January Monthly Minute: A New Definition of Greatness
"Everybody can be great because everybody can serve." This famous quote from Martin Luther King, Jr is an informal motto of The Philadelphia Project. It is, of course, derived from our Lord, Jesus’, warning to his disciples that “anyone who wants to be first must be the very last, and the servant of all” (Mark 9:35).
In the past ten months, we’ve seen less serving than usual at The Philadelphia Project. But we were elated to host 26 adults and children on MLK day. Serving as families and safely socially-distant from one another, we painted ten rooms at our housing site! We were able to share this world-transforming truth with our kids that Jesus gave us a new definition of greatness—that anyone can be great because anyone can serve.
The work continues at our housing site. We have many painting and cleaning projects. If you would like to bring your family or a “quaranteam” pod to serve, reach out to us at trip@thephillyproject.org. We’ve set a date to have the space completed and ready to host our Summer of Service, and we need help to get it all done.
You can read more of MLK’s sermon about greatness, "The Drum Major Instinct," in an archive here.
Thank you for your support!
The Philadelphia Project
"If you want to be important—wonderful. If you want to be recognized—wonderful. If you want to be great—wonderful. But recognize that he who is greatest among you shall be your servant. That's a new definition of greatness. And this morning, the thing that I like about it: by giving that definition of greatness, it means that everybody can be great, because everybody can serve. You don't have to have a college degree to serve. You don't have to make your subject and your verb agree to serve. You don't have to know about Plato and Aristotle to serve. You don't have to know Einstein's theory of relativity to serve. You don't have to know the second theory of thermodynamics in physics to serve. You only need a heart full of grace, a soul generated by love. And you can be that servant." Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.