Are you a friend of the church?
If you consider the church to be your friend, you spend some time together. You enjoy each other’s company. You talk about surface level stuff. Maybe, when things get uncomfortable or strained, you leave. You find another friend that will provide what you are looking for. You might return or you might not. You haven’t committed beyond that level. No promises.
Family is different. often, it is harder. you may not always enjoy each others company. You have differences of opinion. This happens because you tend to delve into the hard stuff. When things get difficult, you don’t walk away. You can’t. After all, you’re family.
It’s hard work being a part of a family. It takes deep commitment and an understanding of the importance of family. This is what Jesus calls you to. This is what he has committed to forever. The family needs you. You bring things to the table that no one else does. At the same time, you need the family. As you work through differences and bring new ideas to the family, you will be challenged and grow to new levels. This doesn’t happen when you refuse to commit to such a deep level and simply float around the surface of friendship.
Jesus has called on the family to spread the Gospel to the world and to raise disciples. He did so because He designed the church to be the best, no, the ONLY option for getting this done. So quit playing around and commit to a church family. No more “buffet church” where you jump around and take a little music from here, teaching from there, children’s ministry from here, youth ministry from there. You take ministry “a la carte” because it makes you smile and satisfies your appetite. Don’t worry, in a family you will smile. You will also cry. You will sweat. You will work hard and get tired. Most importantly, you will be effective. You will be useful to Jesus as He uses the church family to do miraculous things.
Quit messing around and get serious. Find a family you can commit to and do it.
Wow…rarely are truer words spoken…
Matthew 12:49-50 And he (Jesus) stretched out his hand and said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.”
At least 57 times the word brother is used to describe relationships between believers in the books of Romans-Jude. There are also times when “parent”, “father”, “children” and “son” are used. God calls himself our Father and has made us coheirs with Christ. Only family are heirs.
Mark, my opinion or feelings about your statement is of no importance. My observation is that your statement is in agreement with Scripture. So now I need to learn HOW to be a sister or mother in the Lord and then to go and obey.
Thank you, brother, for encouraging me to be obedient to my Lord.
Mark, very well put. My Aunt Annie used to say, “You can choose your friends, but you can’t choose your family.” Once you’re in the family, you’re kind of stuck with them-no running away, or if you do run when there are disagreements, you can’t change the fact that you’re still in the family.
Also, like family, kids grow, get married and start new families, but even then, they are still a part of the original family. It’s good to see the family grow. Healthy growing families seem to have reunions, I would so love that!
Oh, and since you are my brother, could I borrow that book that’s been sitting in the MVCC office for weeks with your name on it? It’s called “Organic Church” and I keep reading it while I’m there. :)
Thanks Deb. Your aunt makes awesome pretzels, by the way. As for the book, please do borrow it. Let me know when you’re done. That book gets passed around a lot!
Committing to a family is vital. You can fool everyone and yourself into thinking that all is well and nothing needs fixing if you stand alone… family knows you and calls you on stuff that is unhealthy. I love your honesty on this.
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