In yesterday morning’s worship services, I preached on Romans 12:3-8. In these verses we saw that we need to:
- Get the right measurement (on our lives).
- Give the right service (according to our divine design).
By this, we saw that we need to have an accurate estimate of who we are in Christ – sinners in need of grace, BUT forgiven in Christ and equipped by the Holy Spirit. As such, as believers in Jesus Christ we should all have an expectation that God wants to use us in HIs work this coming year. “Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them. . .” (Romans 12:6a)
At the end of the service, I encouraged all of us to serve others this year. While many of those opportunities occur in our community, we have several serving opportunities available right here at Wildwood! Below are a few of the opportunities for serving that we have at Wildwood right now, and how you can connect in each of these areas. Opportunities are arranged by ministry area.
Children’s Ministry (birth – 5th grade)
Our children’s ministry exists to connect children with Christ: His worship, His community & His mission. Whether you serve in the early childhood classrooms, elementary classrooms, welcome desks or Awana program, God can use an everyday hero, like you and me, to help shape eternity for a child. Every single time our doors are open to children & families here at Wildwood, God has given us an opportunity to help connect kids to Christ while they are most open to this relationship. What a privilege!
Here are our current children’s ministry volunteer openings:
- 11am Service–2 Openings in Nursery (every other month)
- 11am Service–1-2 Openings in Toddler (every other month)
- Wednesday Evenings (6-7:30pm)–Several openings with our Cubbies (preschoolers) or Sparks (Kindergarten-2nd grade); our Wednesday evening programming is only thru April & takes breaks for the holidays
Please contact Brooke Harrison bharrison@wildwoodchurch.org if you have any questions about these opportunities! Thank you!
Student Ministry (6th – 12th grade)
Wildwood’s Student Ministry helps connect middle school and high school students to Christ on a daily basis. Our middle school students connect in SHIFT and our high school students connect in The Avenue. Both of these ministries are only a reality because of a team of volunteer leaders that serve on a weekly basis. Currently, we have opportunities in both SHIFT and The Avenue:
SHIFT Middle School Ministry
- Wednesday 6-7:30 SHIFT Group Leader – We are always looking for adults, young and old, who have a passion for the gospel of Jesus Christ and a calling to student ministry. Our Group Leaders are incredible servants who lead every week in our small group environments
- Sundays 9:45-10:45 Worship Leader – Can you play the guitar and sing? On Sunday mornings we are looking for someone who is gifted in musical ability to help on occasion in SHIFT. This is not a weekly serving opportunity, rather a need for someone to help fill in gaps. We have incredibly people already leading music in SHIFT, but there are times that they are unavailable and would love to expand our list!
- Event Help – we do a lot of things together in SHIFT, so we are always looking for a little extra help. It might mean hosting, driving, cleaning, preparing, or even cooking but if you love to serve behind the scenes, then come talk to us!
The Avenue High School Ministry
- Events – We have a lot of events for The Avenue that need a little extra help. if you are interested in serving behind the scenes in different seasons, then we would love to hear from you!
College Ministry
Wildwood’s College Ministry ministers to hundreds of University Students, helping to connect them to Christ and His community here at Wildwood. We have a few needs for how you can get involved in reaching students for Christ at OU.
- A huge advantage Wildwood has for college students is an opportunity to connect college students to our families! We would love for you to consider joining our adopt-a-sooner program and become a home away from home for many students! More info at wildwoodchurch.org/adoptsooner
- A second need is Sunday morning van drivers. Many students don’t have cars and so we ran vans before college life (10:30) to pick up students and then drop them off afterwards (12:15). This is a HUGE blessing to our students, we are just short of drivers! To sign up for this serving opportunity, contact Jeremy Horton at jeremy@wildwoodchurch.org
Adult Small Groups
Wildwood exists to glorify God by connecting people to Christ: His Worship, His Community, His Mission. Our Adult Small Groups are designed to help connect people to an active and vibrant community. We are always recruiting leaders to launch new small groups for adults at Wildwood. If you are interested in leading or hosting one of these small groups for adults, contact Community Pastor Brian Hayes at brianhayes@wildwoodchurch.org
Technical Teams
Our AV team members are essential in creating an environment for people to worship God through song as well as support the messages each week. If you are experienced or would like to explore running sound, lights or projection on Sundays, with Wednesday rehearsals, contact Greg Hill at greghill@wildwoodchurch.org for more information.
Hospitality
Each weekend well over 1,000 people walk through our doors to worship Jesus Christ. This is a tremendous privilege for us as a church, and we want to host them well! We have a variety of needs in our hospitality ministries (openings on Wednesday nights and during all 3 services Sunday morning: 8:30, 9:45, 11:00) –
- Welcome Team – help open doors for people and/or serve as a guide to help first time people navigate our facility when they first arrive.
- Ushers – In each worship service, we have service hosts (also called ushers) who welcome people into our services, pass out bulletins, help collect the offering, pass communion, and help people find seats when needed.
- A-Team – Help Wildwood stay aware, of what is happening in our building on Sundays and Wednesday nights as a part of this security focused team.
If you are interested in any of these opportunities, contact Lisa Goering at ( lisagoering@wildwoodchurch.org )
Care Ministry
There are many opportunities to show the love of Christ in tangible ways to those that are hurting.
Areas where you might be led to serve:
- Making and delivering a meal to someone going through a hard time
- Helping with meals for funerals
- Sharing what God has done in your life as an encouragement (even to someone going through the a similar issue)
- Giving rides to church, the supermarket or to Women’s Bible Study
- Calling, writing cards or praying for and with people.
If you are interested, please send an email to Care Pastor John Abernethy ( john@wildwoodchurch.org )with your information and your area(s) of interest and and I’ll contact you soon!
Local Outreach
There are many opportunities to reach out and show the love of Christ in our community. Three opportunities are:
- Wildwood has a regular presence at Kennedy Elementary School. We mobilize volunteers to serve as Mentors to individual students, reading buddies for students needing extra attention with reading skills, and general teacher support. These roles help us show the love of Christ to a segment of our community, and builds relationships that we pray help connect people to Christ. For more info on our outreach at Kennedy, contact Lisa Goering lisagoering@wildwoodchurch.org
- On the second Friday of each month, Wildwood helps prepare and serve lunch at Food & Shelter for Friends — a service to those in financial need in our community. If you would like to help serve on this team, visit our signup page by clicking here.
- Panera Bread donates leftover bread to Food and Shelter for Friends. You can help by picking this bread up and delivering it to Food and Shelter. You can find out more about this and sign up by visiting this sign up page.
Global Outreach
Wildwood plays an active role in supporting a number of missionaries around the world partnering with them to share Christ with every tribe, tongue, and nation. Some opportunities to get involved with Global Outreach include:
- “Adopting” a missionary as an individual, a family, or community group to pray for them regularly, and welcome them when they return from the mission field.
- Going on a short term mission trip
- Helping organize Wildwood global outreach efforts as a part of our “GO Team”
For more information about Wildwood’s Global Outreach efforts contact Global Outreach Director Kevin Bradford at kevin@wildwoodchurch.org
Conclusion:
We hope and pray that these opportunities help connect you to the right service for you this year, using the gift God has given you to bless others. As I concluded the message yesterday, I told the story of Floyd “Money” Mayweather who has 3 homes in the U.S. that EACH have a garage in it filled with $15.3 million of automobiles that he does not ever drive. We may see that as excessive or a waste! How much more so would it be to not “drive” the wealth of blessing God has built into each of us – His children. Let’s drive them in ministry together this year!
In Christ,
Pastor Mark
