Service is one of five promises that members of McPherson First make: prayers, presence, gifts, service, and witness. The five practices below help you find your gifts, develop a rhythm of mercy, serve as a family, work for justice, and visit the people most easily forgotten. They come from twenty centuries of Christian tradition and John Wesley's own way of forming Methodists in the eighteenth century. Whoever you are, long-time member, first-time visitor, or someone still figuring out what you believe, you're welcome to try any of them.
Service is finding where you're called to serve and giving yourself to it. Wesley's second simple rule was "do good," and he meant it as a daily discipline, not an occasional effort. The Christian life is shaped less by grand gestures than by a thousand small acts of mercy that add up over time. Where your gifts meet the world's needs, that is your place to serve.
The five practices below help you find your gifts, develop a rhythm of mercy, serve as a family, work for justice, and visit the people most easily forgotten. None require leaving your job or starting a nonprofit. All require paying attention to the people God has put in your path.
You can't serve well from someone else's gifts. The first practice of service is figuring out what God has actually given you to give. Everyone has gifts. The question is whether you have named yours, tested them, and found a place to use them.
Ways to try it:
For your Grace Group: Share what you think your gifts are and where you're testing them right now.
Scripture: 1 Peter 4:10-11
Wesleyan means of grace: A particular discipline (prudential), a Work of Piety in preparation for Works of Mercy
Acts of mercy are the small, daily, deliberate ways you do good for the people around you. The Christian life is shaped less by grand gestures than by a thousand small acts of kindness that add up over time. The point is not to be impressive. The point is to be present.
Ways to try it:
For your Grace Group: Share one act of mercy you did this week and one you wish you had done.
Scripture: Micah 6:8
Wesleyan means of grace: Works of mercy (prudential), doing all the good you can, a Work of Mercy
Service is a household practice, not just a personal one. Kids learn what following Jesus looks like by watching their parents and grandparents serve, and by serving alongside them. A child who has packed meals for hungry families, raked leaves for an elderly neighbor, or made cards for the homebound has learned more theology than any Sunday school lesson can teach.
Ways to try it:
For your Grace Group: Share a service experience your family had this season and what your kids learned from it.
Scripture: Joshua 24:15
Wesleyan means of grace: Works of mercy (prudential), a Work of Mercy
The gospel is personal and public. Wesley visited prisoners, started clinics, opposed the slave trade, and advocated for the poor. United Methodists carry that legacy through our Social Principles and our long history of public engagement. Faith without concern for the common good is a smaller faith than scripture invites us to.
Ways to try it:
For your Grace Group: Share the issue God has put on your heart and what you're doing about it (or wrestling with).
Scripture: Isaiah 1:17
Wesleyan means of grace: Works of mercy (prudential), doing no harm, a Work of Mercy (acts of justice)
Wesley took this seriously enough to put it on his list of means of grace. When you sit with someone who is sick, dying, or unable to leave their home, you are doing something the gospel asks of every follower of Jesus. You don't need to be a pastor. You need to be present.
Ways to try it:
For your Grace Group: Share a visit you made and what you carried home from it.
Scripture: Matthew 25:36
Wesleyan means of grace: Visiting the sick and imprisoned (prudential), a Work of Mercy
This is one of five sets of practices at McPherson First, each tied to one of the membership promises.
The most fruitful way to walk these practices is in a Grace Group, a small group of six to ten people meeting weekly for a season. Grace Groups walk the practices together, share what's stirring, and pray for each other through the week.