Lessons From Desert Man
The Small Church #3
Where is the Family of God?
|
Somewhere, there is a place where
the cry of the child can still be heard. Somewhere,
the Senior citizen is seen communicating wisdom to
a hasty younger generation, and they're actually heard.
Somewhere, a teenager sits with older people, and
younger siblings, and smiles. Somewhere... but not
here, not in church.
Somewhere, a successful young corporate executive
hobnobs with a retired uneducated janitor. Somewhere,
a widow finds solace in a group of young couples who
gather around her to offer support. Somewhere, a lonely
young single man is invited to dinner by a family
which feels like his own. Somewhere... but not here,
not in church.
Where is the Family of God?
We are the running generations - the busy generations
which divide and conquer. We divide our generations
into neat little homogeneous packages, and conquer
the last bastion of our own sanity - the family.
Our faithful parents live out their last days in cold
"care facilities." Our children are packed off to
school at the start of the day, and come home to watch
hours of "toons" and MTV.
There was a time when a family took care of its own,
and children were taught by mothers and fathers, when
they got home from school.
Where is the God of the Family?
In this broken world, full of broken generations,
the small church has a unique ministry which it can
fulfill in a very natural way. It can restore the
intergenerational family ties, within the Family of
God. When much of Christianity has followed the pattern
of the world, and neatly packaged their churches into
"age-appropriate", "felt-need", and other identification
groups; the small church is not able to staff all
the needs it encounters, and it probably should not
attempt to do so.
But, the small church requires fellowship among the
various age groups, by virtue of its make-up alone.
The seniors mixed with teens, the singles mixed with
the families, and the whole merry lot being together
is what God had in mind, when He set up the church.
This has more healing power in it, than a thousand
12 step programs (as good as they may be), because
God has organized family relationships, and intergenerational
fellowship for the purpose of bringing health to His
people.
The small church is the place, where the cry of the
child can still be heard in the midst of t he sermon,
and the ushers don't run to hustle them out. The small
church is the place, where that child can grow up
and not have to say, "I grew up spending my Sundays
in the church foyer."
May every small church look just like a family, and
when it grows up to be large, may it still look like
the Family of God.
|
|
|
|
