My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples. No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from
My Father I have made known to you. You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you
John 15:8,15,16

The Biblical understanding of salvation is that our lives become swept up into something larger and greater than ourselves, into God’s purposes for the world. In other words, the receiving of salvation and the call to mission are not to be conceived sequentially, as if one followed the other. Rather, to receive salvation is, to be called into something larger and greater that we are, to be invited to participate in God’s saving purpose and plan for the world. That is why the gospel is primarily about
God, and only secondarily about us.
- Inagrace Dietrich

To understand the Gospel it is vitally important that understand the Kingdom of God. We often consider the kingdom of God as a destination, heaven, the place we go when we die. However, Jesus never talked about it in those terms. The Kingdom of God is His rule, His reign. God’s kingdom is where everything He wants to happen is done. There are many kingdoms. In fact, each person has his or her own kingdom. People exert their control over some part of their life even when other kingdoms may overlap. Jesus’ proclamation and invitation into the kingdom is a call to us to reconsider how we’ve been approaching this life. God invites us into His rule and reign to be subject to him. That’s why we intentionally practice Serving God and His Kingdom. Since God is a relational God, we never just do “random acts of service” but we intentionally enter into relationship with others and join with what God is already doing. You can take some time to look through the items under the Serve menu to discover the different contexts in which we build relationship and practice serving God.