Church Family

 

 

It was Saturday morning, just before 6 am when I jumped in my truck.  The sun wouldn’t be showing his sleepy head for another hour.  The morning air was cool, and the dewy grass in the various lawns I drove by completely undisturbed.  

Most of the houses didn’t have lights on at all.  The owners of them were quietly (or loudly) sawing the sorts of logs that would build no homes. 

As I pulled up at my church, I could see a group of men already working to get charcoal burning.  It was chilly, but already, there was warmth coming from beneath the grill area where half chickens were lying, waiting with bated breath to get grilled to perfection. 

Over the next three and a half hours, we worked together, chatting, flipping the chicken pieces as they needed it, and checking each one's temperature before taking it off to put in coolers.  Eventually, around 9:30 am we were done, the last chicken had left the grill, ready to be taken over for a fund-raising sale. 

A few days later, our church was together again, this time to help clean up a home that needed a fair amount of work before one of our members could move in.  Once again, there was a good turnout.  People brought tools and spirits willing to work and much was accomplished before we settled down to eat pizza on the lawn. 

I have thought much in the subsequent days about the church as a family.  Luke 14:26 says, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.” 

I think that most of us try to turn this passage into a comparison.  Jesus is simply saying that we need to love Him more than our fathers, mothers, spouses, and children.  Maybe that is partially true, but I believe that Jesus was indicating that those who enter into a new relationship with Him are entering into a new family as well. 

We need a church family around us.  It isn’t that we need them to come over and mow our lawns for us, or baby sit our children, or even fix us meals when we are feeling ill – although a good church family can and will help with all of those things.  We need them because they, like us are on a faith journey and together, we can grow closer to our Savior. 

I feel sad for those who say that they love Jesus but do not have a community around them to love and encourage them through life.  

Many years ago, God looked on the first man and said that it was not good for the man to be alone.  So, He made for him a beautiful bride.  In the same way, God looked at Christians and knew that it was not good for them to be alone.  So, He created the church.

The church has such a bad name these days that I sometimes think we should rebrand it.  If we called ourselves, "Fallen people who are desperately trying to follow Jesus the best that we can together, but who still mess up an awful lot," then maybe people would get a picture of what the church really is.

The only thing I know for sure is that whether it is grilling chicken together, studying the Bible together, or even pulling up carpets together, I love doing things with a community of people -- even if we are far from perfect.