GodReflection: Lonely? —Glad you are here, you are family.
After arrival into this world at my hospital birthplace, I must have stopped by our little Church Street rock house for a diaper change and my first meal at my family home. (Surely God has a sense of humor or a sense of destiny to give me an address on Church Street as my first residence). Our next stop was church.
What a gift—church, my extended family. My church family met in a white stucco concrete block building at the corner of Fox and Lake Street. There I began my childhood and teenage journey with a congregation of folks who helped to raise me. No time for loneliness there.
Members told me my church really started in A.D. 33. How did they know that? They weren’t living in A.D. 33. As years passed by, I noticed our church lived without much sense of history. Our group saw their life begin in 1926 when my uncle and two other couples started the church in my aunt and uncle’s home.
My life parallels that church family since 1947. From the start of 1947 I learned the status quo of the time. As far as I knew all truth was within its walls. Sometimes the pulpit hosted guest preachers. They might enforce the truth I already knew or on occasion add a new bit of truth to my truth sack. I kept my truth protected and limited within my church. However, dangers stalk the walls of my 1947 church. I will list three.
- It is far too easy to miss God’s greatness when I stand guard within the walls of my 1947 church. God works marvels across the face of His world in diverse ways. His great acts can build my faith when I open the gates of my local congregation and get outside where I can witness His church in action. My church can then become more like His church.
- Whether I realize it or not, my church did not actually start in 1947. It emerged from a
historical context of over 2000 years. With historic influences of Europe’s Enlightenment, America’s Colonial Great Awakening, the European Scottish Presbyterian Stone-Campbell Movement in the Southeast USA, and our nation’s Civil War, my 1947 church formed my early years.
The beliefs that were held sacred in my church family came as much from this period of history as from Holy Scripture. If I hold these historic landmarks too tightly, I stand in danger of harming the unity of Christ’s church.
- I run the danger of my 1947 church turning irrelevant. Truth comes from Jesus, as He is truth. My fear is, should I cling too tightly to the cultural baggage and things I mislabeled as doctrine, my church could actually hide Jesus instead of share Him.
One obvious problem with the content of this post is the fact that Jesus never gave me a church. It was never my church. It is Jesus’s church. My desire is to be faithful to Jesus and belong to His church. Only in His family does the hope of harmony exist.
How does all of this relate to the wide-open door of Jesus’s family to replace your loneliness? I know nothing of your history. You may or may not have been born into a loving family. Perhaps you have never experienced a church you can call home. Here’s the best news yet. Jesus waits for you with arms wide open, a tender smile, and cannot wait to warmly greet you with the words, Lonely? How About a Family?
Stay tuned.
Gary J. Sorrells
A GodReflection on Lonely? How About a Family?
God Reflection 