Need Before Niche

I told our church this week that I want everyone serving in their sweet spot. I meant it. If your gifting is music, serve in music. If it’s mercy, serve in mercy. If it’s tech or finance or hospitality, go serve there. I want you to know your gifts and use them.

But here’s the principle I want to give you underneath all of that: **need before niche.**

Do you think Jesus was thrilled about the idea of washing feet? It wasn’t his sweet spot. He wasn’t gifted at foot-washing. He didn’t do it because it was his lane. He did it because it needed to be done, and he loved his disciples enough to do it.

See a need. Meet a need.

That’s the whole principle. And I bring it up because I think a lot of us are stuck. We’re waiting to serve until we’ve got our gifting all figured out — until we’ve taken the assessment, gotten the results, found the “sweet spot,” and confirmed it’s really us. And listen, that process matters. I want to help you find it. But Jesus didn’t wait for a spiritual gifts inventory before he picked up a towel. He saw a need in the room and he met it.

If you’re waiting to feel perfectly matched before you’ll say yes to something, you might be waiting a long time. Sometimes the fastest way to discover your gifting is to just start meeting a need in front of you and see what happens.

Peter tells us in 1 Peter 4:10 that every single one of us has received a gift from God, and we’re supposed to use it to serve one another as good stewards of his grace. Your gifts weren’t just given to you, they were entrusted to you for somebody else. That’s the whole logic of stewardship. It’s not yours to keep; it’s yours to use.

So here’s what I actually want to ask you this week: what’s the need in front of you right now?

We don’t ask you to serve so you can be a cog in a machine. Serving isn’t primarily something we want from you. It’s something we want for you. Because serving is the training ground for becoming like Jesus. 

Training grounds aren’t always comfortable, and they’re rarely the thing we’d pick first. Jesus didn’t pick foot-washing first either. He just saw what needed to be done and did it.

So don’t wait until serving feels like the perfect fit. See a need. Meet a need. Just like Jesus.