by Frank A. Viola
The following is a transcript from a message delivered by Frank Viola on February 23, 1997 in Seminole, Florida.
In introducing my talk, I would like to open with a few questions: How does the Bible define the Kingdom of God? How does the Bible define the glory of God? How does the Bible define the eternal purpose of God?
Now, before you go scurrying through your Bible to find a definition, I will submit to you that the Bible never defines any of these terms. In fact, you will fail to find a definition for the most important truths that are in Scripture, such as the Kingdom of God. Such as the glory of God. Such as the eternal purpose of God. Instead what you will find are countless metaphors to describe these things.
For example, the Lord Jesus never once defined the Kingdom of God. But He gave numerous metaphors by which to describe it. He said the Kingdom of God is like a net. The Kingdom of God is like a man looking for hidden treasure. The Kingdom of God is like a mustard seed. The Kingdom of God is like leaven.
And it is the same way with the glory of God. The Bible says that the glory of God is like fire. The glory of God falls from heaven. And its that way with virtually every precious truth in scripture. Very rarely do we come by a nice clean, concise definition that we can neatly tuck away to define the things of God. And that's troubling to most of us twentieth-century Western Christians. Because we like to have things defined for us. We like to have classifications and categories by which to describe the things of God. But it's not that way when it comes to the most precious truths in Scripture. Instead we have images. We have pictures. We have metaphors to describe these things. And there are good reasons for that. Well talk about that a little bit later.
METAPHORS FOR THE CHURCH
Not only does the New Testament fail to give us definitions for things like the Kingdom of God, the eternal purpose of God, the glory of God, etc. But it never once defines the church. Whenever we look at the New Testament and we see the church being described, never once does the Bible give us a definition of what the church is. Instead, just like the Kingdom of God, the Bible portrays the church with an endless number of metaphors. It gives us images. And these images are peppered throughout the entire New Testament.
For example, if you will look at the writings of Paul, the Pauline corpus, you will find that he describes the church with a number of different metaphors. He says that the church is "as a body." The church is the Body of Christ. It is like a physical body. He says the church is an army. He says that the church is a bride. The church is a priestly Kingdom. A Kingdom of priests. The church is a holy nation.
And so you find these metaphors punctuated throughout the writings of the New Testament. Now I would dare say that today in our situation we have many modern Christians who think of the church with a metaphor that is not in the New Testament. The dominating metaphor in the minds of many Christians today is that the church is a corporation. Its a business corporation. The pastor is the CEO. The clergy-staff is upper management. The manufacturing process and marketing technique is called evangelism. The congregation is the clientele. And there is competition with other corporations down the street.
Unfortunately, what we have done in twentieth-century Christianity is we have constructed a metaphor for the church that violates the New Testament. But that's another story; I'm not going to hack away at that now.
Instead, what I would propose to you is that the reason why the New Testament gives us countless metaphors for the church is because the church is too comprehensive to explain with a single definition. And not only so, but our tendency is to latch onto one metaphor and to single it out to be the metaphor to describe the church.
For many of us who were part of renewal movements, we like "the body" metaphor. This metaphor (which is really a reality) depicts the mutual functioning of every member. It shows us that the church has a unified diversity of all its different parts. It teaches us that the church is interdependent upon all of its members.
But if we latch onto just one metaphor, whether its the body, the army, or the bride, we will lose what the other metaphors depict to us of the church. The result is that our view of the church will be limited at best or lop-sided at worse.
THE CHIEF METAPHOR
Tonight, I would like to talk to you about the chief metaphor that the New Testament draws for the church. We hear people talk about it. But in modern evangelical circles we rarely ever go into the heart of what this metaphor means in terms of practical application. Because its very scary to many people when they begin to touch the real meaning of it.
The chief metaphor--the dominating metaphor in the New Testament for the church is not the body, it is not the bride, it is not an army, and it is not the kingdom.
Its the family.
The central metaphor---the metaphor that is most often used to describe the church is the family. It literally saturates the New Testament writings. The writings of Paul are punctuated with the language and imagery of family. The writings of John are dominated with the language of family when he describes the church.
It would do us well to look at that metaphor and see what God has given us regarding the church as a family and the practical implications that are bound up with it.
Before we actually get into specifics, I'd like to read a couple of passages to you. Listen for the family imagery:
Galatians 4:19: "My little children, I travail in birth for you until Christ be formed in you."
In Galatians 6:10, Paul says, "Let us do good unto all men, especially to those who are of the household [or family] of faith."
In 1 Corinthians 4:15, Paul tells the Corinthian believers that they have "many tutors, but not many fathers." He goes on to say, "I gave birth to you [a family term] through the gospel."
In Romans 8:28-29, Paul sums up the Divine purpose saying that God's goal is to conform us to Christ so that Jesus can "become the firstborn among many brothers."
Ephesians 2:19: "We are fellow-citizens of the saints and of God's household."
In 1 Timothy 5:1, 2 Paul tells Timothy to treat "the older men as fathers, the younger men as brothers, the older women as mothers, and younger women as sisters, in all purity." This is the language and imagery of family.
In 1 Timothy 3:15, Paul exhorts that the believers should know how to "conduct themselves in the household of God."
1 Peter 1:22 says, "For you have been born again by the Word of God." How do we get into the family of God? By birth, new birth. A family term.
1 Peter 2:2: "Like newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the Word that you may grow thereby."
In Hebrews 2:10-11, the writer says that God's intention is to bring "many sons unto glory" and that Christ is "not ashamed to call them [the church] brethren."
In 1 John 2:12-14, John exhorts "the children," "the fathers," and the "young men."
In all of Paul's letters to the churches, he speaks to the "brethren," a term that includes both brothers and sisters in Christ. He uses this familial term over 130 times in all of his epistles.
So you see, the New Testament is filled with the language and imagery of family. And yet for us modern Christians, the metaphor that at least underhandedly is conveyed to us is that the church is a corporation. It is a business. Those who profess that the church is a family most often fail to flesh out the practical implications of being a family. And they really don't see themselves as family.
Consequently, I would like to explore that with you this evening. I'd like to talk about five facets, five characteristics, of the church as family. And I'm going to offset it with what sociologists call "the dysfunctional family."
Regrettably, modern society is plagued by the dysfunctional family. These are families that have been broken. These are families that may be intact outwardly, but they are inwardly damaged. Something is broken beyond repair. And it is sad to say this, but the reality is that many of our modern churches are in every sense of the word "dysfunctional families."
What the Lord would want to do in this hour is to recover His thought for the church that the church would be the family of God in every sense of the word. That it would live like family, act like family, and would literally become the family of God. That is what God has ordained it to be.
So I want to look at these five facets. As we explore them together, I want you to ask the question in your mind, "Does the church that I attend actually live like a family? Do I see the other members of my fellowship as family members? Am I living as a family member?" These are challenging questions. But if were going to fulfill God's purpose for the church, we need to ask these questions. We need to explore these questions and ask the Lord, "Lord, is this being made real in my life? And if it is not, what shall I do to adjust it? What changes must I make to fulfill your will as the church as family?"
THE MEMBERS TAKE CARE OF ONE ANOTHER
The first facet of the church as family is simply this: Because the church is a family, the members take care of one another. Think about the natural (healthy) family. Is it not true that the parents take care of the children? What would you think if the parents had no concern for their children and just let them fend for themselves? They went on their merry way and neglected them, or worse, they abused them? You would say that this is not a family. Outwardly it may be a family, but it is dysfunctional at best; it is horrific at worst.
Families take care of one another. Isn't it true that you take care of your natural blood? And they take care of you? If your mother or your sister has a problem, do you just say, "Well, sorry, Mom," "Sorry sis." Or do you take care of them? How about your children?
A true family takes care of its own, doesn't it? A dysfunctional family does not. A dysfunctional family is selfish, individualistic, and totally independent. There's detachment and unconnectedness in a dysfunctional family. The members do not know one another very well at all. Nor do they care for one another.
Look with me at James 2:15-16.
"Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes or daily food. If one of you says to him, "Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed," but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it?"
Well, this is a very challenging passage because it really puts the finger on what real faith is. Real faith will express itself in acts of love. That's James' point. He says, "If you say you have faith, but you neglect your brother and sister who is in physical need . . . then your faith is dead. Faith without works is dead."
The works he is talking about is not attending meetings. It is not how many hours you pray and read your Bible. The works he is talking about are works that come out of Divine life. They are works of love toward your fellow brother and sister. If you see your brother or sister in need, and you do not care to meet that need, you really don't have Biblical faith.
Look at Ephesians 4:25-28: "Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man the truth with his neighbor. For we are members one of another. Be ye angry and sin not. Let not the sun go down upon your wrath. Neither give place to the devil. Let him who stole steal not, but rather let him labor, working with his hands the things which are good, that he may have to give to him that needeth."
Now did you hear that last verse? "Let him who works, work with his hands." Why? "So that he can give to him that has need."
We've heard a lot about the Protestant work ethic. Well, this is the New Testament work ethic. That you not work to meet your own needs only; but you work to meet the needs of others. This is a very different way of looking at work, isn't it? And so the New Testament envisions the church as a family that takes care of its members. Not only spiritually, but physically and financially in every way that a nuclear family would take care of its members.
In fact, if you read the early portion of the book of Acts (Acts chapter 2, 4 and 6), you will find that the church bore the burdens of the weaker brothers and sisters. The saints bore the burdens of those believers who lacked financially. They took care of one another. They shared their money. They saw themselves as being an extended family, an extended household, a community.
This is what Paul tells the Galatian Christians in Galatians 6: "Bear one anothers burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ." The law of Christ is the inward law of love that is written on every Christians heart. So if you belong to a church that is not taking care of the needs of the saintsand I am not talking about putting your money in a benevolent fund that's detached from you and you don't know the people who are being helped by it then you really are not fleshing out the New Testament vision of family.
The first-century Christian vision of family is simple this: "My brother in Christ has a need. Since were family and were brothers, I'm going to know what his needs are. I'm going to help my brother because he is kin to me." And that goes for every member. It is taking care of one another. That is a basic facet of a family. And this is what the church does.
It was said of the early church, the first-century church, that their network of care for one another was the third most powerful influence in the Roman Empire. When you look at them in history, the unbelievers said of the early Christians: "See how they love one another. Behold how they love one another." Why? Because they took care of one another. They saw their children as the children of the members of the church. There was no individualism among them. They loved one another. They met each others needs. They buried one another.
If you were living in the first-century church, you didnt need insurance. The church, the people of God, was your insurance. The Lord is seeking to recover that among groups of believers who have really seen the vision of the church as family. There are such churches today, saints. They exist. But they are very rare. And they are different than anything youve ever seen before.
One last passage. In 1 Corinthians 8, Paul says that there is to be an equality in the church, because the church is a family. Those who have more give to those who have less. And those who have less receive from those who have more.
Of course, this opens up a lot of other questions and issues. But what I want to press this upon you: because the church is a family, it takes care of itself. The saints take care of one another.
THE MEMBERS SHOW ONE ANOTHER AFFECTION
Facet number two: because the church is a family, the members greet one another with affection. Now think about it. When you see your mother, or your father, or your children, or your relatives, do you just salute them? Do you just say, "Hello," or do you exchange hugs and kisses? Do you tell your children that you love them? Do they tell you that they love you? Do they verbalize words of affection?
Well, if you're functioning as a healthy family, the answer is yes. It is the same way with the churchwith the brothers and sisters, because we are family.
Look with me at 1 Corinthians 16:20. Maybe someone can read that. Most of your modern translations will also say, "Greet one another with a holy kiss." What you find there is a display of affection.
Sociologists have this branch called proxemics. Proxemics deals with how we distance ourselves from other people. There are basically four laws in the field of proxemics: theres personal distance, intimate distance, social distance, and public distance. Intimate distance is less than twelve inches. The idea is that you do not let anyone get that close to you without feeling extremely awkward unless they are part of your family or an intimate person like a fiancé.
Say that you are in an elevator and a stranger gets in your intimate space. What happens? Well, you don't make eye contact first of all; you look away. You feel uneasy.
Well, should not we allow our brothers and sisters in the Lord to invade that intimate distance? Should we not exchange hugs? And I know some people who practice the holy kiss. Now I'm not pushing the holy kiss. But I am making a point. By the way, I want to say for the young men; its a holy kiss, okay? So those sisters that you're attracted to, just remember when you hug them that it is a holyhug.
But the point is that if were going to live as the family of God, we will share our love with one another through affection. And that's going to be different for different people. Now I know this opens another door where you have some brothers that lack social skills. They might hug the sisters in an inappropriate way. But that's another issue. I want to say is that the Body of Christ shows physical affection because it is a family.
A dysfunctional family, on the other hand, shows no affections toward its members. The parents never touch the children. The children grow up feeling unloved and unaccepted. Theres no verbal exchange of love. Its dysfunctional. It is not a family.
Incidentally, Paul exhorted the churches to greet one another with a holy kiss five times in the New Testament. Five times he said it.
Question: Give a description of a holy kiss.
Well, you need to look at other cultures. The eastern cultures still practice this. They kiss each other either on the cheek or on the neck. Sometimes they'll do the lips; but it is not sensual. And again, I'm not pushing the letter here. I'm not saying, "Alright, we need to start kissing each other here because the Bible says it."
What I'm saying is that the church, if she is living as family which is true to her own nature, will expression to its affection for one another. That could just be a touch. When this brother was praying, he put his hand on me. That's an expression of caring and concern. See, hes my brother. He can do that. He can come into my intimate distance, and it is not going to bother me because hes my brother.
The point I'm making is that if you do it to your natural family, then it should be going on with your spiritual family. I have observed that every group of believers that truly becomes the community of the Kinga close-knit connected family, an extended household as God has called it to beshows this affection-giving organically, spontaneously and naturally. You just see it. It is there. And so this is what I'm trying to challenge your thinking on. I want you to consider: "Well, if my church isn't doing these things . . ." You finish the sentence.
Observer comment : You've mentioned several times about dysfunctional families, how they don't touch or say they love you. And I think Satan is working in our culture quite heavily in that area. Because studies have shown that a little baby that isn't touched and loved will die. We need to be touched and loved. So Satan in our culture is trying to have no one touch one another. Except the bad, sensual touching. Hes pushing that.
Excellent point. Let me make an application to what you said about the baby who is not touched will die. Think about the new Christian that comes into the church. What do we usually say to them in the modern church: "Alright, heres our discipleship packet. Here you go, read that. Here are our videos. Come to our orientation class. And make sure you don't miss church service every Sunday."
No one takes them, and disciples them, and nurtures them spiritually. So what happens? They usually die spiritually and go back into the world. Because oftentimes they find more love and acceptance in the world than they do in the church!
THE MEMBERS SPEND TIME TOGETHER
Let's go on to number three. Because the church is a family, the members take time to know each other. They spend time together outside of scheduled meetings.
In a dysfunctional family, and I have seen this as a High School teacher, the children don't even know the parents. And the parents don't know the children. The same is true for the brothers and the sisters. They live under the same roof. But they live separate lives going their separate directions. The only time they come together is when there is a scheduled meeting. "Well, we have to go to Aunt Josephine's wedding." So theyre all together then. But then after that, they don't see each other during the week. Oftentimes they don't even eat together.
I would submit to you, brothers and sisters, that you can only know each other so much in meetings like this. But what about during the week. Are you in contact with one another during the week? Do you talk to each other? Do you share meals together? Do you invite the brothers and sisters over to your home to get to know them intimately?
Lets look at a Scripture in the book of Acts to kind of highlight this aspect of the church. Acts 2:42, 46.
"They devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer . . . Every day they continued to meet together . . . they broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts."
Now that doesn't sound to me like they just came together at scheduled times. What that sounds like to me is that these early believers had lives that were interacting with one another. The Bible says they met daily. In Hebrews 3, there is an exhortation to encourage one another daily. And yet today, in many modern churches, the only fellowship time that you really get maybe five minutes when the pastor says, "Okay, turn around and greet the people behind you"! And maybe a little bit more out in the parking lot!
Church gatherings, brothers and sisters, don't go far enough. We may have a brother or a sister in this room who is struggling with a problem, whether it be emotional, spiritually, physical or financial, and you wouldnt even know it unless you spend time and get to know that person.
If the truth be told, some of us 20th-century Western Christians are afraid of intimacy. We like to hide. That's why many people wouldnt be interested in a house church. It is far safer to hang out in a pew, stare at the back of someones head for two hours, and then leave. It is far safer.
But the Lords church is a family. It is not a business or a theater! And in a family, a true healthy family, everyone knows whats going on with one another. Dad is having trouble at work, were praying for him. Sis is having problems at school. Brother got a raise at his new job. Mom is concerned about her aunt Felicia. We know whats going on in one anothers lives.
How can we really truly flesh out the "one another" exhortations in the New Testament if the church to which we belong is not a family? There are over fifty "one another" exhortations in the New Testament. Love one another. Honor one another. Give to one another. Share with one another. Have peace with one another. How can we really flesh those out if we don't even know the people with whom we fellowship? That is not a family.
The church, after the first century, is an extended household. There is connectedness in it. It is profoundly relational. This is the hub of a New Testament-styled church. And that's what God wants to restore in our lives today.
The church is not meeting-conscious or meeting-centered, meaning that the only time you share with your brothers and sisters is in some scheduled meeting. That is not how the church of Jesus Christ operates.
Now I just want to add one little aside to this. You can study this out later, but in 1 Thessalonians 5:12 the Bible says, "Intimately know those who labor among you." That's talking about those who are active in ministry. Intimately know them. Sadly and regrettably most Christians hardly know their pastors in todays church. In fact, many pastors today are taught in seminaries not to get close to the people. They are taught that if they get close to the people, it dilutes their authority!
Brothers and sisters, such an idea violates New Testament principles. It is utterly foreign to the New Testament. (Not to mention the modern pastor himselfthere was no such thing in the first-century church.)
Those who labor among you are servants. That's what a minister is. Do you know that the word for "minister" means "servant." Those who labor in the Word of God are "leading servants." Christian workers, for example, are people who know the sheep most intimately. They do not hide out in their little enclaves. And more importantly, the brothers and sisters know them.
Theres a story that I heard a brother share that intrigued me. It was a brother that I know. He was with a Baptist pastor, and they were eating at Morrisons cafeteria following a Sunday service. This pastor was very evangelistic. He would share the gospel with anybody he saw. And there was a woman in front of him, waiting in line for her food. He looked at her and said, "Hi, how are you today? Do you know Jesus?" And she said, "Yes, I do. I love Him very much." The pastor then said, "Really, that's wonderful. Who is your pastor?" She responded by saying, "You are."
That story characterizes the sad situation in most modern churches. Now again, I'm not here to hack away at pastors (I've done this elsewhere). But I'm making a point. The church that is envisioned in the New Testament is a family; the members know one another, including those who minister to her.
THE MEMBERS WILL GROW
Number four: because the church is a family, it will grow. The mark of a healthy family is that it grows. And how does a family grow? Think back to the creation of the first human family. How did it grow? God said to Adam, "Be fruitful and multiply." Families multiply. They give birth to children. They nurture the children. They take care of the children. They train the children. And then they send them off. They multiply; they grow.
Now its interesting to note that there are two ways that the church grows. One way (and I'm talking about increase in size) is through division. That is to say, if this fellowship gets larger, it may divide into two fellowships, right? But that is multiplication. That's a good thing. That's how cells grow. Our bodies grow through division. Cells multiply and grow by division.
Another way, of course, is by giving birth to new spiritual children. That is, bringing someone into the Kingdom of God through a new birth and adding them to the family of God.
If you only understand the church through "the body" metaphor, you lose this issue of growing through multiplication. Why? Because a body only grows one way; it grows upward. And once it gets to a certain point, the physical body stops growing. Any more growth is horizontal growth. In other words, the body gets fat, right?
Not so with a family. A family reproduces; it grows by multiplication. So division for a family in this sense is good. Children are born, the family gets large, they go off and bear more children, they go off, and bear more children. It grows through multiplication. In a body, division is called amputation and dismemberment! You cut off a piece of your body, and it dies.
So this is one example illustrating why it important for us to look at the different metaphors of the church. Each metaphor shows us different aspects that we would not come to see if we latched onto only one metaphor.
Dysfunctional families cannot grow. And I would just say this: that if the Lord is working among you, there will be growth. It may not be immediate growth. It may take time. But if the church is alive, there will be growth: both internal growth and external growth.
Not only that, but let me say something about the generation that we have today. This generation, particularly among the youth, greatly lack love and acceptance. American culture fragmented the extended household long ago. So nuclear families are left to struggle on their own. Add to this the onslaught of selfishness in our society, and the nuclear family is being destroyed. Consequently, many of our young people never grew up with fathers and mothers. The parents either neglected them or abused them. And there is deep pain. What they are looking for, therefore, is acceptance and love. They are looking to be accepted by a family.
Thus churches that live as families will grow spiritually. They will draw in the young generation in this hour. Churches that operate as corporations and business organizations where the people are detached will not keep their converts. They may come in, but, as the brother said, they'll die for lack of nurturing.
I'm telling you: the people in this post-modern world are looking for families. They are looking for a group of people who are real, who will love them, and who care for one another. And they can see whats not authentic pretty quickly. Theyve been trained well by bad examples. They can tell whats not the real McCoy. And when they see a group of people that are truly laying down their lives for one another, that are accepting one another unconditionally, that are loving one another freely, they will be drawn to it. It will answer the deepest cries that lay in the human heartthe church as a family.
THE MEMBERS SHARE RESPONSIBILITY
Lastly, number five: because the church is a family, each member has a distinct responsibility in relating to one another. And each member carries out his or her responsibility for the benefit of the family.
If you look at a human family, everybody has a different role. You don't ask the children to go out and work, right? You don't ask the parents to submit to the children. Everybody has a distinct role : the father, the mother, the children, and the newborn. And everyone works together for the common good of the family.
Well, its the same way in the family of God. Look with me at 1 John 2:12,13, "I write unto you little children because your sins are forgiven you for his names sake. I write unto you, fathers, because you have known him . . . I write unto you young men because you have overcome the wicked one. I write unto you, little children because you have known the Father."
Notice that John is using the language and imagery of family. Hes talking to the fathers, hes talking to the young men, and hes talking to the children. He is charging them with different things.
So we have here a precedent that in God's household there is an order. Each member has a responsibility to function in a certain way. In the scope of the Body, there is a function of the members: eyes, ears,, hands, feet all function. But here, we have functioning in the scope of the family of God. And I submit to you that in the church, every member must bear its own responsibility. If it does not, then the church will basically become something distorted. It will not be the family of God.
Think of a human family. In a dysfunctional family, the members do not carry out their responsibilities. The father either neglects the children or he abuses the children. He does not train the children; He does not give comfort or guidance to the children. Dysfunctional fathers fail to do this.
Oftentimes, the mother isn't doing this either. Perhaps she is dealing so much with the father she is handcuffed to care for the kids properly. The children in a dysfunctional family rebel against the parents. They take charge in the house. They throw caution to the wind. Consequently, you have a distortion of the family.
Well, in the household of God, there are some who are like fathers. These are the older brothers who have known the Lord for a long time. And it is their role and responsibility before God to give guidance and modeling to the younger brothers. They bring wisdom into the church. And let me say this. In a family, we don't have these responsibilities by position or office. We have them by life. It is organic, vital, out of life.
Unfortunately, because many of us have been trained in the institutional church, weve all been forced to sit down in a pew and listen to sermons week after week. Weve become so passive that the fathers arent really doing what they should be doing in the church. They really see no place for themselves. But in the New Testament church, the fathers provide wisdom and modeling to the younger men.
The mothers teach the young women how to be wise, how to be mothers, how to function as good wives and good mothers. I just quoted 1 Timothy 5: "I would that the older women teach the younger women to be faithful to their husbands."
The children bring new-found zeal into the church. The young men bring vigor and strength. But they need the stability of the older ones. Each learns from the other. The newborn needs the nurturing. They need somebody there to check up on them. Spiritually speaking, to feed them. To change their diapers. To wash them.
Tragically, the institutions were involved in that are called "churches" are not families.
Are there churches that live this way? I'll tell you there are. But you can't be a family in the modern church structure. Because the institutional structure inhibits and hinders the family nature of the church. The church can only flesh out its family nature when it breaks free of these structures.
Let me sum up by saying this: the church, as it is known in the New Testament, is a family. As such it offers interdependence instead of independence. Wholeness instead of fragmentation. Participation instead of spectatorship. Connectedness instead of isolation. Organism instead of institutionalization. Relationship instead of programs. And bonding instead of detachment.
Regrettably, the institutions that are all around and operate as dysfunctional families are accepted as the norm. And we feel, "Well, theres nothing else to do. Theres nowhere else to go." And those institutions inhibit true family-like relationships.
But the fact is that God is raising up all over this nation small groups who are meeting together as family. And they are fleshing out what the New Testament describes as the household, or family, of God.
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