But what do we mean by this , why do we do it and what does it involve?
At the end of Mark’s gospel Jesus is recorded as leaving his disciples with this instruction, “Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation”. At the end of Matthew’s gospel he is also recorded as leaving his disciples with a great commission. He says,“…Go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and teach them to obey everything that I have commanded you…” So it’s clear that to obey Christ, Christians have the privilege and the responsibility of sharing the message of the gospel so that others may become disciples or ‘learners’ of Christ.
Many people will never read a bible but they will see and read the lives of other Christians. So we encourage all our church members to live in a way that will please God, bring honour to His name and encourage others to investigate the claims of Christianity for themselves. We also encourage our church members to invite their friends to church so that they can hear the message of the bible explained. We also share the good news about Jesus through a number of organised programs including the children’s and youth clubs, the summer holiday bible club and by running an 8-week interactive course called, “Christianity Explored”.
In addition to sharing the good news about Jesus, God also wants Christians to share his love and care for the world by ministering to others in practical ways. In the New Testament, the term that is translated ‘ministry’ is usually ‘diakonia’. It has the basic meaning of ‘service’. So Christians are called to serve as Christ served. Christ gave us an example of service when he washed the disciples feet and said, “Now that I your Lord and Teacher have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet.”
In order to help us serve, God provides Christians with different gifts. These gifts are given by God’s Spirit to be used for the benefit of others. So we encourage our church members to use the gifts that God has given them in serving within the church, our community and the wider world. In serving, God also calls us to look beyond ourselves to the needs of those who are suffering or in need in any way. So we also encourage our church members to contribute their time, money and efforts in helping to bring healing, assistance and hope to others who are in need or feel marginalized. This includes examining the impact that our lifestyles have on others and the environment and campaigning for issue like peace and justice.
As a church we seek to serve our community and the wider world in a number of ways: Increasingly we encourage other community organisations to use our facilities during the week. Our church hosts a Montessori School and a Speech and Drama class. Our children’s and youth clubs also provide a fun and caring environment for many young people within our local community. You can find out more about these groups or how to enquire about using our church building in the sections entitled, ‘Church Groups and Clubs’ or ‘Community Organisations.’
We have yearly collections for the Presbyterian Orphan’s Society, Tear Fund, Christian Aid and other charities. We help to co-ordinate the collection of shoe-boxes packed with toys for children in poorer regions of the world within the wider Arklow area through Team Hope. At Christmas we give gifts to local families and throughout the year we seek in small ways to provide pastoral and practical support to local migrants. Every year the Sunday School children collect money to support a project in another part of the world. We also provide opportunities for our older youth in ‘Snyf’ to look beyond themselves- last year we organised a beach clean up and visited the residents in a local nursing home. You can click on the Icons below to find out more about some of the organisations that we help to support:
(Presbyterian Orphan’s Society)
(Seaman's Christian Friend Society)