[This reflection by Dennis Ginter was published in the weekly news bulletin of Horley Baptist Church, 24/Mar/2024]
We Are Family!?
We often refer to our church as ‘family’. Last Sunday Reece shared with us from the front how God had responded to the persistent prayers of friends and healed him of a really worrying kidney problem. That kind of thing, as Reece said, should be shared much more often – if we really are ‘family ‘!
I know it’s not easy to facilitate such testimonies in the middle of a packed Sunday service. And maybe most of us already have a small group of fellow Jesus followers who really are family. But, if we’re going to call the larger church ‘family’, perhaps it’s time to ask ourselves whether we can somehow become more intimate – which is the identifying characteristic of true family.
The weekly YOURS bulletin is one way to do that, but it seldom functions as a family forum. And maybe it can’t.
Recently there has been a shift in our Sunday meetings. It seems, to me at least, that there’s more warmth, more deep love for one another.
That’s what Martin was talking about, wasn’t it? It’s more than possible for a large gathering to really be family, and I think the Holy Spirit is doing it!!
Resources:
[1]
Bible quotations: Unless otherwise specified, quotations are taken from the resources of Bible Gateway or Bible Hub, in accordance with the licencing conditions outlined on our Site Policies page.
Bible dates:
Where appropriate, the dates given for Biblical events are based on the Bible Timeline resource
and are subject to the constraints defined on the corresponding webpage.
Horley Baptist Church onlineHBC main site
Confidential prayer link
Link to Recent Reflections
.
Link to Index of Bible Passages
Last week’s reflection: Trust by Chris Ginter
Contributed by Dennis Ginter; © Dennis Ginter