The Church Isn’t a Compilation of Specialties; It’s Family
Looking at the model of the Church today, there appears to be a collection of specialties. There those that focus on the children, the specialties for men and women, like we have specialties in medicine. We used to have one general practitioner for family medicine, and now we have all these differing specialists for all the specific body parts as if were not whole human beings. God designed us to be whole and to function as a whole. In a presentation at a TED Talk, Margaret Heffernan shares about a study conducted by MIT regarding an observation on teams and the productivity of those teams.
As Heffernan points out, “Companies don’t have ideas, only people do; and what motivates people are the bonds and loyalties, and trust they develop between each other. What matters is the mortar, not just the bricks.” Can you imagine being in an environment where the connectivity of relationships between you and the people around you is valued greater that the results of productivity at the end of the day? What help us to become more fruitful is the very relationships we have. When we look at Colossians 3:12-14, we can see how the Word of God speaks about this very truth. “Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.” It’s a shocker to realize, but the mortar that actually binds us together, is love!
Bishop T.D. Jakes said this, “Lord, if I have to be lonely, please at least let me be alone”. How many people are surrounded by people all day long and are still consumed with being alone? Just because we have people around us, doesn’t mean that we have relationship. It’s hard to have value when you don’t have relationship. Simply taking the time to learn to know the person next to you, we are taking the time to know Jesus. If we don’t spend time with the people around us, why would be shocked to find out that they don’t feel valued?
We don’t “swipe right” or “swipe left” when we are looking for a Church family, or looking for relationship with God? Having friends in our lives is not about the number of followers on our Social Media platforms, it’s about the people in our lives that we are walking together, who we care about, who care about us. Relationship with other people is a choice that we have to make. As Rick Joyner with Morning Star Ministries said, “if you’re in depression, it’s because you’ve distanced yourself away from God because the closer you get to God’s presence, you’re not depressed”. Truth of the matter is that you’re not just showing up to a gathering for yourself, you’re showing up because of those that value and need that relationship with you! We’re not called to do this alone, we can’t walk this out alone. We’re only able to bear fruit when we’re walking with Jesus, walking with others. This is where the fruit happens.
To know that you have God’s family around you, to know that you are connected to God’s family is indescribable. Pat recalls his own journey of understanding that he can’t do this alone and how much it means to him to have true, authentic family in his life. “Its priceless. You can’t put a price on it, it’s so beautiful. Being around family, people that truly love you, that care about you, care about your family, care about what’s going on in your life”. You can recognize those surface level conversations and relationships. Family is not supposed to be that way. If you’ve never had that authentic relationship in your life, seek out relationship! It’s important to have relationships with people that you trust, not just anybody. Your heart matters, so entrust your heart to those that value you AND your heart! It takes time to build healthy relationships, and healthy family. However long it takes, IT’S WORTH IT! YOU MATTER TO GOD!