« Thoughts from Exodus 8b: Foundations Shake | Main | Ask Everyonce: Where Was That Post? »
A Mixed Community
By daniel | April 17, 2007
We've been talking lately about our congregation that has migrated from a consistently spouse-less, child-less group to a mixed group, some with either spouses, children, or both. This has made for a much different environment than before, as we're now having to be considerate towards people who's situations require more consideration. (Try saying that 3x fast)
Looking through Paul's discussion about those without husbands or wives, and also those with, and either's unique value to the community. we've seen several good reasons to keep us all together. The first has nothing to do with marriage. It's the same reason that it is always useful to have two (or more) different groups of people in fellowship together: learning forbearance and Christ-like love. It's so easy in our day of 'singles groups' and 'young marrieds groups' and '35-year-old-men-with-gray-hair groups' to assume that groups with similar people are the best arrangement. But this topic of 'nonmarrieds and marrieds' is just an example of this overall thing.
I've really been thinking myself about a couple different ways that our fellowship can continue to train us in the way of Jesus. Unmarrieds are a great example to me, of automatically having a mindset of the family being the church family, and primary place of fellowship. The example certainly doesn't rule out a nuclear family's responsibility to one another, but the fact that the nuclear family exists within a larger family context. Marrieds are a great example of how life can be not about yourself, and can be completely summed up in sacrifice for another. (or anothers!)
Thoughts?
Topics: Church Life, Family Life, Life in the Way |
Comments
You must be logged in to post a comment.