Have You Kicked Your Family To the Curb?

When you become a believer you belong to a family. Just as sure as you were born into a family, you were born into another family the day you accepted Christ as Lord of your life.

You are in a relationship with Christ that is intimate and therefore, you have a relationship with His family, the church. You and I make up the body of Christ, which is the family of God.

You belong to a group that is changing the world through the power of His resurrection. You are vital to the body of Christ.  You can’t claim to be in the body but not part of the body.

I love what Rick Warren once said, “Whenever we become careless about fellowship, everything else begins to slide, too. Membership in the family of God is neither inconsequential nor something to be casually ignored. The church is God’s agenda for the world.”

How are you doing with your church attendance? Do you see it as a take it or leave it option? I challenge you today to reexamine your thoughts about church. I challenge you to allow your individualism thinking to melt away into the beauty of God’s fellowship of the saints.

Never forget that as a Christ follower you are called to be among His disciples and not separate from them. You can’t just have a bible close by and pray from time to time and call yourself complete. If you are living like that for Jesus, you are not complete without the church fellowship.

To reference Rick Warren again, “A church family moves you out of self-centered isolation. The local church is the classroom for learning how to get along in God’s family.”  You are loved and needed. God has a plan and an irreplaceable role for you in His church family, the body of Christ.

I once heard a person say, and I’ve repeated it from the pulpit before, “People don’t have a problem with Christ; they have a problem with the church.” I believe we can and should change that. You are part of that change when you faithfully attend church with your family each week.

Allow me one final thought from Pastor Warren who says, “Except for a few important instances referring to all believers throughout history, almost every time the word church is used in the Bible it refers to a local, visible congregation.”

How is your church attendance? Have you kicked your family to the curb?

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