The Gathered and Gathering Community

Family: you don't get to pick them, someone once famously said; it's not like your friends! Nate Frambach feels at once comfortable and uncomfortable with thinking of the Church as "family". Family can be the place where one receives nurture - that would be good for anyone. Family can be to place you go when you're in trouble or have tough times to go through. There are too many instances of families that do not nurture and are not available for one another in difficult times. Sometimes, family is the last place to go because no one will listen, no one will nurture.

Another problem with calling the church community, "family" is that it can convey an idea that the specific little piece of real estate where "my family" worships, is not open to "you" because you are not part of the "family". To break into such an atmosphere is difficult, often daunting. Couple this with the fact that, in this family we use a code language in order to communicate. We use words like "faith", "salvation", "heaven", "hell", "God" - all words that can be interpreted in many different ways, depending on which "family" you talk to. Why would someone want to become part of a "family" if they couldn't even speak the language?

For Nate, a better terminology for the church is the "gathering community" or the "fellowship". In scripture, when the word for Church is used, it's always "ecclesia" - the called out ones, and it refers to a gathered community called by someone to a specific task. In the case of the Church, God calls humanity to live together and to spread the gospel.

As Nate directs, so we can ask, "What are favorite metaphors for church? Which metaphor best explains the community where you worship?" Further, do you, like Nate, bristle at calling the church a "family"? What would be a better way for the church to call herself?

Finally, concerning the "code language" of the church, how can we seek to talk among ourselves and with others so as to live and act as people who desire to spread God's good news? What words do we need to change? What words can we keep? Remember, the church does not exist for the sake of itself, but for the sake of the "other".