WE SEE CHURCH AS A FAMILY.
In America we choose our "church" more times than not as spiritual consumers. We shop around for a church that best meets our needs, similar to whether we shop at Wal-Mart or Target. If we like the services offered, we decided to give the church our business. But, if we get bored or decide it isn’t meeting our needs, we shop around for another one that suits us better. This cycle has been a common occurrence in every city across America. What if church has nothing to do with my preferences and needs.
What if we have it backwards? What if the biblical approach is actually that we should fit ourselves into the life and mission of the local church, adapting ourselves to the family and filling gaps where needed, even if that means we are the ones who have to change?
1 Peter 2:5 "And you are living stones that God is building into his spiritual temple.”
Ephesians 4:16 “He makes the whole body fit together perfectly. As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love.”
At Red Door we believe that God places you in a church. When we are placed in His church we belong to it. The American christian expectation is that “church is for me” and “I’ll just go to the church that serves me best”. However we see throughout the Bible that God’s church is a place were we belong and commit our lives.
Church is not something you attend but rather a family you belong to.
Bill Hybels:
"There is nothing like the local church when it’s working right. Its beauty is indescribable. Its power is breathtaking. Its potential is unlimited. It comforts the grieving and heals the broken in the context of community. It builds bridges to seekers and opens its arms to the forgotten, the downtrodden, and the disillusioned. It breaks the chains of addictions, frees the oppressed, and offers belonging to the marginalized of this world. The potential of the local church is almost more than I can grasp.”
