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The Family &
The Church
By Andy Zoppelt
I believe the family plays an important role in our
religious upbringing. But the family is not an isolated unit; there
are social characteristics that will affect the family: the degree of
sin in a given society and the spiritual condition of the church as it
attempts to be a bulwark against the works of Satan. The church today
is not geared to support the individual family, nor is it able to be a
relational model for the family. Families today are under tremendous
spiritual attacks from all fronts and sectors of our environment.
In order for the church to be a spiritual asset and
fellow-soldier or comrade in arms, the church must be family within
itself. The church must be caring, sharing, intimately related,
supportive, loyal, committed and safe. It cannot be indifferent,
impersonal, unrelatable, commercial, entertaining or rigidly
programmed. The church today is a paralyzed body with few functioning
and supportive parts. We "go" to church today. Can you imagine someone
saying that they are going to family today? Why? Because family
describes a matrix of personal and interpersonal relationships, filled
with many facets, diversities and function. The church today has been
reduced to "a form of godliness," with entertaining and interesting
teachings, buildings and programs. It is like trying to get a
one-year-old child to help you fix the family car. The function, the
maturity and the ability are not there. Dressing it up does not help
the function. Many homes have been broken up because of the lack of
function and support from the church. Many, after being mesmerized by
all the dynamic messages that one can possibly contain are made none
the better. We seem to have all the answers to all the problems of the
world while we are suffering from relational starvation. The average
pew sitter in our church today gets almost no recognition, no support
and winds up falling through the cracks. Most don't even have the
foggiest idea what the church is and certainly are not in any position
to bring about the needed reformation or cure some of its minor
symptoms. They naturally "assume" that what we have is church. Many
are forced to "church hop" to find one that has all the "bells and
whistles" that will support their sense of pleasure, entertainment and
comfort. "I feel good when I go to this church," seems to be the
criteria today. I have heard it said, "The church in America is one
sixteenth of an inch deep and six thousand miles wide." We certainly
may have the numbers, but we sure are lacking in depth.
People were created by God to belong - to be a part
of others peoples lives, to be needed, to be useful and supported…..to
be family! The church today has masterfully and skillfully steered us
clear of any real and meaningful relationships. In fact, the church
service is hostile to a family type atmosphere, where you have
conversation, questions and dialogue. Its disruptive and interruptive
to do anything beside sing during worship time and listen during
preaching time. Sure some churches give you the opportunity to hug
someone's neck or shake their hand and maybe even say "God loves you,"
but what is that?
Reformation is what is needed to solve this
enormous problem. We must be willing to do something about the sad
condition we find ourselves in, if not, then we are barking up the
wrong tree. God, church and family are a three-stranded cord; remove
one of the cords and you have a breakdown.
For pastors to seek solutions outside of the
teacher/building emphasis would put many of their jobs in jeopardy. If
we decide to face our problems and moved toward meaningful solutions,
maybe we would discover that we do not need our expensive buildings
and multifaceted facilities. If meeting in homes would free more money
for such things as giving to the poor and the needy, we might see the
kind of results that we see in the book of Acts.
The Devil has cleverly pulled the family carpet out
from underneath the church and reduced us to spectators and church
couch potatoes.
I am not confident that we are able to make such
massive changes. Such changes would almost appear cultish and foreign
to what we are experiencing today. I don't believe that there is going
to be a "comfortable" means of transition. First of all, the average
Christians would be against such radical transition, secondly, we are
already immuned because of our present conditioning of "Church" and
lastly, I am not confident that we are ready to give up our schedules
and personal agendas. Besides, our system of religion fits well into
our "Laodicean" type environment.
We are going to need some real "brave heart"
saints, committed to reformation before this can happen. God send us
martyrs and suffers for the cause.
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