Love God, Love People

Last week, I shared a story of a student who loves his neighbor well. This week, I thought it’d only be right to tell the story of one of the many volunteers who help students like Max grow in their faith.

Jesse Gilliland is a faithful husband, father of two, engineer, and Jesus follower. His weeks are packed with work and dozens of family commitments. And yet every Sunday and every Tuesday, Jesse shows up to hang out with a rowdy group of 8th grade boys. And Jesse doesn’t just show up - he prepares, he prays, he throws dodge balls, he laughs and connects with his fellow leaders, he goes to week-long camps, he maintains his cool with a group of middle schoolers that make him feel more like a zookeeper than a small group leader. Jesse doesn’t just show up, he crushes it. He’s what most youth pastors would call “the ideal small group leader.”

Why does Jesse do it? Two years ago, he responded to a desperate email I sent parents, looking for more male leaders. He could have served for a couple months, filled the temporary need, and then left. But he’s stuck around, planted his feet in the ground of student ministry, and chosen to keep coming back.

The advertisement for any mission trip or local nonprofit will usually include some pitch about how “you’ll leave more changed than the people you were serving.” It almost sounds cliche - yes, of course, we know God grows and sanctifies us as we love our neighbors. But this truth has become so real to me through stories of people like Jesse. Most of my job is working with adult volunteers who have decided to regularly serve and love on the kids in our church. And let me tell you, I have seen this made true over and over again.

The only reason someone would be crazy enough to spend a week in the mountains with teenagers or navigate hard faith conversations with kids or eat a blended up happy meal (yes we actually do that) is because God is doing something in us as we love those He has called us to.

After every small group gathering, after every camp or retreat, after every service project, I see it in the eyes of volunteers, I see it in the eyes of adults like Jesse. We leave better. We leave changed. We leave a little bit fuller.

And when we keep showing up… When service is partnered with a personal pursuit of Christ. When it isn’t just a one time thing… When we commit to loving our neighbor week in and week out, that little bit of fulfillment turns into deep connection and sanctification.

I think service is so powerful in shaping our hearts to look more like Christ because it’s how we start to truly understand His love. When we lay mulch, or pack meals, or hold crying babies, or pray over teenagers, or sit with seniors, or lend a hand to survivors - our love for our neighbors grows. And as that love grows we better understand the love God has for them, and the love He has for us.

The point isn’t just to do something good, pat ourselves on the back, and check the “charity” box for the year. The point is to know God better. To experience His love better. And to let that love change us. What better way to experience that love more deeply than to practice putting it into action.

1 John 4 says:

19 We love because he first loved us. 20 Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. 21 And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.

Loving God and loving our neighbor are synonymous. Jesse gets it. As he’s spent his time loving students, he now better understands what it means to love God and be loved by God. He’s received more through giving than he could ever imagine.

A text from Jesse I received a few months back says it best:

I have quickly learned I am more passionate about youth ministry then I would have previously ever thought. I knew I was very motivated to be sure that my own kids found a church home and friends that align with the same morals and values that our family feels strongly about. . . But what I did not expect was the satisfaction, fullness, and joy that I am experiencing being involved in the process, not only with my own kids, but other children of God.

I wonder how God could use service to teach you about His love in a hands-on, life-changing way. I wonder how you might know His love better when you start sharing it regularly with your neighbors. Let’s not sit in our holy huddles, forgetting the needs around us.

Let’s be the kind of church that changes our community, and in the process, lets God change our hearts each and every day.

Cristina Schmitter

‍