The Softer Face of Servants

Simplicity! Incarnation! Servanthood! Sound too harsh? If you don’t like our principles, we now have other ones! If you always felt as though there was something missing among Servants cardinal values, you were probably right. There has been a concern that in following Christ among the poor, we can become too hard on ourselves and others, expecting saints and heroes rather than the fragile, unsure, wounded, stumblers-after-Christ that we all seem to be. There has been among us a growing realization that unless we stress God’s graciousness as well as our response of discipleship, we are only telling half the story.

Last year at Manilla forum, a small group sat around and said to each other “there has to be more than the five Servants principles or we’ll all go mad”. So then and there they dreamed of how we might officially recognize the dimension of care and grace. Lois Bellingham then facilitated a meeting to bring this idea back to the whole Forum. They are earthed, conceived and birthed out of the pain and fragility of our honourably wounded colleagues, and our desire to look after each other.

So in Thailand in May, Servants leadership added five “Community Values” to its five Ministry Principles. After discussion we agreed on: Grace, Celebration, Beauty, Creativity and Rest. These, taking their place as equal with and alongside the Five Principles, aim to more fully express the whole Gospel and further encourage a culture of nurture and care. Together, these principles and values express how we seek to live as a community of God’s people sent out in mission and ministry.

Servants Five Community Values:

Grace: All that we do and are is rooted and sustained by God’s lavish, unearned love, favour, acceptance and forgiveness. This profound grace delivers us from unhealthy striving, competition and condemnation of ourselves or judgment of others.

Celebration: Directing our celebrations to God in worship, we look for excuses to throw parties, consciously marking every milestone and achievement – no matter how small! We want to be known as people of generosity, who refuse to take ourselves too seriously.

Beauty: In our lives, homes, and communities, we honour God and renew our souls by seeing and creating beauty. In particular, we seek to see and celebrate the beauty inherent in ourselves and in each other.

Creativity: By allowing our senses, imaginations, minds and bodies to fulfill their God-given potentials for creativity, we glorify God. When we create – through writing, storytelling, poetry, painting and other art forms – we participate with our own soul, in the divine spark of God’s ongoing creation.

Rest: God calls us to regular cycles of work and rest – weekly Sabbaths and regular holy-days (holidays). We rest in order to play, to be refreshed, to hear the whispered voice of God and to deepen our relationship with God and one another.