A Family Gathering

When many people hear the word church, their minds think of a building or an event. Even the image that I chose to represent this post about the church is of a building. A more correct image would be one of people worshiping together because the church is really about people. It is about a group of people who have been brought together by the blood of Christ to worship Him and glorify His name.

The church is also a family. In fact, if you are a believer in Jesus Christ, the church is your eternal family. In heaven and in eternity family will take on a whole new meaning. The only blood relatives that we will have then are those who have been washed in the blood. So, if that is an eternal reality, then maybe we should be practicing it right here and now.

One way to practice this reality is to make going to church a family affair. This will help you and your children have a greater understanding about what it means to be a part of Christ’s family. On her blog, Growing Faith, Christine Jensen lists 10 tips for treating church more like a family event. Here is an excerpt:

Growing up in a family that didn’t go to church, I was determined when I married for ‘church’ to be the center of our family. Of course, this was idealistic, and there were many moments when I thought it would have been easier to stay at home.

I hadn’t realised that this goal of mine wasn’t as easy as it sounded. I wanted my children to go happily, for church to be a delight to all family members.  But this does not always happen. We certainly had a revolt on our hands for a couple of years, by a couple of teenagers who simply did not want to go to a Bible Study on Friday nights in addition to one on Sunday afternoons with church to follow! I know that we should just go to church come what may as we want to meet the Lord, but are there any tips we can share about creating a positive attitude to what is a pretty important activity?

To read the whole article go here.

 

HT: Tim Challies

 

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