Family Life

There are many models for what the church should look like. Some folk –despite their best efforts– end up with a mental picture of a semi-dilapidated pile of red bricks, stained windows (without the glass), mock-Victorian Gothic… a cross between a museum and a fridge. Some, more enlightened souls might see an institution run on business principles, with a management board, administrators and a team of salesmen. An organisation out to develop product-awareness in a defined catchment area. Or perhaps an army with rank upon rank of disciplined team players, marching to conquest and honour. Or perhaps that is too grandiose… and you think of a local shop where local people come and get what they need. Open (almost) all hours. Some might make an analogy with a hospital, because people only come when they’re sick?!

But I can’t get away from it. The most valuable picture of what church looks like to me is almost too simple to fully credit. It is the picture of family life. We grow up together; we share certain resemblances of character and behaviour; we care for one another and we worry that our little ones are safe. We long to see them fulfil all the potential that they have and not lose direction. Maybe that sounds like pastoring… and of course it is! But it is also the life and ministry of the local church, and for my money, it makes the Christian life a together sort of thing. And that’s precious. Know what I mean?