Church Family

Church Families

I think that my wife and I have been so blessed, are being so very blessed, and will continue to be incredibly blessed by our church family here in rural Middle England. There is just something about our church; something so tangible you can almost touch it. It starts at the very top and, from everything we’ve seen, flows right down through to our very roots. We are a family, and a loving family too. The love flows from our pastor, through senior leaders and wider leadership, and through our members right through to our newest incomers. The love flows from the oldest through the middle years, young families, and the young ones – yes even through that most feared of groups, the teenagers.

Last week we introduced 12 new members to our congregation, from a very spritely octogenarian through to an entire family including teenagers who were baptised only last week. In fact our recent baptismal service was solely for the under 25’s – well one 25 year old plus several 13-16 year olds. For that service we had our biggest crowd of the year turn up including all the families of those baptised. And four more expressed interest in hearing more about Jesus on the day !!!

Sounds idyllic but it’s not like this everywhere. We are very blessed to have a wonderful church family, but for every church like this, I think there are probably 99 where no such close family exists. It amazes me to visit churches with congregations of up to 150-200 where people come and go without a soul saying a single word to them. There is nowhere so lonely as a crowd. You can see the cliques where friends gather around each other. You can also see the splits where one clique virtually shuns another clique. No words of greeting are exchanged; no love extended or received; only false smiles that say more about the smilers than about Jesus love.

No wonder God moves in so few churches. He is not allowed in to so many and in others He is simply a sad spectator – like so many of the people there. In many more, He is welcomed in provided He behaves Himself – I was shocked once to hear a pastor apologise for a very small move of Holy Spirit because “that is not a usual event here”. As if God should ever be allowed in a church – sorry, it won’t happen again !!!

Oh how we must grieve Him. I saw a church shocked to its roots once. When the guest speaker stood to speak, he couldn’t. He simply stood and wept before the congregation. Nobody moved. When the speaker recovered sufficiently, he said simply this, “These are not my tears – they are God’s tears for this church and for these people.” There was a shocked silence, then one by one, people moved to the front to repent – led by the pastor.

Love – it’s the only thing any church really needs. Love for God’s people – inside and outside the church. Only the church family can love like that.