RMI believes that Christ is honored and pleased by service that requires sacrifice on the part of the server.
As we consider that the Gospel transforms lives… through the Church, which is God’s instrument of life change, and through engaged church-to-church partnerships, we arrive at RMI’s fourth motivation, “Service that is Sacrificial”. We like to say that ministry is service and service is sacrifice. When we minister to someone, we are serving them. When we share the Gospel with someone, whether they are open to it or opposed to it, we are serving them by sharing the truth about how to spend eternity with Christ. If we are providing a hot meal to those in need, we are serving them. If we are cleaning up after someone has gotten sick, we are serving them. Service can take on many forms.
The reality is that no matter the type of service we are providing, it takes sacrifice. It could be the sacrifice of time, energy, money, talents, safety, health, and on and on. Ministry into the lives of others always comes at a cost, with sacrifice built in. Why? Because the Lord promises to bless us when we serve others. The problem is that often we want to know the blessings before we are willing to sacrifice. The Lord works on a different basis. He wants us to willingly minister – serve – no matter the sacrifice – with no guarantee of the outcome or the blessing. We have a saying that you must make the sacrifice before the Lord can provide the blessing. Most missionaries will tell you how blessed they are on so many levels. But when you look at them, all you see is sacrifice. In the midst of sacrifice, the Lord often turns it into blessing. In RMI, we always emphasize that we are to serve one another, serve our teams, serve our partnerships, no matter the sacrifice or cost.
Sacrificial service is our last motivation, but it is the engine that enables the previous 3 motivations of RMI. Through our sacrificial service, we bring local churches together to partner cross-culturally, bringing the Gospel and ministering to those in need, whether through word or deed.
