The Church As A Family

Jesus’s vision for the Church is that of a family.

He calls the Church, “the bride of Christ.” He claims himself as the groom.

Jesus says that whoever does the will of God is his brother and sister and mother.

All throughout the New Testament, the apostles greet one another as, “brothers and sisters in Christ.” We call God what? God the Father!  

So, just to reiterate, Jesus is not anti-family. But he is anti-partial allegiance. He’s anti-“luke-warmness,” as he calls it.

But when we’ve committed our lives to him, we begin to understand the beautiful vision he has for family: An interconnected web of devoted individuals who mutually love, serve, and care for one another. 

And the beautiful thing about this vision is that it holds space for every person reading this.

This vision is big enough to encapsulate family inside and outside the household.

This vision holds space for singles, single parents, divorcees, widows, foster parents, grandparents, cousins, uncles, and 3rd cousins, twice removed.

The vision for all of us, regardless of our “official” family structure, is to live out Jesus’s vision. To be and become an interconnected web of devoted individuals who mutually love, serve, and care for one another. 

So, if you’re single, and you’re wanting to cultivate a healthy family, then the starting place is your heart.

Become a person of love, servanthood, and care and bring those growing qualities with you into your future household. If you’re single and don’t have a desire to be married or have kids, then live into these qualities with your community.

Love, serve, honor, and care for those who you’ve been entrusted to live with and around.

If you’re married, then the starting place is your heart.

Become a person of love, servanthood, and care and then exercise those qualities towards your spouse.

Allow your union to serve as a beacon of goodness, kindness, and mutual submission—reflecting the relationship between Jesus and the church—as the hope of the world. 

If you have kids, then the starting place is your heart.

Become a person of love, servanthood, and care and then exercise those qualities towards your spouse and then towards your kids.

Allow your household to become a haven of hospitality and a place of peace. A space where you gather to disciple and form your children into people of love, servanthood, and care as the cycle of authentic biblical community, of family, continues to grow. 

In the Greek, family is this word, “oikos.” And in its most basic form, it simply means, “dwelling place.” Meaning, wherever you find yourself planted right now, if you’re a single college girl living with a few roommates, if you’re an uncle caretaking for your sister’s kids, if you’re a grandparent who’s fostering, or anything in between, love, serve, and care for your family. Your dwelling place. 

And if you have a local church to call home, that too, then is your dwelling place. Your family.

So, if you’re on the fence of getting involved, of investing, of really buying in, may I encourage you?

Start.

You’re missing out on experiencing the beauty and goodness of Jesus’s vision for family.  

When we are living out Jesus’s vision, we cultivate rhythms and practices that improve our psychological and physiological well-being. We become a model for the world around us in how to live in communion with one another.  

When we cultivate healthy families, we create healthy communities which brings about the change this world so desperately needs.

Let us be and become the Church, my friends!

Be encouraged.