Quakers place a great premium on practicing what they believe. That puts service to others as front and center in their lives. A favorite saying of mine is to “show the Lord’s love in your life”. Quakers definitely live by that motto. Jesus made it abundantly clear that he came to serve and not to be served. He expects each of us to follow his example and Quakers, for the most part, certainly do that. Many Christian denominations, including the one I currently belong, seems to minimize works and living in the world. They seem to prefer concentrating instead on heaven.

As directed by Jesus service has always been a central focus to Quakers. One of the ways they provide service to others is through the The American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) which is a Quaker affiliated organization which provides humanitarian relief and works for social justice, peace and reconciliation, human rights, and abolition of the death penalty in the United States and throughout the world. The group was founded in 1917 as a combined effort by American members of the Religious Society of Friends and assisted civilian victims of war.

On a local level just visit any Friends Meeting local website and you will see their agenda is literally filled with service actions to their local communities. If only other Christian organizations were as service oriented!

Next time we will look at what Quakers think of the Bible. This is probably one of the most misunderstood areas about Quakerism.