Mission and Service

​The Message

Today, the Moravian Church celebrates the “Moravian Day of Service.”

This annual celebration can be honoured in a variety of ways.

Some churches will hold a short blessing service followed by different opportunities to go out into the community and serve their neighbours.

Some churches will not hold worship services at all and instead will encourage or organize mission work with another organization which serves people where they are at.

Some churches will hold a regular worship service but then have opportunities to serve one another within the walls of the church – writing cards to those who cannot attend worship, organizing and cleaning the spaces used within the church, etc.

Because I have only been here for just over a year, and admittedly because I was just on vacation and did not have the time to think through service opportunities outside of our church, I did not organize anything for us to do today.

However, I absolutely still think we can celebrate the Day of Service.

That said, I don’t see this as one day during which we should be serving, and then forgetting about it for the rest of the year.

Instead, I think today can be an opportunity to celebrate all of the ministry and service we do throughout the year here at Good Shepherd.

I have often heard over the last year from many different people about all of the ministries that Good Shepherd used to offer.

Many of those events and ministries fell off the radar during COVID.

COVID of course made it difficult to do big events together because of the need to socially distance.

Dropping many of the ministries we used to offer during that time also made it very hard to start them again – partly because people were slow and cautious about gathering, and partly because people just didn’t seem to have the energy for them anymore.

And, since arriving here, I can hear the nostalgia and a bit of sadness in people’s voices when they talk about the things we used to do here.

I can also hear the pride and excitement as people share what some of those ministries used to be, how they felt, and how they served the community.

I think sometimes church members can feel disappointed in themselves when they see the evolution of their ministry offerings, and when they can see how many things they used to do that they no longer are physically, mentally, emotionally, or spiritually able to offer.

But, I don’t see these changes as failures or disappointments.

I see it as a necessary part of the life-cycle of any organization.

We cannot possibly expect that offering the exact same ministries forever is the best way to serve our communities, ourselves, or God.

People change. Communities change. We change.

We still do so many things that we can and should be proud of at this church.

I spent some time this week going through my work log since I arrived at Good Shepherd.

In doing that, I came up with a lengthy list of ministries and services we offer here, and in honour of the Moravian Day of Service, I would like to acknowledge them.

The list is long, and it is something we should be proud of.

Here are many of the ways that the people of Good Shepherd are serving.

Some of these ministries are internal, and some are external.

And much of what we do as a community allows our members to take their loving and serving hearts out into their communities to serve, not necessarily as representatives of Good Shepherd Church, but as representatives of God’s love for neighbour and community.

It should be mentioned that this list is probably not exhaustive, so if I’ve forgotten anything, please know that it was not intentional.

It is also worth mentioning that I have grouped things together in ways that I think make the most sense, but it may be that some of these ministries could be in more than one category, or don’t quite fit into the category I chose but I couldn’t find a better option.
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In a nutshell, I am not perfect, so forgive me in advance if I have made any mistakes. ☺ 

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​As you can hopefully see, we do incredible work together. Some of what we do serves this immediate community, but much of what we do serves the wider community – not just the communities in which the church sits, but the wider Calgary community as well as the wider Moravian Church.
We are an amazing group of people doing amazing work on behalf of God, and that is worth celebrating! Give ourselves a round of applause!
I am not sure how many of you are aware, but each year on or around September 16th, pastors in the Moravian Church gather in our local areas to celebrate Cup of Covenant.
This is not just a celebration of past ministry, but it is an opportunity to re-commit to doing ministry for another year.
In the Canadian district, because Edmonton and Calgary are so far apart, we gather annually to do a retreat together to celebrate Cup of Covenant.
This retreat just happened this past week.
We gathered together and recommitted ourselves to ministry for another year, sharing our joys and the griefs and sorrows we have each experienced over the last year, and sharing our hopes for the upcoming year in ministry.
Then, we solidified our covenant with one another through a sharing of Holy Communion – a receiving of God’s grace and God’s steadfast love for us as we prepared for another year of ministry.
In a few minutes, we will be celebrating Holy Communion together here.
I would like to suggest that on this day when we celebrate our mission and service together, that we re-commit to another year of ministry.
The beauty of the Moravian way of celebrating Holy Communion is that we all partake of eating the bread of life and drinking the blood of Christ together, as one.
May we receive God’s grace, as usual, but may we also re-commit to God’s call to service and ministry to each other, to our neighbours, to our communities, and to the world.
May we remember our purpose for being a church, may we celebrate the amazing work that we do together in service to God and in the footsteps of our Saviour, Jesus Christ.
May we leave the sanctuary today, in unity and with renewed dedication to our mission. Amen.
Let us pray: Gracious and Loving God, we are so grateful for the events in each of our lives that ultimately brought us together to be a church. We could not possibly do all that we do, serve the people we serve, or love each other as deeply without your blessing or your guidance. We a grateful for all that we continue to be able to do together as a community, and we pray that you would continue to lead us in service to each other and to those around us. We pray all of this in your Holy name. Amen.