Why Church? - Part 1 - Family

Why church? That's the question that I'm going to be asking over these next few weeks, one video each week for five weeks. As we have experienced such strange things over the course of this last 16 months with the pandemic, we've had all sorts of different expressions of church. We've been online, we've been in the building, we've been on zoom for prayer stuff, we've been meeting in small groups on zoom, connecting over WhatsApp, we've had stuff delivered on DVD. Why church? Why should we go back to doing things how they were before? If at all, even if we should. Why church? So I want to address the first reason and I'm going to give you five reasons over the five weeks. 
I hope these are helpful. I hope that they are an encouragement to you.

In Hebrews chapter two verse 11 it says this: both the one who makes people holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters. We have been included in the family of God, in the family of Jesus Christ. We've been included as children we've been adopted and brought into his household. That is an amazing thing. And Jesus Christ is the head of the church, of the body and so we are all connected together as a body (and I'm going to talk about that next week) and as a family included in him. And families are supposed to gather together. There's been all sorts of different expressions of church life over this last 16 months and lots of them have been good and we bring learning lots of things there. Digital expressions, in-person expressions, meeting over WhatsApp, DVD deliveries, prayer calls over the phone, all sorts of different things. And in some ways they're all different ways of expressing that we are a family. We come together and we do these things in worship, we care for one another, we pray, we encourage one another with different ways of doing and being church together.

But the key thing is this: the question 'why church?'  is because together we are a family. We've been included in God's family. I wonder if I gave you this example what you might think? You have an invitation to go to a family party. It's going to be fantastic. You're going to see people that you haven't seen for a long time, and there's going to be some refreshments and maybe some singing and dancing, and you get the invitation, but as you read it, you might think to yourself, well you know what I'm quite able to be family and do all those things by myself. I don't need them. Well, how's that going to make the rest of the family feel? You know the reality is that we as part of God's family need each other and we are better together as God's family because that's who we are.

And so my invitation to you is to reconnect with us. To step back into doing things together. Some of those things will be in person. Some of them will be online and we want to continue to do that well and explore how those two things intersect. Some of them will be about us bringing church to you, maybe on a DVD. Maybe you're watching this on a DVD right now at home. And that's part of a way that we can connect and be with one another. But my encouragement is this, because together we are family let's reconnect. Let's step in together and be all that God has called us to be. Amen.