Church as Family?

Ok, if one uses the family metaphor for Church, how easily can we do the reverse? Does the family see itself as Church? If the family does see itself as "church", then how does the family carry out ministry?

It seems that this is at the heart of what it means to be "people of God" or "followers of Jesus". Does the community that calls itself "family" come together to sing hymns, listen to pretty music and listen to Bible stories, or is something else going on? You see, this is where the rubber meets the road. Jesus was "radical" in the truest sense: he was changing society at its roots and the move to take Jesus' message to the streets, as it were, makes that change happen.

Merely meeting together one day a week - no matter the day one would pick - does not change a person. Take, for instance, a self-help group. If they meet once a week for information and some encouragement, that is great; but how do the individuals who participate in the group change their habits? The church is not a "self-help" group. The church does meet once a week, but how do the individual participants in worship actually apply and live what they celebrate on Saturday night/Sunday morning? Do they tell others about the changes God has made in them? Do they live as people who have a wonderful message of "great joy" or do they act in another way? Do they live the new commandment Jesus gives in John's gospel, "love one another"?

It takes some time for a congregation to move from old lifestyles to new ones - you know the old proverb about "old dogs and new tricks"... Humans like our habits - they're comfortable. The problem is, we also want to see changes in our communities. Some famous person once said that insanity is "doing the same things and expecting different results" - that applies here.

To be fair, life is change; it is inevitable that everything change. We grow old, we die, we move from one house to another, we move away and go to college, change is all around us. The change we are talking about here is the change within us that accepts and uses the inevitable changes around us for communal good. A mind change has to happen in order to think in this way and we need mentors to help us along the way. How does our congregation/community use mentors? Do we care about helping one another through the changes and chances of life? What can we do?

Well, what do you think?
Tim