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“We’re Not A Church We’re A Family”

IMG_9914A few weeks ago I was once again marveling at the commitment and caliber of our volunteers here at Element Church.  I continue to say and believe that we have the best volunteers on the planet here at Element.  This particular Sunday there was a volunteer family who was here from before first service, served first and second service, then they served at the homeless outreach all afternoon and served at the 6 PM service.  We typically try and discourage people from doing this often, if at all, because we don’t want to burn them out.  As I was walking back to my office with the patriarch of this family, his wife and one of his sons were with him, I said, “Thank you guys so much for serving all day.  You have to be exhausted.”  His response blew me away.  He said something to the effect of, “Serving at Element doesn’t make me tired it actually fills me up.”  Then he said, “I don’t view my serving as ‘work’, it’s like hanging out with family.”  Then he stated what the title of my blog is.  “We’re not a church here, we’re a family!”  Then I started thinking about this particular family in our church and why they view our church as their family as well.  I found five reasons I believe they view our church as a family.

  1.  Your church will become your family when you invest with your time —  Show me a family who never spends time together and I’ll show you a family who will be easily torn apart.  Nothing galvanizes people together more than time.  One of the reasons this particular family views their church as a part of their family is they are willing to invest their time.  They attend regularly.  (And when I say regularly I mean, when they are in town and physically able they will be in church)  They serve consistently.  I’m not talking about serving every service every Sunday, but your church will never become your family until you invest your time.  [Tweet “Your church will become your family when you invest with your time “]
  2. Your church will become your family when you invest with your resources — I don’t know how much this family makes or how much they give, but I do know through conversations with them that they are faithfully and consistently honoring God with their finances through giving to His church!  Jesus was right when He said, “Where your treasure is there your heart will be also.”  When you invest into God’s Kingdom your heart becomes tied to that Kingdom a little bit tighter!  [Tweet “Your church will become your family when you invest with your resources”]
  3. Your church will become your family when you invest yourself — This family is committed to a small group.  The community group they attend is living out real Biblical community.  It’s awesome to watch.  They serve each other, pray for each other, challenge each other and care for each other.  [Tweet “Your church will become your family when you invest yourself”]
  4. Your church will become your family when you invest your ideas —  This one is trickier because sometimes you’ll have an idea you share that won’t be done.  Sometimes you’ll share your idea and the answer is “no”.  We’ve had to tell lots of people “no” on their ideas before.  I try to tell people that, “You have a great idea but it’s not a God idea for our church right now.”  The church can’t do everything!  But this family was one case where their idea was perfect.  They came to me one Sunday and said, “Have you ever thought about doing…” and then gave their idea.  About an hour later I realized, “They would be perfect to actually fill the role for this idea.”  I contacted them, asked them if they’d head it up, and sure enough, they took the reigns and have been serving in that role ever since.  (This goes back to the time piece too.  Lots of people want the church to do their idea without them having to do any work to pull it off)  [Tweet “Your church will become your family when you invest your ideas”]
  5. Your church will become your family when you invest your friends —  By this one I mean invite, invite invite!  Someone who is unwilling to invite someone else to their church hasn’t made that church their family yet.  Let me ask you this question, if your church is not good enough to invite someone to then why do you attend their yourself?  Wow!  Again, I’m not saying that you should invite anyone and everyone you see to come to church, that would be overwhelming to you and everyone around you.  But people in your life that you have relationship with, why not invite them to church?  [Tweet “Your church will become your family when you invest your friends”]

We’re not a church, we’re a family!  I love it!