Jack attended the morning service every Sunday with his wife. In the time I knew him, he never preached from the pulpit or led ministries. But man, he could pray.
He passionately encouraged prayer when decisions needed to be made. He hosted prayer meetings at the church and in his home. He messaged leaders—including my husband—to let them know he was thinking of them, writing out prayers in texts and emails. To hear from Jack was to be drawn into an interminable conversation with God.
Every church needs a servant like Jack—every church probably has a servant like Jack. He or she simply might be overlooked. When we see teaching and leadership gifts in congregants, it’s easy to get excited, to want to nurture those more obvious gifts. Still, many other gifts and members need to be noticed and encouraged.
As the early church displayed, every empowered gift is for the common good, the selfless giving of one’s self for one another (1 Cor. 12:6–7). In Acts, Luke includes stories of men and women who hear the gospel, respond, and serve their churches, keeping pace with the sweeping outward movement of the gospel (Acts 1:8). Many didn’t lead large ministries, write books of the Bible, or preach to crowds. Most remained unnamed. Still, God used these servants where they were—with the gifts they had—to build up and encourage his church. God continues to work through such servants in our churches today, and they need to be encouraged and equipped just like those with more visible gifts.
5 Types of Servants
Here are five servants we see woven throughout Acts that every church needs to nurture.
1. The Servant Devoted to Prayer
Jesus’s closest friends watched as he ascended into heaven, his final words on their minds: don’t leave Jerusalem, but wait until the Father pours out his Spirit (Acts 1:4–5). So they waited with eager expectation—and they prayed.
Luke tells us Mary was numbered with those who prayed continually and with unity (v. 14). We’ve heard her pray before as she humbly accepted her role as Jesus’s mother (Luke 1:46–55), and now we see Mary beside fellow believers doing what Jesus commanded them: Stay. Wait. God will fulfill his promise soon.
Who prays boldly and often in your congregation? Who do you see praying for others after the Sunday service? Like Mary’s, one person’s heart for prayer can encourage others to keep seeking, keep believing, and keep praying.
2. The Servant Who Uses Her Skills for Kingdom Ends
Some 30 miles outside Jerusalem, disciples called for Peter and gathered around Tabitha’s deathbed. Weeping widows held up the clothes she made them, demonstrating why Luke declared her a woman “full of good works and acts of charity” (Acts 9:36). God brought Tabitha to life again, and her resurrection encouraged many to trust in the Lord (vv. 40–42).
One person’s heart for prayer can encourage others to keep seeking, keep believing, and keep praying.
Tabitha used the skills she had to meet needs, and there are those in every congregation who do the same. The man who comes to fix the pastor’s fence, the women who make meals for new moms, those who decorate the sanctuary for Christmas—all use their skills to love fellow church members.
3. The Servant Generous with Resources
After Paul preached the gospel in the Roman colony of Philippi, a businesswoman named Lydia was converted and baptized. Paul and his companions needed a place to stay, and Lydia gladly offered them her home (16:15).
Lydia’s offer of Christian hospitality provided the food and safe lodging these outsiders needed. Her service allowed Paul and his friends to continue preaching the gospel to the end of the earth (1:8).
This was no small expense or use of time. Like the family who invites college students for lunch after the Sunday service, the member who provides missionary housing, and the older woman who buys diapers for single moms, Lydia gave generously of what she had to provide for God’s people.
4. The Servant Who Wisely Discerns
Some people in our churches know their Bibles inside and out—you know who they are. Priscilla and Aquila were two of those people, a trusted husband and wife tentmaking team who worked alongside Paul.
When this couple heard fellow believer Apollos teaching boldly in the synagogue, they pulled him aside and privately “explained to him the way of God more accurately” (18:26). Apollos took what he learned from Priscilla and Aquila to Achaia, where he showed through Scripture that the Christ was Jesus (v. 28). Their discernment bolstered Apollos’s teaching ministry and helped him grow.
I’m encouraged by pastors who invite men and women from their congregations to discuss Scripture and applications for upcoming sermons. This serves as a mutual sharpening, a public reminder that congregants’ engagement with Scripture and life experiences are valued.
Those who live wisely can help answer Monday’s lingering questions for those who preach and teach. Did the applications serve the congregation well? How would the sermon sound to a woman who had an abortion, a man who recently lost his job, or a skeptical unbeliever? We don’t have to answer these questions on our own.
5. The Unnamed Servant Who Loves His Local Church
Throughout Acts, we see the promise-fulfilling pattern of the church’s growth. Often, we remember the growth as larger events that led thousands to believe: powerful sermons, miracles, and the laying on of hands to receive the Holy Spirit.
Yet what happened when those apostles moved on, leaving thousands of unnamed converts? The early church couldn’t have multiplied on the backs of the apostles alone. As Tim Keller pointed out, “Christian laypeople—not trained preachers and evangelists—carried on the mission of the church not through formal preaching but through informal conversation.”
God’s work continued, thanks to the excitement and love these first unnamed converts had for their local churches and the gospel. Yes, they’re unnamed to us, but they certainly weren’t unnamed to God. And if servants like these are in your congregation, they’re not unnamed to you.
Take Time to Encourage
What might it look like if church members knew their gifts were valued—and heard this either from the pulpit or through the personal reassurance of church leaders? I imagine these gifts might be exercised with greater boldness. So where do we start?
Equipping all the saints calls for prayerful self-reflection. It means realizing our possible inclination to value gifts and personalities most like our own, sometimes at the expense of other gifts. It calls for knowing church members, discerning spiritual health, and identifying strengths and weaknesses.
The early church couldn’t have multiplied on the backs of the apostles alone.
Then, we work to rewrite the narrative that less visible gifts are less valuable. With permission, don’t be afraid to share examples from the pulpit of the woman who encouraged you with Scripture or the college student who shared the gospel with his unbelieving roommates. Take time to encourage the member who prays continually, the woman who makes baby quilts, and the men who always clean the kitchen after potlucks.
Since I moved, Jack and I don’t attend the same church anymore. Still, my husband and I receive messages from him letting us know that—you guessed it—he’s praying. This service may not reach a platform or develop into an organized ministry. Simple acts like this may even feel small. But the local church needs all its members and gifts (1 Cor. 12:14–20). When we encourage all members to use their modest gifts for the glory of the Giver, the Spirit uses them to build up his church, near and far.
The Gospel Coalition