| The past couple of months I have been writing about the values of the church plant. These values will guide us as a plant as we grow into a new congregation. So far I have written on Faith Formation and Vocation. This month I will write on Being the Family of God, and next month I will finish it up with the value of History.
When we say Being the Family of God, we are talking about the congregation, not the nuclear family of parents and children. Certainly we want to encourage moms and dads and children in their God given vocations. But in this value, our emphasis is on the fellowship that believers have together.
Being the Family of God is valuing the community that we have in Christ. There is a sense of belonging to each other for the people of God. 1 Peter 2:10 says, “Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.” This verse teaches us that something changes in our relationship to others when we receive by faith the mercy of God. We often emphasize that our relationship to God changes when we are given the gift of faith, and that is the most important truth. But another relationship also changes, our relationship to other Christians. We become part of a family, a nation, a body. And that family has a sense of fellowship that is not found in the outside world.
This value of community is important because it meets a need in the world. If you Google ‘epidemic of loneliness’, you will find many recent articles that talk about a growing problem that even secular sources are recognizing. There is a huge lack of social interaction amongst people today. There are probably a number of reasons for this: the pandemic, social media, and busyness. But from a biblical worldview we know that the root problem is sin. Sin builds walls between people and creates fear. When we come together as a congregation though, we receive reconciliation to God and to our brother and sister Christians.
As I envision how this will be a value in the church plant, the first thing that comes to mind is food. That’s right, food. Eating together, and more generally, hospitality, is a lost art. People enjoy it when they do it, but it has become a less and less frequent occasion in our current society. When we as Christians eat together we are talking, sharing food, listening, giving counsel, and being the family of God together. I would envision the people of our church learning together how to show hospitality. It’s probably something that we will have to intentionally practice, but over time we would expect it to be part of our congregation’s culture.
Hospitality is certainly a major way that Jesus interacted with people as well. In the gospel of Luke there are at least ten meals that Jesus shares with others. He eats with crowds, he eats with the Pharisees and tax collectors, and the most significant meal of all was the last supper that he ate with the disciples. In a way, we continue that meal as we gather and take part in the Lord’s Supper.
Pastor Brandon Marschner
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