The great big family of God

Do not rebuke an older man harshly, but exhort him as if he were your father. Treat younger men as brothers, older women as mothers, and younger women as sisters, with absolute purity.
(1 Timothy 5:1-2)

One of the many descriptions of the church in the New Testament is the family of God. In Matthew 12:46-50, Jesus responds to someone’s words that his family is outside waiting to speak to him by replying that “whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother” (Matthew 12:50). Coming from the man who upheld the commandment to honor your father and mother, this is a shocking statement. To Jesus, and consequently to the New Testament church, all who believe in Jesus have been adopted into God’s family.
With this in mind, I want to challenge you to consider the children and teenagers in our church as your relatives – younger brothers and sisters, nieces and nephews, or perhaps your spiritual children or grandchildren, depending upon your age. How can you play a part in encouraging them in their faith (besides teaching Sunday School, of course)? Obviously, you won’t be able to get involved in every child’s life, but it should be possible to try to find one family, or one child, that you can show some kindness to, pray for, or encourage.

In Kara Powell’s book The Sticky Faith Guide for Your Family, she writes about how important it is for a child or teenager’s faith to have other adults besides their parents who care about them. She lists some specific ways that adults can show kids that they care:

1. Ask them about school
2. Find out their extracurricular activity schedule and go to a game, recital, or show
3. Call them and sing to them on their birthday
4. Ask them how you can be praying for them. And then pray.
5. A week after you asked them how you can be praying for them, check back with them and find out how they’re doing.
6. Learn their top hobbies or interests, and then connect them with someone you know who can teach them more about what’s special to them.
7. Send them a card in the mail

Of course, if you want to be an encouraging adult in the life of your spiritual younger brothers and sisters, it is important to talk to their parent(s) about this when at all possible. But the bottom line is that when the church truly functions like a family, with the older generations caring for and encouraging the younger generations, we are loving each other as Christ loves us, and making it much more likely that the younger generations will have a positive view of the church and grow up wanting to continue in the faith. Prayerfully consider how you might take up this calling today.

Posted in
Posted in ,

No Comments


Recent

Archive

 2024
 2023

Categories

Tags

1 Corinthians 10 1 Peter 4:8-9 1 Thessalonians 5 1 Timothy 1:15-17 2 Corinthians 13:5 2 Timothy 4 Abundant Life Adoption Affirmation American cullture America Anger Anonymity Anthropology Anxiety Apologetics Approval Arguments Atheism Baptism Barnabas Battle Be still Bible Study Bible reading Bible study fellowship Bible Billy Graham Bob Pierce Bonhoeffer Books Breath Prayer Brennan Manning Brian Fearon Bronx Busyness C.S. Lewis Cape Coast Castle Central African Republic Character Charles Spurgeon Charleston Cheap grace Christian media Christian privilege Christian publishing Christmas Church growth Church life Church College Commitment Communication Community Compassion Competition Confidence Contentment Coronavirus Counseling Courage Cove Service Cowardice Craig Wolfram Critical Race Theory Criticism Cross Culture D.L. Moody Daniel David Death Deborah Depression Despair Discernment Discipleship Discipline Distractions Divine sovereignty Division E.M Bounds Easter Ebenzer Ecuador Edward Kimball Election Elisabeth Elliot Enabling Encouragement Endurance Envy Ephesians Eternal life Eternity Evaluation Evangelism Faith False Teachers Fame Family Fasting Father Fear Fellowship Footwashing Forgiveness Francis Chan Freedom Friendship Fruit of the Spirit Gaia McDermott Gates George Mueller Gift exchange Gino Marozzi Giving Glory God's character God's faithfulness God's goodness God's leading God's love God's plan God's power God's presence God's slowness God's sovereignty God's wrath God\'s faithfulness God\'s love God\'s power God\'s presence God\'s sovereignty God\\\'s presence God Good Samaritan Gospel Grace Grief Haiti Handel's Messiah Happiness Hartford City Mission Healing Heaven Hebrews 11 Hell Hiddenness of God History Holiness Hollywood Holy Spirit Home Honesty Hope Horatio Spafford Hospitality Houston Human responsibility Human rights Humility Hypocrisy Identity Ideologies Idols Immanuel In memory of Information overload Injustice Insecurity Integrity Interruptions Intimacy Isaiah 40 Isaiah 58 Isaiah 9 Israel JI Packer Jeremiah 29:11 Jeremiah 29 Jeremiah 8:11 Jesus' death Jesus' love Jesus\' love Jesus Job Joe Barone John 6 John 8 John Mark Comer John Newton Jordan Perterson Joseph Joshua Joy Judgement Judges Justice Kanye West Kingdom of God Knowing God Lamentations Lament Las Vegas Leadership Leaf by Niggle Lent Les Miserables Lessons learned Loaves and fishes Longing Lord's Prayer Love Loving people Luke 10 Lynne Pleau Mark 10:21 Mark Driscoll Marketing Marriage counseling Matthew 16 Matthew 26 Memorial Day Men's conference Mercy Mike Yaconelli Ministry of presence Ministry Missions Money Moralistic Therapeutic Deism Moses Music Nancy Butler New Year's New life NewLife Old Testament Opinions Optimism Order Orlando Outreach Parenting Passion of the Christ Passion Pastoral care Pastoral ministry Patience Peace Pentecost Perseverence Peru Phil Vaglica Philip Yancey Philippians 4:13 Play Pokemon Go Politics Poverty Power Prayer Preaching Pride Month Pride Prison ministry Progress Prophecy Prophet Prosperity Gospel Proverbs 14:4 Proverbs Psalm 13 Psalm 27 Psalm 37 Psalm 46:10 Psalm 46 Psalm 51 Public Speaking Purpose Quiet time R.C Sproul Reflection Relationship with God Relationships Relativism Relevance Religion Reputation Rest Resurrection Rev 2:4 Revival Rich young ruler Righteousness Romantic love Ron Luce Running Sabbath Sacrifice Salvation Same-sex marriage Samuel Sanctification Satan Saul Seculosity Self-Image Self-Worth Service Sex Trafficking Sex Shirley Prey Signifigance Silence Sin Smartphones Social justice Songs of Ascent Spiritual Disciplines Spiritual Formation Spiritual Gifts Spiritual Warfare Spiritual growth Statues Stories Street Church Stress Success Suffering Suicide Sunday School Survivor Syria Technology Teen Mania Thanksgiving The Hartford project The Ragman The Sound of freedom The Underground The Valley of Vision Theology Tim Keller Titanic Titus 2:11-12 Tolkienn Tony Campolo Tozer Trauma Trevin Wax Trust Truth Uconn basketball Unanswered Prayer Unity Uvalde Valley of Vision Vows Waiting Williams Syndrome Wisdom Witness Work Worry Worship Zechariah accountability accusation addiction bitterness cancel culture child trafficking confession conflict cool devotion disillusionment divorce emotions evil evolution faithfulness foster care glory days gratitude idolatry influences listening marriage nostalgia pastor perspective problem of Evil prodigal son purity of heart racism recovery redemption relevant repentance story temptation the one Jesus loves time management treasure trials tribalism violence vision