Yesterday at CrossWay we began a two-week miniseries called “Creed: Church.” The theme yesterday was the church as a family; next week we look at our mission.
We opened with a video that Carolyn made, set to “Creed” by Rich Mullins. I was so impressed with her work! She did an excellent job, which you can see for yourself by watching the video here:
The church is many things, but it’s primarily a family–the family of God. Everyone who has placed their faith in Jesus Christ is actually a member of God’s own immediate family! Amazingly cool stuff.
The Bible itself is a story about family–about God’s family. He made the first people to be His children (Luke 3:38 calls Adam “the son of God”), which has been His plan ever since. God promised Abraham that he would be the head of a huge family, not a giant corporation. His promise continued through Isaac, through Jacob, through Judah, through David… and on down the family line to Jesus Christ. And through Jesus, His plan is to bring people into His family.
There are many elements that define a family, but three stand out: shared experience, a common language, and reproduction. Sound personal? It is.
The church–as a family–is also defined by these three things. We share experiences together, develop a common language, and reproduce by telling people about Jesus so they can experience a new birth.
The church has done all this throughout history, since its very beginning as recorded in the Book of Acts. Yesterday we read and talked about Acts 2:41-47 to see what the early church family did, so we could learn more about what we should be doing. They were essentially devoted to four things: Bible study, prayer, fellowship, and food. Oh yeah.
The podcast will be up soon, which you can access through the link on the right of this page (if you get this through email, you can find the link by going to this blog’s site).
Surfing the Inner N8 