Family Formation

Last Sunday marked an important day in the life of our forming church. We began our first Beginnings Class with 12 people attending. It is our hope that in the next month we will take some important new steps as a baby church and formalize our church membership. If you are unable to attend the next 3 Sundays after worship I hope you will join us for a 4 hour Seminar on Saturday 10 November.

A few of you may be asking, "But why is it so important for me to 'join the church'? After all, can't I just love Jesus, be ok, and go to the institution called 'church' at my convenience? Besides church is more about the institution and not about relationship."

To be honest I can empathize with your feelings, but can not disagree more strongly. If these are your thoughts I suggest you may need to rethink what church is all about. There are several metaphors in the New Testament that describe what church should be. One of them is family. In fact, this week we'll examine some words of Jesus about His true family (Mark 3:20-35). We all know we need a family to survive. It is the basic building block of all societies. Without it we flounder in loneliness and do not have either the wisdom or resources to make it on our own. No matter what our state we all hunger for family.

Jesus rejected a model of family that was purely just biological. Instead, he defined the family of God as being those who obeyed God. This week our sermon will examine this concept of a family formed by obedience to God. If you are hungering for something more I hope you will join us.

Imana ikurinde,

Dave