Service gets a bad rap. 

For many people, their first jobs were in service of some sort. People talk about service as if they had no choice — it was the only thing available where they lived, it was the only thing they were qualified to do. Or it was something they got out of as quickly as possible when they got the education, training, or lucky break to do what they really wanted. Like struggling actors waiting on tables until they get their big break. 

But is service something to escape or look down on? Is it only worth it if you can be in charge? Or is it something to embrace? 

Service is both a spiritual gift and a spiritual discipline. We can say, “But it’s not my gift,” and that might be true. But we can still practice it as a spiritual discipline, an exercise that brings us closer to God. As we practice them, God works with us and through us. They don’t earn us points or show how spiritual we are. Practicing service as a spiritual discipline means it turns into a lifestyle. 

Most people, even for those who don’t embrace Christianity, will say we should leave the world better than we found it. Service is an excellent way to do that. As General Evangeline Booth said, “There is no reward equal to that of doing the most good to the most people in the most need.” 

Service to others is an overflow of the love of God. God loves us first. Because He loves us, we can love Him and love others — which is basically our whole purpose as Christians, according to 1 John 4:19. This love was never meant to be kept to ourselves. 

When we serve others, we follow Christ’s example. He told His disciples, “Whoever wants to be a leader among you must be your servant” (Matthew 20:26b). He then told them, “For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve others and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:28).  

Service, like volunteering, is both easy and hard. Anyone can do it with whatever skills they have, and you can do it anywhere and everywhere. But it takes us out of our comfort zone. 

“Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others” (Philippians 2:3-4, NIV). 

To serve means to put others before ourselves and to put their needs before our convenience.

True service builds community. It draws and heals us together. It gives us an opportunity to bring justice and protection to those we come across.

If you are unsure of where to start, the easiest way to serve is to volunteer with a group that already has a plan. What makes a good volunteer? According to Rosterfy (see For Further Study), good volunteers are “passionate, reliable, team players, patient, creative, energetic, positive, willing to help, compassionate and organized.” Do any of those traits describe you?

Serving is doing whatever needs to be done. It can look different at different times with different people. What do you have to offer? Time? Money? Talents? Influence? Most times, serving looks like quiet, unseen acts of kindness that can have a lasting impact, like listening to someone’s story. Or entertaining a child while their parent is filling out paperwork for assistance. Or helping with a bake sale so kids can go to camp. Or building houses with Habitat for Humanity.

Or, as The Salvation Army did for the firefighters at Ground Zero during the clean-up after 9/11, washing people’s feet. In John 13, we are given the picture of Jesus washing His disciples’ feet at the last supper. When He finished, He said, “I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you” (John 13:14-15, NIV).

No one is too great to serve.

Martin Luther King Jr. said, “Everybody can be great, because everybody can serve. You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You don’t have to have to make your subject and your verb agree to serve … You only need a heart full of grace, a soul generated by love.”

Embrace service. As Mother Teresa said, “Not all of us can do great things. But we can do small things with great love.”

This article was originally titled “To Serve or Not to Serve” in the April 2026 issue of Peer.