We Are Family

Sunday mornings are amazing.  For early in the morning, as another week has passed, a new one is about to start and in the middle of it all, is trying to figure out "what's next". First though, and more importantly, why is the song that matches the title of this post playing in my head?

I'm going to need help. You are going to need help. Your parent, your brother, your sister, your teenager, your baby, your boss, your neighbor, your worst nightmare...and the person at church you wish attended church somewhere else. I know I don't have that person, I hope I'm not someone else' wish and I know none of you have or are that person...we've just heard or seen of others having them, right?(smile...Sunday morning humor)

Thank God for great friends; especially those who can help carry some of the support offered by great family. Thank God for great friends who are incredibly closer than some family (a sad state of affairs to have to live out in reality) Thank God for great friends who become, in essence, family. To add God to these relationships, brings a whole other dynamic...of comradeship, of brother and sister-hood, of parental or grand-parental influences, perhaps never before existed in one's life...the miraculous can occur in every realm and situation of life.

This is an effective church. A church that figures out how to do it efficiently will find itself becoming all the more effective in building community. In return, the community they build will reach the community in which they work, play and reside. Who knows what you are missing by not being engaged in church.  Even if you don't know what to do, expect or where to begin. It all starts with where you stand with God..an area with which a healthy church can help.

On this #effectiveSunday, thank God for the body of Christ. Thank God for people who love Him, and as my church always says, "Lives to serve. God. Others". Pray for this to be the essential mission of all churches. May the body of Christ take hold what Christ essentially established as the two greatest commandments. Pray for those in difficult places; that the church would surround them, as incredible friends; as incredible family. And for those with challenging or no church experience; pray by the power of the Holy Spirit, they would be drawn, directed and guided, into a healthy church. Pray the church be active in the process, not just waiting for someone to enter the front door.

-PNC

---