The High Ministry of Serving Others - David Bercot

Most women didn't want to, that they wanted to be full-time mothers, but that's what changed in the late '60s was, uh, the feminist movement said, "Oh, being a full-time mother, what a wasted life. You know, you need to do something important with your life."

Good morning, everyone. Good to see everyone here. And, well, it looks like we filled out not too badly. So, um, uh, just blessings on everyone. We are going to be talking about the high ministry of serving others. This ties into Mother's Day, in case you are wondering.

Jesus said, "Do not be called teachers, for one is your teacher, the Christ." Now, we know we have teachers in the church, and people in the New Testament are called teachers, but he's meaning, don't anyone exalt themselves up as the teacher the way different ones through history have done. "But he who is greatest among you shall be your servant." So servanthood is what Christianity is all about. It's the example that Jesus set for us. As most of you know and are probably sick of hearing, the past six months I've been working on an early Christian commentary on the book of Romans.

Um, if all goes well tomorrow or the next day, I should be sending it off to the printer. Um, I should have added that as a prayer request. It seems like I keep getting that close and then, oh, find some problem here or there. But the book of Romans was very exhausting because it deals so much with theology, which is not necessarily most of the New Testament. It's an unusual book in that respect.

Um, but I was so glad when I got to chapter 16, not just because it was finally the last chapter, because it's a totally different kind of chapters where Paul gives greetings to various people. In the closing chapter of Romans, Paul sends greetings to 29 specific people. And I couldn't help but notice about half of the people he greets are sisters.

And the very first person he talks about is a sister. Her name's Phoebe. I think we've all heard of her. And it really made an impression as I read chapter 16, um, the work that sisters do on behalf of the kingdom that often is not fully appreciated because it's behind the scenes or it's in a different capacity that doesn't bring maybe glory in a human sense. It does bring glory from God. And Paul, I think, recognizing this and the Holy Spirit guiding him, it's very interesting. Like I say, when I read chapter 16 of Romans, it really made me think different. I couldn't help but notice the great honor Paul bestowed on three women in particular, although, like I say, it's half of the 29.

But three he mentions almost right at the beginning, starting off. Phoebe is the first one he mentions, and then Priscilla and her husband Aquila are the next one. And then he mentions a man, and then the next one down is a woman named Mary, not any of the Marys that we know.

And it's interesting because none of these three women did things; they didn't accomplish things that the world exalts. In other words, the world would just pay no attention. There would be no notice given there. But they accomplished things that God exalts. And Paul was in tune with that. And so he brings praise to them. I mean, their names are now in the Bible for all eternity. You know, I don't know what where the scriptures are going to be once Christ returns and we're in heaven, but I don't think the scriptures will ever disappear.

And, you know, their names are written there in God's word for eternity. So I thought when I read this at the time, I thought, now this would make a wonderful Mother's Day message. And so I started thinking about all of that and then learned last week, no, um, we're going to have a visiting speaker. So I thought, well, next year's Mother's Day, I will, uh, I will maybe preach on this. So it worked out fairly good because I already had the outline in my mind kind of prepared.

So the main message I want to communicate this morning is that the ministries that matter most to God are often the ones on which Christians, let alone the world, it's often ones that we don't place a lot of value on. We tend to exalt things that are maybe different than what God exalts. And often these are ministries carried on by sisters that don't quite get the same notice. People notice when you give a sermon or you write a book, um, that gets the attention of people, but it doesn't necessarily put you anywhere in God's sight. Uh, just this week, when was it? Uh, Thursday, uh, Friday. No, it was Friday. Yeah, Rebecca was, was at her house and, you know, a family just shows up out of the blue.

I've never even heard of them, you know, and ring our doorbell. And, uh, I mean, I told Deborah, it's strange, I mean, because we're out in the country, you know, it's strange, a doorbell ringing. We don't, that doesn't happen very often. And, uh, and then I, uh, I think Andre got it and I heard him talking to someone and I thought, oh, this sounds like somebody thinking Scroll is a, you know, got a big building here or something. So I went and hid in my office and, and, uh, yeah, sure enough, they had come hoping to talk to me. And, but it's funny because people think, yeah, you're someone important because you wrote a, wrote a book.

But all the ministries that go on, I mean, if I were just, you know, not an author and just serving God in maybe ways that would mean more even to God, that would exalt me in his eyes, yeah, no one would be coming ringing my doorbell, you know, from another state even. You know, Christians often place great value on the ministries that are not necessarily very high in God's estimation. Some of them are, but, uh, yeah, many of them, like I say, we take notice of, but, but God maybe has them on a very different level. And we see this illustrated in the, in the ministries of these three sisters, and, and we'll be talking about those three today, Phoebe, Priscilla, and Mary.

And let's start with Phoebe. Romans 16 verses, well, we're not going to read all, uh, all of the six verses, but the first two deal with Phoebe. "I commend to you, Phoebe, our sister, who is a servant of the church in Cenchreae, that you may receive her in the Lord in a manner worthy of the saints, and a sister in whatever business she has need of you, for indeed she has been a helper of many and of myself also."

So Paul gives the greatest honor to Phoebe. I mean, he's greeting all of these people in Rome, but he places her first at the very top of his list. In fact, he's not actually sending her greetings. Uh, instead, he's praising her to the church. He says, "I want to commend to you this sister named Phoebe." And what the situation is, he doesn't greet her because she doesn't live in Rome at that time. She's still there, uh, next, uh, next to Corinth, where Paul is apparently writing from. Cenchreae is a small village. It was on the sea. It's five miles from Corinth. We'll talk about that in a minute. So she's planning on moving to Rome.

So either she had already left and was on her way, or he knew that she was going to be coming there. So in his letter, what he's doing is saying, "I commend her to you, and I want you to help her because she's been a help to many people here." So, yeah, I mean, like I say, you couldn't get a nicer recommendation, something better said than I, like I say, that's written now in God's words for eternity.

Okay, he calls her a servant of the church in Cenchreae. Where is Cenchreae? As I've mentioned, it's a small village lying five miles east of Corinth. Here's on the map, you see Corinth, and there's an isthmus. Now there's a canal that connects the water. I don't think it was in existence in Paul's day. And Cenchreae is right on the eastern shore. It kind of served as the eastern port for Corinth.

Okay, so what does it mean that Phoebe was a servant of the church at Cenchreae? Now, in researching this, of course, I was doing this for the commentary, it became very evident that what so many Christians today imagine a high ministry to be. So what they want to turn Phoebe into, uh, their image of Phoebe reflects their image of what they think is great in God's eyes.

And it's particularly so of modern Christian thinking that's been substantially influenced by feminism. And we're going to, we're going to be looking at that. So, as Justin mentioned in his announcements, it's, uh, motherhood has been, I mean, Mother's Day is still a big day. People still praise motherhood. And yet, yeah, almost every woman wants, you know, a career that mother as a career is now looked down on. Oh, you're just a housewife. That's, you know, that's looked down on by the world, not, not by God, but, but by the world. The famous, I don't know if any of you remember it, uh, Hillary Clinton, I think it's when she was running for president or anyway, when she was, her husband was president, she, her famous words, "I could have stayed home and baked cookies instead of look what I've become," you know, and I could have just stayed home and baked cookies.

Uh, didn't go well with full-time mothers anyway. Now, we're going to be talking about some of their imaginings about Phoebe in a minute. But let's look first at what we truly do know about her based on the scripture there and the early Christians, what they say living in that culture. Now, the phrase a servant in the church at Cenchreae can also be translated a deaconess of the church at Cenchreae. Now, Chrysostom, he believes that Paul is referring to her as a deaconess, which is possible. I don't know that that office was around in Paul's day, and it was never around in the West. It was only in the Eastern churches that they had deaconesses.

So what was the ministry of a deaconess? There's a work, many of you probably haven't seen it because it's not in the Anti-Nicene Fathers. It's called the Didascalia. It was written about the year 235. It's probably online now. And it provides a description of the ministries of deaconesses. I mean, it's going through all the ministries, what they do, and it talks about deaconesses. And I'm not going to, just for time, I'm not going to be able to put it all, but this is just one section of it. It says, for example, a deaconess is required to go into the houses of pagans where there are believing women. I mean, a man just couldn't show up at some pagan's house.

Oh, I need to see your wife. Yeah, what about, you know? But yeah, a woman could do that. So that was one of the ministries of deaconesses. Also to visit those who are sick and to minister to them and their needs and to bathe those women who are recovering from sickness. So these were practical hands-on ministries that deaconesses were doing. And these are ministries that God puts a lot of value on. Like I say, humans don't think, or a lot of humans don't think that's very important. God looks at that as like, hey, this is a big ministry. Now, like I say, it's not clear if they had deaconesses in the days of Paul because there's no other mention of them.

So I don't know. Now, I personally think Paul was singling out Phoebe as having an even higher ministry. So let's say that there was the ministry of deaconess. I think he's actually placing her above being an ordinary deaconess. That's how high he views her ministry. The fact that, like I say, when it comes time to list these 29 people, he starts off, the first one on his mind is Phoebe.

Because I don't think there was any limit to the way Phoebe ministered to the physical needs of everyone in the church. I mean, it sounds like from what he says that she was the servant of all. When he says she was the servant of the church, I think he's saying she was serving everyone in the church. If you were fortunate enough to be a member of the church in Cenchreae, yeah, you had Phoebe there that, yeah, if you had needs, whatever it was, Phoebe was, hey, I'm available to help. Let me know if you need me to help you. I think he's putting her at that level that is even higher than just being a deaconess, which is a high calling in itself.

Origen writes this, "Paul honors Phoebe with great praise and commendation, and he enumerates her excellent deeds. He says that she has helped many people in every way. She was always available for anyone's needs." So when I read those words of Origen, a lot of light bulbs went on inside my head that, I mean, we all know this on paper, but serving others is something big to God. It's not a secondary ministry. Like I say, we think of the big ministries being pastoring a church, uh, public speaking, you know, maybe writing books. We think those, oh, those, those are the, you know, the big callings.

Serving others is what is big to God. And that's something anybody and everybody can, can do. And some people do it more than others. The more we do it, the higher we are in God's estimation. And like I say, it doesn't matter if you're male or female. This is something anyone can do. And it sounds like Phoebe just devoted her life to that. I'm guessing she was single, maybe never married, or maybe a widow. But, um, yeah, she just made that her life's work. Because this is all we really know about Phoebe, what Paul has said. She has been a helper of many, including myself also. There is nothing grand in the eyes of the world.

This is nothing grand. And in the eyes of worldly Christians. So, like I say, it's interesting. You look up Phoebe on Google. I was trying to just, I wasn't doing research there. I'm not, I don't trust anything. They said, I was trying to come up with a picture. I mean, it's going to be an imaginary, you know, picture, but I thought, yeah, just put something on the screen. Well, when it comes up and you see there's a gillion books, I mean, wow. I mean, it's like, well, we know one verse about her and, you know, people have written all these books about, about Phoebe. It's interesting. And the titles and all that, you can see what in their mind would be important, what they want Phoebe to be, which isn't necessarily what God was praising her for being.

Like I say, just being a helper to others, to the world and to worldly Christians, and unfortunately that's so much of the church today is like, no, we don't, we don't want someone being praised just because she was a helper. We want Phoebe at a different level. But this was something grand in the eyes of Paul and of God. So it's something everybody can make their ministry. I want my ministry just to be helping others. I want to help others in every way that I can.

And what kind of help did she give? More than likely, you know, he doesn't say beyond that. I'm guessing in the early Christians seem to be understanding this. She provided food, shelter, clothing. I'm sure she washed the feet, the feet of the saints, tended the sick. I think all the things that are really important to God, I think Phoebe, she was there doing those, those things. So these are things that mothers do a lot of that, that like I say, often don't, aren't viewed as high. And it's something single sisters, widows can, can do just physical ministry and men can do as, as, as well.

Her ministry was so outstanding that Paul recommends her to the entire church in Rome. And the church in Rome was the largest church in the world. So, I mean, imagine being singled out by Paul, who was well known throughout the world. So here's Paul, and he's praising you publicly in a letter that's going to be there for, forever. I mean, I don't know, it'd be hard to honor someone, uh, with, with more than that.

And he's probably anticipating, okay, she's done all of this here. When she goes to Rome, I mean, now she's going to have a big field to be doing these same kind of ministries. Because Cenchreae was not a very large town. Rome was the largest city in the world. In fact, it was the largest city that had ever been built up to that time. And so now Phoebe's going to be there and she's going to be carrying on a lot of ministry. I think he wants the church to support her financially, uh, so she can devote her time to this and give her whatever help she needs to get set up there.

Now, I went online, like I said, to get a painting of, uh, Phoebe. Uh, and of course, it's going to be imaginary. But like I say, both the pictures and then all the things that are up there, it showed me a lot of what various Christians imagine is important in God's mind, besides other than what is really important. Now, this picture, and I'm sorry it's blurry, I could not find a clearer picture of this. This was, it's up there in several places, but it's never, uh, any more clear. And this, I think, is the real Phoebe. It's showing her, it's cut off a little bit there in Photoshop. Uh, it's showing her, she's show, uh, sewing a garment there in her hand, mending somebody's clothes or maybe making an article of clothes.

She's surrounded by little children and other people that are cut off there in the picture. But it's just presenting Phoebe as somebody who's a helper. She's there, hey, whatever you need, your garment's torn, I'll sew it. You don't have anything to wear other than rags, I'll sew you something.

Um, you're sick, I'll be there to, to, to take care of you. I mean, this, like I say, in God's eyes, wow, this is, this is high. Now, like I say, what the world want, the world or worldly Christians want to do with Phoebe.

Um, well, yeah, the real Phoebe, she wasn't trying to be great. I mean, she's just, I want to help people, you know, just love. I, I want to serve people. Now, she was being great, but that wasn't, she wasn't trying to be. In other words, she wasn't, hey, I want to be someone everyone, everyone looks up to. I just want to help people. But in doing that, she was being great. Uh, one of the early Christians, probably my favorite quote, we don't speak great things, we live them, which summarized Christianity and would have summarized Phoebe. Okay, now this was another picture of her that I, that I found online, kind of a different picture. Now, um, in the Middle Ages, all kinds of, uh, uh, myths were created about Phoebe, again, based on what Christians thought was important.

So one of them is she was somebody important in the household of Caesar. I'm not sure where they, where they got that, but, uh, I mean, it, it just went on. But one of them was that she delivered the letter of Romans to Paul. Um, it's possible she was going there, but none of the early Christians say that, and there's no reason to think that, uh, logically he would want the letter to get there before she arrived so that they would be all ready for her instead of saying, saying, oh, here's the letter, uh, flip down to the bottom. You know, it just, it just seems logical he would want it there before her. But even that, that, oh, that would elevate her because she delivered the letter.

No, that's not what made Phoebe great. But then taking it from there, then all these more feminist commentaries, then she doesn't just bring his letter, then she's the one who reads it to the church. And yeah, in this one description, and then she turns and she looks at this group of people reading his letter. And then she turns and she looks at this group and, you know, like, yeah, she's essentially preaching, doing the very thing that Paul would have said not to do. And see, in their minds, this is great. Now, Phoebe's doing this. If she's up there preaching, then yeah, that's the Phoebe that we want. See, that's what's great.

Yeah, what a distorted, you know, we're talking about the upside down kingdom. Yeah. It's like what the world thinks. And now this thinking has got in the church. They think that's what would make her great rather than this, this Phoebe. The two Phoebes, how people imagine the one, I think the real Phoebe who was doing what was great in God's eyes. The other is a Phoebe doing what is great in the eyes of today's church, most people today. Yeah. If she wasn't up there preaching, if she wasn't up there standing before the congregation, then yeah, she wasn't doing anything great. We, we want a Phoebe who's, who's taking that role, not a Phoebe who's the helper of many.

It'd be hard to better illustrate how differently many Christians today imagine greatness to be in contrast to the early Christians. Like, like I say, that to them is greatness, you know, in all these books, you know, Phoebe, one of them was, um, um, uh, turning gender roles upside down or something like that. And it was just, I mean, all these things they, they imagine just out of one verse that she's been a helper of many, including to myself, and they've created this imaginary, um, person. But the point of that is never forget what is important in God's eyes. And as a sister, like I say, the ministries that are open to you, don't think that, oh, these are lesser ministries in God's eyes.

No, these are the ones that God puts the most important. And I wanted to put side by side, I, I, I thought of these two passages on the, uh, left. These are the ones on Judgment Day standing before Jesus, and they're shocked that they're being rejected. And many will say to me that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in your name, cast out demons in your name, done many wonders, that's miracles in your name. I mean, they're thinking, well, these are the important things. Hey, we prophesied. We, we did, uh, miracles. We cast out demons, you know, surely, you know, we're someone important in your eyes. He says, I never knew you, you know, because he said they were wicked people practicing lawlessness.

Now, in contrast, Jesus, he says on Judgment Day, he's going to turn to the righteous. He's going to say, I was hungry. You gave me food. Now, see, that's big in my eyes. You gave me food. You gave me drink. I was a stranger. You took me in, provided hospitality. I was naked. You clothed me. I was sick. You visited me. I was in prison. You came to me. Hey, these are what make you great in the eyes of Jesus, doing these kinds of things. This is the ministry of Phoebe, giving food, drink, uh, taking strangers in, whatever. Like I say, Paul says, she helped me in many ways. We don't know what all that, that was, but he was so busy preaching.

Yeah, he had a lot of needs that it was wonderful to have someone like Phoebe there who could, uh, help take care of them because he was not married. I often, I don't say this every night, but I often say to Deborah, thank you for taking such good care of me because I can be pretty helpless sometimes by myself. And, uh, I think Paul is saying the same thing. Yeah, thank you, Phoebe, for taking care of me.

All right, we're going to come back to Aquila and Priscilla in a few minutes, but I thought I'd just skip down to Mary. It's not someone that people normally think of because we don't know much about her. A great Mary who bestowed much labor on us. And that's all that Paul says. We don't know anything more about this, this Mary than what he said here.

She bestowed much labor on us, us meaning Paul and his companions. Timothy was probably there, uh, during some of that time. So this was personal ministry, again, taking care of physical needs. These aren't a little thing. The things that you do as a wife and as a mother, these are not little things to God. Like I say, the world now looks at, oh, you're just a housewife. That's not how God is, is looking at it because a housewife is doing lots of ministry, lots of help, not just to her family or her husband, but normally to other people as well. These are the things that in God's eyes are big ministries, not again, what the world thinks is big.

Feminists place very little value on this type of ministry. And like I say, they're wanting to recreate, uh, these ladies in the Bible who have done great things. They want to take that away and have them doing things that are not great in God's eye. But God places huge value on it. A famous general said, an army marches on its stomach. Well, the same is true of God's army. Women like this Mary made it possible for Paul, Timothy, and others to carry on their evangelism. Mary no doubt provided them with food, but probably helped them in numerous other ways. So like I say, these were people who made what Paul did possible. If he had had to spend all of his time, uh, sometimes he did work, but normally people were providing for him.

People were feeding him. People were doing all these things so that he could be planting these churches and doing what he did. This was similar to the group of women who took care of the needs of Jesus and, and his apostles, Joanna and Susanna, uh, Mary Magdalene was, was one of them. And you know, when I was thinking, just when I was reflecting here on Romans 16, we know their names. We know the names of these women. We don't know the names of any of the ones who were part of the 70.

I think the 70 were great, but it's interesting. None of their names are given us. We, we don't know their names, but we do know the names of Joanna and Susanna, Mary Magdalene, people who were performing physical ministries to Jesus. So again, those are, it's a high calling. It's something that, that he puts a lot of value.

Now, Phoebe and Mary were probably, uh, single women, is my guess. Um, not necessarily, but more than likely, uh, they were. But now let's look at the praise Paul brought to a married couple, Aquila and Priscilla. He says, greet Priscilla and Aquila, my helpers in Christ Jesus, who have for my life laid down their own necks, to whom not only I give thanks, but also all the churches of the Gentiles. So again, he's talking about them as his helpers, uh, and is praising them, said they laid down their own necks for him. We don't even know what that was, but we know that when he was there in Corinth and he, he was staying with them, that there were riots, that he nearly got killed.

They may have nearly been killed in the process or put themselves in great danger. Everyone said, yeah, he's staying there with Priscilla and Aquila. And, uh, yeah, if you want to get it, get Paul, go burn their house down. We, you know, we don't know what happened, but they put their lives in danger. They, they knew they were just to the opposition he was getting.

This is what we read in Acts 18:2. He talking about Paul found a certain Jew named Aquila, a man of Pontus by race, who had recently come from Italy with his wife, Priscilla. And I believe they're in Corinth because Claudius had commanded all the Jews to depart from Rome. So they were refugees. They had to get out of Rome. And, um, I should have got the verse before it. I think it's in Corinth where they've come. Um, now listen to this. It says, and he came to them. Okay. So Paul is there. He hears about them and he comes to their house and they invite him in. Now that may seem like a little thing.

Um, he didn't do a David, they didn't do a David Burseau. And who's that at the door? There to go hide. They, uh, they invited him in. He stays with him for 18 months. That's why I go hide. But anyway, um, but, uh, yeah, I mean, the hospitality that immediately, hey, come and stay with us. He found that there, that they were making tents. It was a trade that he had learned at some point. And, um, so yeah, he stays with them. Uh, they help provide him with work. I'm, I'm sure in that trade, uh, I'm sure Priscilla's cooking the meals, helping, you know, like I say, they take care of him for 18 months.

And then he goes to Ephesus and he asks them to come and they, they follow him to, to Ephesus. So even though they hadn't intended to be missionaries, I mean, the reason they left Rome was because of persecution. You know, Claudius ordered all the Jews out of Rome. And so, you know, they had to flee and they go there. But yeah, they make themselves available to God. When you do that, God will, will make your, make, will use you in a way.

And then after Paul left Ephesus and the band was lifted, then they eventually go back to their home in Rome. Origin writes this, it is apparent that they, Aquila and Priscilla, were obliging and hospitable to all the faithful brethren, not only to those of the Jews, but also to those of the Gentiles. And he's saying that because Paul said that they are, they've been a helper to many, uh, in, in, in that they were highly esteemed by all of the Gentiles. And he's saying that there's a, a, a big point because they were Jews. And you know, we see in other places in the Bibles that most Jews, wow, they might, you know, it, it was like pulling teeth just to get them to sit in church with a Gentile, let alone go to their house, let alone be a host and inviting Gentiles to stay with you and ministering to Gentiles in many ways.

So that's why he makes a point that they're known among the churches of the Gentiles because they were Jews. You would expect they would be hospitable to another Jew, but, uh, in the world's eyes, that, that a Jew wouldn't be hospitable to a Gentile.

Chrysostom says, here Paul hints of their hospitality and monetary assistance. He holds them in admiration because they not only had made their whole property open to everyone, but they had poured forth their blood as, as well. So they're seeing in this passage that, uh, Aquila and Priscilla, yeah, they, they were just helping in every way, not just letting Paul stay with them, providing monetary assistance, um, putting their lives on, on the line, uh, for his sake and for the sake of the kingdom.

They were a godly couple who served the kingdom however they were able, ministering to people's physical needs seems to have been their main ministry. Of course, they, they wouldn't have thought of it as a ministry. For them, it was simply living the Christian life. Hey, how can I be of help? How can I serve somebody? And here's Paul. He's out there by himself. Um, yeah, they have him stay with them and take care of him. So they are a great example for married couples today.

Now, sadly, one source online, when I was trying to get a picture, uh, fictitious picture of them, um, referred to them as the power couple. That was the thing under there. Aquila and Priscilla, the power couple. It's another example of today's distorted views of the high ministry of simply serving others. It's like, well, if that's all they did was serve other people, you know, we want this power couple, whatever that is supposed to mean. But they weren't a power couple. They were a humble couple who helped others as best they could in whatever that takes care of. As far as we know, Aquila never officially held any church office, such as an elder or deacon.

There's no mention of either of them, uh, being a prophet or a prophetess. They just help people. But that was a high calling. But see, the church today, no, no, no, we don't want that. We want this power couple, whatever that means, doing miracles or, you know, uh, I don't know. I didn't look it up. What is, what is a power couple? Maybe some of you know.

We married couples can all be modern equivalents of Aquila and Priscilla. We don't necessarily have to move anywhere to do that. Like I say, they didn't move there to minister. They, they were kicked out of their town and they just ministered wherever they went. But we can do that here. We can have a heart that is willing to serve. And it might be in a large way that gets attention, and it might be in a small way that few in the church will notice, but God always does. The point is we can serve our brothers and sisters in ways that humans think are small. But when you do that, don't think it's small in God's eyes.

And you children can do that as well. There's a lot you can do that are small things, you know, helping your parents, helping a neighbor, helping someone in church, doing, you know, some small task. These are not little things to God. They're little things to the world and to worldly Christians.

Normally, it isn't the great speakers who make churches work. It's all the ministries carried on by the various members of the congregation that create a church and keep it functioning. In other words, you don't build the church around someone, oh, he's a great speaker. I mean, that might attract some people, but you don't really get a church out of that. I mean, here at CCF, we're blessed with an effective body of elders, and we have a wonderful, hardworking body of deacons here. We also have a very high percentage of brothers who are basically doing the work of deacons. They haven't been officially ordained yet, but they're doing the, the, the work of deacons.

At the same time, without the ministry of the sisters, we wouldn't have a church. The ministry of the sisters is one of the backbones in any church, and yet often it falls under the radar. That is, it often falls under human radar. They, they don't hardly notice it. It doesn't fall under God's radar. He knows what you are doing, ministering to other people in the church. For example, it might seem like preparing, uh, food for a fellowship meal is a lesser ministry than preaching a sermon. I don't think God looks at it that way. You are doing something for your fellow man. You are blessing them in a way that's important. The agape, which was basically a fellowship meal, it was part of church life from the time of the New Testament through the period of the early church.

It eventually disappeared in the Middle Ages. Some, uh, churches are bringing it back, uh, today, but, uh, it was every week they, they had an agape meal. Uh, normally it was every Sunday night. The church got together and yeah, it was a time of sharing, but it was built around a meal. I mean, God looks at food as very important. I mean, Jesus, the communion, one of our highest ordinances is built around food. And sisters did and still do most of the work connected with the agape or with a fellowship meal. I mean, here's one of the pictures in the catacombs.

When I first saw this, I, I thought maybe it was a drawing of the Last Supper. Uh, until, uh, it's not, it's, it's out of the range of the picture here, but, uh, one of the early Christians, I mean, this is amazing 'cause this goes back to like the year 200, 250. And I wish I could remember the, the person's name, but it was something like, uh, bring it hot, Lydia, or it was somebody, somebody like, like, like that. So it, it looked like they're having a good time and whoever, you know, this Lydia or I can't like say, I don't remember the name. It was just graffiti scrawled there in the catacombs. But so I realized, no, this is not the Last Supper.

It's depicting this. They're having an agape meal and it looks like they were having a good time. And one of the sisters, um, probably many sisters, yeah, were had cooked, were bringing, uh, hot, hot food. And yeah, this is part of church life. You know, like I say, it was a weekly occurrence in the early church.

And today our fellowship meals play a major role in binding our church together. I mean, we all look forward to them. And it's not just the eating that, that, you know, kind of serves as the medium, but it's a time we all get together. But people tend to get together around food. I mean, God designed it that way. It's a time that binds us together. It's also, uh, when a lot of people visit and we get introduced to other people is at, uh, our fellowship meals. Likewise, just periodically having another one over for an ordinary meal at your house, this is part of church life. I mean, if you didn't have these things, if all you had, you know, was just somebody up here preaching, it wouldn't be a church.

The ministry of having host families, that is, uh, just an earmark of, of so many Mennonite plain churches, um, of, of having a host family every Sunday. Well, it made a big difference to me. And when we first visited a Mennonite church, I didn't know anything about that, you know. And I, I visited other churches before and very typically, you know, no one invites you over for a meal. Sometimes somebody does, but normally not. Uh, and it was like, wow, this is nice. We get invited over. Oh, maybe just 'cause it's our first time. No, every time we visited, we always got invited over for, for a meal. And, uh, I mean, that's a key ministry.

Again, this is primarily the, the ministry that a sister's doing. Um, my point is that we should not only, we should not think of these as minor ministries, but for what they truly are, they're major ministries of church life. Like I say, a church is more than what happens just on Sunday morning. Although sisters are doing a lot that makes Sunday morning possible, but this isn't what church life is about Sunday morning. It is part of it. But if that's all it is, is that we're gonna have preaching and teaching, you know, then a church would be very different, different. It would be about the same as a theology class at a seminary. You know, you come and you learn and you, and you, and then you leave.

I mean, that's not church. That's learning. Church is all these other things that, yeah, you sisters play such a key role in. And it, it's easy for any of us to forget. And it's easy for you maybe to think, well, this is a, uh, a lousy ministry or, or, or whatever. It's not in God's eyes. It is very important. And like you say, you are helping to make this a church.

On one of the occasions when Jesus encountered the apostles after his resurrection, do you remember this? It's in John. He cooked breakfast for them. I mean, I was thinking about that. This is the creator of the universe, Jesus Christ. This is after the resurrection. He's no longer just a, a human. Uh, he has a glorified body now. And he's, he cooks breakfast for them, fish. And he said he had bread on the, on the coals and invites them, you know, uh, to eat. This is our creator. So yeah, serving a meal, if, if Jesus is humble enough that this was an important enough ministry for the son of God, our Lord, our creator, that he's willing to, to cook a breakfast for his, uh, apostles, it's not a little ministry.

It's something he values very highly. My grandfather's question, and this will close on this, uh, this point. Uh, this was back in the sixties. Not most women were full-time mothers at that, at that point, if they were married. Um, but a lot, you know, were beginning to go to work, put their children in, in childcare. And I remember my grandfather, uh, he was talking to my mom. I, I was there in the room. He, he said, I wonder what's gonna happen when all the mothers start working away from home.

And, uh, 'cause then it was just, you know, a small percentage, maybe 5% or something. He said, what is going to happen when all the mothers are doing this? Well, uh, it happened that most mothers outside of, you know, conservative Christian churches like this, they are working out, out of the home. And ever since women began working full-time, we've seen a disturbing drop in the percentage of Americans who attend church and who believe in God. The disappearance of full-time mothers is probably not the main cause. I'm not saying, ah, if that hadn't ever happened, we, we wouldn't have had this decline. I think it is one of the major reasons that children are no longer growing up being, uh, parented full-time by a mother.

And they're losing that influence of a full-time godly mother. That's a tremendous influence. And those of you, you who are children here today, you don't know how blessed you are that you have a full-time mother who has been there, you know, throughout the day. You're lucky you have two parents as, as, as well. That is missing from, from so many, uh, families.

Full-time mothers are also definitely a major reason why we conservative Anabaptists are rapidly growing, contrary to the trend in many other conservative Christian churches. So the liberal churches are all losing their members. The conservative ones, uh, a little bit of, of growth. Uh, it's, it's nothing like it was in the sixties and, and seventies. The conservative Anabaptists, um, what was it? I mean, I think we are, and I don't even know what the adjective, what the verb is, quintupled since the, the 1980s. Like we're five times as big conservative Mennonite churches. The Amish, they double, is it, I think every 20 years. Um, I mean, just the exact opposite trend you're seeing other, other places.

When mothers work full-time, couples generally limit themselves to two or less children. So if, if you're gonna have a career outside the home, generally you don't want a large family. In fact, most Americans, it's, it, the average is less than two. In contrast, among conservative plain churches, most couples have large families. Now, I'm embarrassed to say that most of our growth doesn't come from evangelism. I wish I could say, yeah, we're five times bigger than we were in the eighties because we've been making so many converts. We have, we have been doing that as people, but it's our large families and the high retention rate. And of course, we have large families because we have full-time mothers.

We have a high retention rate. And I think a large part of that is full-time mothers that children aren't just being raised in daycare centers and then spend their time out with people. And then, yeah, at night they, they see their parent or parents.

I've said we wouldn't have this without the ministry of our mother. So yeah, like I say, you're playing a huge role in the kingdom of God and in not church, just church life, but the fact that we're still around as Anabaptists and that we are, we are growing way more rapidly than just about any of the other churches out there. Now, I'm not leaving fathers out of this because they play an equal role in the family. It's a big difference when you have two parents versus one, but we can talk about that on Father's Day. Today we want to honor and highlight the often overlooked or underappreciated ministry that our sisters have had in our churches from the time of Phoebe on down to today.