Episode Transcript
[00:00:05] Speaker A: Well, grace, mercy and peace, in the name of Jesus Christ, our savior. Thanks for joining us again on another episode of the Forum at Frazer. I'm Will Adams. I'm excited to have you here today. I'm excited to have these folks here today. We're going to be talking about surrendered service, which is an important pillar in the Frazer family, has been an important part of what Frazer culture has been for many, many years.
And I'm gonna have each one of you go around, introduce yourselves and explain about where you have served in the Frazer family. So, David, do you mind kicking us off?
[00:00:45] Speaker B: Sure, I can start. Hey, everybody. I'm David Ferris. I've been at Frazer for going on four years now, and I serve in the young adult ministry. I'm a communion server. And I've also helped with some special events, mostly food prep for annual conference, the widow's brunch, and the Easter extravaganza. So a lot of fun times at those holiday events.
[00:01:05] Speaker A: Yeah. That's awesome, Perry. What about you, Perry?
[00:01:09] Speaker C: Castle plugged in.
You'll see me third Sundays on camera.
[00:01:16] Speaker A: Yeah. One of my faithful volunteers. I'll just, you know, go ahead. Elephant in the room. Yeah.
[00:01:22] Speaker C: Try to make myself available.
[00:01:24] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:01:24] Speaker C: For camera whenever.
Active participant of the men's ministry.
Former men's council.
I'm also a lion chaser. When I have the opportunity to do that, that I'm not already tagged, work the camera.
[00:01:39] Speaker A: Can you explain for those who don't know what the lion chasers do, Whatever's asked. There you go.
[00:01:47] Speaker C: So it could be as simple as playing usher for a service.
For a little bit more formal service could be serving for a meal.
Pretty much the catch all. Whatever's asked, whatever is needed to pull off an event.
[00:02:01] Speaker A: Yeah. It's a group of men and whenever we're having an event and we need just a kind of an army that we can just call on, on the ready, we say, well, can we get the lion chasers on it? And that's what they're about.
[00:02:16] Speaker C: In the past, have also done some mission trips. I was team leader for mission that we had for a while.
Thought about maybe getting back into that, praying about it, and we'll see where that leads.
[00:02:29] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:02:31] Speaker B: All right.
[00:02:31] Speaker A: Madison.
[00:02:32] Speaker D: Hi, I'm Madison Jordan and I mainly work with the children's. So working Wednesday night, helping out there and then helping out anywhere I can with upward.
I do coaching for our cheerleading and then whatever else Brittany needs for our other sports.
Also help out a little bit with women's ministry, too. And just kind of, if you see a need, you feel a need, right?
[00:03:03] Speaker A: Yeah, I've seen you a lot of new member stuff and.
[00:03:06] Speaker D: Yeah, just anywhere that kind of all over the place. Yeah. Hey, Madison. And I'll be.
Go for it.
[00:03:13] Speaker A: Awesome. We appreciate you for it, Margaret.
[00:03:16] Speaker E: So I'm Margaret Isaacs. My husband and I have been here since 2020. And my most current service right now is I do once a month with the kids ministry. I get to go in and help them learn a Bible verse or just kind of get to sit beside them and partner with the kids ministry for that. And then prayer ministry is my big love right now. So altar prayer, upper room, which is our intercessory prayer ministry stations to cross every year. And then, same as Madison, you know, if there's a good event to jump in on and way to get to meet people like to do that too.
[00:03:45] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:03:45] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:03:46] Speaker A: Service is such a unique way to, like, meet friends. I think that's kind of one of the unsung fun parts of it. I know the. The camaraderie we have on. On the various teams.
And even just in our. Our area, Perry, we, you know, have a lot of fun headset banter and other things.
And. And really, you get to know people really well. So my next question, it. It's kind of the big question, right? It's why is service so important to our walk as Christians?
[00:04:20] Speaker E: I was kind of thinking about, you know, in the Gospels, when John and James's mother is asking, okay, well, who's gonna be the greatest? Can my son sit at your right hand? And Jesus says, well, even I, you know, Jesus the Savior came to serve, not to be served. And if the whole point of us walking as his disciples is to be as imitators, then service has to be part of what we do not. There's also, of course, the benefit of it gets us outside of ourself, outside of selfish thinking. We see not only other believers as the body and as necessary and us in our rightful place, but also we see those who don't believe yet with compassion, with God's eyes, that if I'm not in that mindset or that heart posture, I'm less apt to do. Yeah, right.
[00:05:02] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. Really puts you in a place where you're able to receive what God has for you, kind of uniquely.
[00:05:09] Speaker E: Yes.
[00:05:10] Speaker C: Yeah. I know. For me, it's at the risk of oversimplifying it. We're called to be the hands and feet.
And I mean, every time you get involved with something, not to get ahead of us. But there are blessings and rewards wrapped up in that.
[00:05:27] Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. I mean, I think, you know, there's so many ways in which what God wants to do in our lives is done not through just sitting back and receiving, but through us engaging in service.
[00:05:42] Speaker D: Well, and at the center of most sin is pride. And so surrendered service is putting us in a position of humility where we need to be to let the change start happening. Because if you don't humble yourself and take a kid to the bathroom or just something, you're like, oh man, I, I am so much better than this. I can't do that, then the Lord can't use you because you're not workable. Clay.
[00:06:11] Speaker A: Yeah,
[00:06:13] Speaker B: yeah, I read, I read once in a book that we as Christians should seek to be apprentices of Christ, to be molded into his image and following his example. So even through scripture reading things like the feeding of the 5,000 or when he washed the disciples feet, you know, I think we have a very clear example to follow and in our walk and yeah, it's, it's more blessed to give than receive. So I think every time you step into service, the blessings really just abound and multiply.
[00:06:40] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. And well, and you talk about like the feeding of the 5,000 or any of Jesus's kind of healing miracles. I mean, Jesus is a pretty practical guy. At the end of the day it's the, those are meeting actual needs that people have. And so, you know, from that standpoint, I mean, an important part of it too is our example of being like Christ, showing Christ to other people and meeting needs out in the community and among each other. The whole.
They will know we are Christians by our love kind of thing. So when we're serving each other, we're also being an example to all of the people that are looking on at the church and going, oh well, they look, gosh, they are actually holding up their end of the bargain, so to speak.
So my next question is what is one time or you know, maybe, I don't know if you have more than one. Yeah, what is one time or maybe one or two where you saw God show up in a big or small way while you were serving?
[00:07:47] Speaker B: Yeah, I've got a pretty good example of that. So on Wednesday nights I'm typically serving communion up in the balcony. And when we get done with that service, we typically go down to the church office and serve whoever's working the front desk.
And on one particular night we went in there and there was a gentleman in the reception area. I haven't seen him around the church before. And we offered if he would like to receive communion, and he accepted. And as we walked away, I heard the receptionist tell him, how's that for a sign? See, God does really love you. And just to be that conduit of grace for someone who really needed to hear God's love and, you know, being the hands and feet, it wasn't about me, it wasn't about who I was serving with.
But just that simple, simple act of service could be really life changing for somebody.
[00:08:37] Speaker A: Yeah. Wow. Did you ever get to hear about the other side of that conversation at all? Or just. We have to assume that he had been, you know, kind of questioning God's love at that point. But, man, what an awesome opportunity for you to get to walk in and immediately answer that. And all you're doing is just offering some, some juice and some bread in, you know, in the physical sense, but also being that, that means of grace and just in a, in a very simple, tangible way.
[00:09:05] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:09:06] Speaker E: I was thinking about a time and this was doing altar prayer. So if you don't go to the 11 o', clock, we have a dedicated time of prayer, like physically at the altar during the service.
And so you'll, you'll sometimes have people come down and those of us who are volunteering are happy to pray alongside anyone who'd like to come down and pray with you.
And I remember for a long time I'm very much like an introvert. And so I, I didn't really know where to look, you know, and so for a long time I would kind of look down at the floor or maybe that first row or so, and I felt just kind of a calling to start looking up and looking into people's faces.
And as I did that, just. God started moving, I think, more visibly and tangibly to me. There was one week, kind of after I felt that calling to start looking up. We're just. As I was going across the people in the pews, my eyes just kept going back to this one particular person. And I don't, I don't really know them at all.
[00:09:57] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:09:58] Speaker E: But I just felt the calling to start praying for them. So I'm, you know, just, okay, Lord, I don't know where this is going, but. But you're having me see them. And half a song later, they walked down for prayer. And so the beauty there was that God saw them. God brought them to the attention of the body.
Right. He prepared me to meet with them. And so, you know, up until today, me and that person were the only two people who ever knew that story of God's faithfulness and God's seeing them. But just like you were saying, David, just that reminder that God sees us, that he is helping us to partner alongside one another as we come to his feet was just a beautiful thing.
[00:10:36] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:10:36] Speaker A: Getting to be a part of what God is doing, of actually kind of being an agent in his mission is such a unique and beautiful thing.
[00:10:50] Speaker D: A big change that I saw in cheerleading is this past year.
Before that, we had eight cheerleaders for a team.
And during our off season, whenever we had a big snowstorm, I went around and prayed around our cheerleading field. And I'm like, God, let's be a little bit crazy. Let's have a thousand souls for Upward that we win. And God's like, okay, Bet I had 20 cheerleaders sign up this past year. And I go, oh, God, I didn't mean that big at that drastic of an increase. I can't do this by myself. And he's like, then what are you gonna ask for next? And I'm like, can I get some helpers? Can I get some people to bring in this harvest?
And we had volunteers and we were able to split up the cheerleaders for the first time ever and have both fields have cheerleaders on it. It was really amazing.
[00:11:55] Speaker A: That's really cool. Yeah. And I mean, Upward is such an incredible, incredible ministry. There's a lot of people in our church who probably aren't even aware it's happening because it is it. It can easily be off of your radar if you, if you don't have kids or you've never volunteered in it. But coming here, any of the weeks that we have games going on, I mean, it's a well oiled machine. It takes so many volunteers and there are so many people that are participating.
Both the, the kids, but also the parents coming in are, are many, many of whom aren't, don't have church homes. And so it's a really great opportunity right here on our campus to, to do outreach.
So it is a really, really great ministry.
[00:12:43] Speaker E: I love what you said too, Madison. Just about praying for the harvest, you know, like, you know, Pastor Chris had us doing that for a while. Be regular at 1002. Right. And the reminder that we can keep doing that, keep, keep praying that prayer in the midst of our service too.
[00:12:57] Speaker D: Yeah. And even don't be afraid of going, okay, well, I'm only going to pray a small little prayer because that's all that God can Do. No, if. Because at first I was like, okay, what about a hundred? That seems, you know, not insane. God's like, no. Now, keep on going. Keep on going. I'm like, 200. He's like, what number is in your heart? I'm like, a thousand kids.
He's like, okay, we're going to do a thousand.
And we steadily just keep progressing more and more and more.
And Sports Ministries is where we get a lot of kids from the community that come in.
And so it's one of the best ways to reach them, because the goal is to get them into upward sports and then hopefully get them, if not into our church family, into a church family.
[00:13:52] Speaker A: Right.
[00:13:52] Speaker D: But when I see some of my little cheerleaders or soccer babies come for Wednesday nights. Oh, I want to squeal. It's just so sweet.
[00:14:01] Speaker A: Yeah. Now, Perry, I, I know you probably have some. I mean, you could probably talk about some. With Red Bird, you could talk about any number.
But I, I, I want to put one phrase out there, and this doesn't have to be the only one you talk about, but. Because every time it comes up, when we're going over the order of worship, I hear the same story, and that is Glorious Day.
[00:14:25] Speaker C: Oh, my goodness.
I'll tell that story.
When everyone came back to in person worship, it was Easter Sunday for a contemporary service that day.
The grand finale song was Glorious Day. I happened to be in the Crow's nest that day.
[00:14:46] Speaker A: And that's what we call the little thing that sticks out of the balcony. If you've been here in person, and
[00:14:51] Speaker C: that's a good way to describe it.
[00:14:52] Speaker A: It is an odd little architectural.
[00:14:55] Speaker C: I learned a lot about that seat that morning. We had just heard the story about how the ground shook and the stone rolled away.
Glorious Day can be a very rambunctious song.
And the praise band had had the place rocking.
When the place is rocking, the ground shakes. And when you're in the crow's Nest, you're concerned whether you're going to end up in someone's lap down on the main floor.
So after just hearing that story, I felt the ground shake, and I was on this spiritual high for a good two, three weeks after that. It just added an extra level of realism.
But now that that's definitely. I actually think about that every time we see that song show up on the.
[00:15:49] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:15:50] Speaker C: On the list for Sunday worship.
[00:15:52] Speaker A: Yeah. Well, but I didn't mean to hijack it. Was there, Is there another.
[00:15:56] Speaker C: There actually is one other story. I'll try to make it Quick.
When we were collecting donations for Redbird and we used to get donations from variety of folks, some of them, some of the older members in the church at the time. At that time I was also working camera.
I got the opportunity to meet some of our shut ins.
It's easy to.
I mean, we say hello to everyone online every morning. But to hear these. And they were elderly folks that could no longer come to in person worship for health reasons.
And through part of what we do, we talk to people, we pray with them, whatever the need might be.
She was so grateful that we have that as a resource.
So she still feels like she has a church. It was an older lady that I'm specifically thinking of.
But to see how one thing that you're involved with shows up somewhere else.
[00:17:07] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:17:07] Speaker C: And where you get to see. Occasionally get to see the full circle of where your volunteer work can come in and affect other believers.
[00:17:21] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:17:22] Speaker C: It was. It was.
That's definitely a memory I'll keep forever.
[00:17:26] Speaker A: Yeah. And for those who don't know, Redbird is a community in eastern Kentucky.
I had actually been there myself when I was in college. It's, you know, kind of an interesting situation over there. Can you just briefly explain what that is?
[00:17:41] Speaker C: Just so people know Redbird mission, we would go. It's like you were saying in eastern Kentucky, greatly impoverished area. It's coal mining country.
And through some of the struggles with the coal mines where a lot of them been shut down or the ones that are still operating or automated, these people in the heart of Appalachia, that's all they've done for generations.
Very proud people, their own family land that they don't want to sacrifice economically. There's just not a whole lot of resources up there.
[00:18:20] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:18:21] Speaker C: Redbird, not only do they minister to these people, they have a clinic there, which is a tremendous value because the closest hospital I think is about three hours away.
Trying to find different things economically to help people.
I know one of the big programs they had basically was teaching farming skills. You find a flat piece of land, you can grow something and then sponsor a farmer's market to where people could sell their wares.
But a very long term. Because it's just a difficult situation up there.
[00:19:04] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:19:05] Speaker C: When we were going up there, we saw.
And this is part of what they're combating.
Lack of any other resources. People have ventured off the.
[00:19:18] Speaker A: There's a lot of drug use.
[00:19:20] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:19:20] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:19:21] Speaker C: People have gone to making. Selling meth. That's a big problem up there.
I met some wonderful people when I was up there that just have such a big heart for.
For God's children.
[00:19:36] Speaker A: Even within ministries that are local, that Frazer sponsors like Transformation Montgomery, we do get to reach out to people who are local who also have, you know, some serious needs in our community as well.
[00:19:51] Speaker C: Oh, and that's one thing I did learn when I was involved with Redbird, that there are needs everywhere. If we.
I'm big on music, and people used to make fun of me when we would do a donation pickup. I had a playlist, one of my go to songs. It was a newsboy song. That's how you say, I love the newsboys.
[00:20:15] Speaker A: When I was a kid.
[00:20:16] Speaker C: There is a lyric in there talking about the need right next to you that you overlook because you're wanting to do something Victor, just huge and grand.
And that's so true, because there are needs all around us. We just have to open our eyes.
[00:20:32] Speaker A: Yeah. No, I mean. And I think that is a great lead in to the last question, which is, if there is someone in our church who hasn't plugged into an area of service yet, what are they missing out on? I think they've heard a lot already.
[00:20:47] Speaker C: Everything.
It's the most rewarding thing that you will do. I mean, there are.
There's an elderly lady that lives across the street. We check in on her all the time, and we have kind of this back and forth banner.
She doesn't want to be a burden.
I'm always asking her if she needs help with something. Well, you're so busy.
And I look at her, I said, don't take away my blessings, because every time I come over and visit with you, there are blessings in that.
There are blessings in everything you do.
Might be something big, might be something small like you were talking about with administering communion. I mean, just like there are needs all around us, there are blessings all around us, too.
[00:21:42] Speaker E: Yeah, I was thinking kind of generally, generationally about that. You know, I'm. I've got two young kids at home, two young boys. And so for a long time, there were certain things that I wouldn't sign up for because I thought, I'm gonna have to parent in the middle of this. Right?
[00:21:57] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:21:58] Speaker E: But part of my job as a parent and so to encourage other young families is bring them along. I mean, sure, there's gonna be a few things that. That they cannot. And thank goodness we have a great nursery and kids program that is willing to watch them for. For certain things. But, you know, my boys have learned a lot this year about how to open the doors and they love the button and smiling, and they're learning things like, okay, well, they start getting tired. You know, keep that smile on, because you never know the next person who walks through. And inevitably, somebody walks through it. Oh, we're so glad to see kids here. You know, just things like that. So. So my encouragement again for. For younger families would be, don't be afraid to bring them along with you. You know, train them up, up, show them what you get to do. But then also, you know, then you have some of the other saints of the church that come along, and they're building these intergenerational, generational relationships that my boys would not have had otherwise. So that's been a huge blessing for our family.
[00:22:51] Speaker D: Yeah, I think that.
So I'm an introvert, one of the most introverted people I know.
And so what I would say, if somebody's not plugged in anywhere, is that you're missing out on relationship. Because there's one thing that you can guarantee. Well, two things that you can guarantee that you have in common with whoever serving beside you. Whenever you go into any mission field or any service field, it's that you love Jesus and you are serving at this thing. So you might. If you're in children's ministry, you'll like kids.
That's something you can talk about.
And then you meet these sweet, sweet children, and you get to bring them up and go, oh, hey, are you bored? Do you want to do something? Let's go pick up sticks together. Just something simple as that to where you start helping them build these muscles of going, okay, can I open my eyes and see what is in front of me who needs help? And so whenever they do pick up and go, well, I'm gonna open the door for that person.
Oh, my gosh, it's such a win, right?
[00:24:02] Speaker E: Yeah.
[00:24:03] Speaker D: And then you have to. You find different people that will take the burden of, you know, watching the kids off. You could go, okay, if I go and serve with the children's ministry, then we have Cammie, we have Sarah, we have all these wonderful, awesome people that also keep out, look out for your children. And you can go, okay, I can go and serve and serve with my family, and we can all do it together as a family. And it grows. I remember that service was a big part of my family. And so now, as an adult, I can look back and go, man, I will always remember that day that we spent a whole day at the church just putting together flower arrangements for Christmas.
And it's such a beautiful, warm memory that sticks with you?
[00:24:54] Speaker A: Yeah. No, that's awesome.
[00:24:58] Speaker B: I think for me, one of the biggest things I got out of serving, that I would really encourage others to pursue service for, was a community and a church family. When I moved here to Montgomery, I was right out of school. I didn't know anybody. And, you know, building a community can be hard.
When I started getting involved in different service opportunities, that's when I found my people. And so I would just encourage you if you're new to the area, new to the church, or even if you've been here a while and you just don't feel like you've really found your spot and you've really found your people, find some service opportunities, and you'd be amazed at the people that you meet and the relationships that grow out of that.
[00:25:35] Speaker A: Yeah, no, that's. That's great advice. It truly is. I mean, it's. You know, I mentioned it at the beginning. One of the things that's really cool to see as someone who's led volunteer teams for many years now, is how many people come in not knowing somebody, not knowing anyone, and this becomes like a group of friends, or they meet someone that they get real close to and they're able to kind of plug into other areas through that. So, no, I think in some ways, like, service is almost more that way than even groups are. You think of groups certainly as being a way to connect, and it is. But there. There's a way in which, when you're side by side with someone else kind of working towards the same goal, it is a different dynamic.
[00:26:21] Speaker E: Yeah.
[00:26:22] Speaker A: You're working together as a team rather than, you know, kind of sitting in a classroom or in a circle.
But just
[00:26:32] Speaker C: how you can end up building the relationships and all, that's like completely the opposite of the way the outside world seems to be going, where it's breaking people down and isolating them through service, through activities at church.
You see it bringing people together and sometimes people that maybe wouldn't normally spend a lot of time together.
[00:27:02] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:27:03] Speaker C: But they find common ground and.
[00:27:08] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:27:09] Speaker C: It's hard to describe because it's such a beautiful thing.
[00:27:12] Speaker E: That's what I was thinking. You physically see the body of Christ differently. Right. And those parts start coming together actually visually for you when you do.
[00:27:22] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. It's. It's the opposite of isolation.
[00:27:24] Speaker E: Yeah.
[00:27:25] Speaker A: It's something you can't. I mean, you can't do service in isolation. There has to be someone else for you to serve at the very least.
So it's.
[00:27:35] Speaker C: You can try, but.
[00:27:36] Speaker A: Yeah. But there's an inherent community aspect, yes to working in service.
Well, thank you guys for joining us today. And thank you for joining us again. I always want to remind you that you can follow us wherever you get your podcast. Subscribe Give us a Like Give us a comment Share this with someone else if you're wanting to invite someone into the Frazer family, share this episode. It might be a way to help them get plugged into service and come to knowledge of love, of the love of Christ in a new, powerful way.
But be sure to join us next time as we seek to fulfill the Great Commission by living the Great Commandment.
