{"id":25736,"date":"2020-10-27T15:08:59","date_gmt":"2020-10-27T20:08:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tampaseo.expert\/focus\/?p=25736"},"modified":"2020-10-27T15:08:59","modified_gmt":"2020-10-27T20:08:59","slug":"how-covid-reveals-our-understanding-of-the-church","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tampaseo.expert\/focus\/2020\/10\/27\/how-covid-reveals-our-understanding-of-the-church\/","title":{"rendered":"How COVID reveals our understanding of the church"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In a society like ours where the family has been downplayed and devalued, we\u2019ve become very casual with the concept of family. We have our \u201cwork family.\u201d The people who share in our kids\u2019 hobbies are our \u201cbaseball family,\u201d \u201ctheater family,\u201d or \u201cband family.\u201d Therefore, when speaking of the \u201cchurch family,\u201d it\u2019s easy to relegate it to that commonly used definition – \u201cpeople who share a common interest but aren\u2019t our actual<\/em> family.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n

Jesus, on the other hand, expected the church to be a family that exceeded by a hundred fold the actual<\/em> families who might forsake his followers. Remember that theirs was a culture in which, unlike ours, family was everything. Being asked to forsake their own blood for Jesus (Mark 10:29-31) placed a massive price on discipleship and yet it was in that context Jesus promised them a family which would be worth it 100 times over.<\/p>\n\n\n

Often this is explained by pointing out that we\u2019ll be spending eternity with our spiritual family whereas the physical family only lasts for this lifetime. While that\u2019s true, the point is much bigger than that. Because God is among His people, we should have every expectation that the love which flows from God\u2019s Spirit among His people (Galatians 5:22) will be far more powerful than our natural, human love.<\/p>\n\n\n

What would it look like if that were true? Look to Acts 2. The first Christians immediately went about the business of loving and caring for each other in the way Jesus intended. Didn\u2019t their love for each other look exactly like the fulfillment of what Jesus had promised?<\/p>\n\n\n

While we\u2019ve all likely had glimpses and tastes of this kind of family in the church, that kind of life-sharing connection is the exception rather than the rule in modern American churches.<\/p>\n\n\n

This year has given us the perfect litmus test for where we stand in our understanding of the church family. While we’ve had to limit our interaction with others as much as possible, I’m not sure I know anybody who has cut off interaction to the point that they don’t see their own biological family. For most people, the one exception to all of the rules has been seeing one’s parents, children, grandchildren, etc. Because as much as we can isolate from everybody else, of course<\/em> we’re still going to see our family.<\/p>\n\n\n

Does that include your church family?<\/p>\n\n\n

This isn’t about Sunday worship in the building. And I don’t mean to imply you have to have dozens of people coming through your house to count. But if your church family is truly family<\/em>, it would be unthinkable that you go eight months without interacting personally with them. (No, “attending” a worship livestream at the same time does not count.)<\/p>\n\n\n

Look at how you’ve interacted with your physical family this year, and then look at how you’ve interacted with your spiritual family. Is church “family” a metaphor to you, or a reality? <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a society like ours where the family has been downplayed and devalued, we\u2019ve become very casual with the concept of family. We have our \u201cwork family.\u201d The people who share in our kids\u2019 hobbies are our \u201cbaseball family,\u201d \u201ctheater family,\u201d or \u201cband family.\u201d Therefore, when speaking of the \u201cchurch family,\u201d it\u2019s easy to relegate […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":25738,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[20,59,32,35],"tags":[49,1588,1589,120,467,23],"class_list":["post-25736","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all","category-christian-living","category-church","category-culture","tag-church","tag-coronavirus","tag-covid","tag-family","tag-fellowship","tag-jack","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"yoast_head":"\nHow COVID reveals our understanding of the church - Focus Press<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/tampaseo.expert\/focus\/2020\/10\/27\/how-covid-reveals-our-understanding-of-the-church\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How COVID reveals our understanding of the church - Focus Press\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In a society like ours where the family has been downplayed and devalued, we\u2019ve become very casual with the concept of family. 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