What if you woke up tomorrow and it was all gone? You woke up and we had no religious freedoms. You were not allowed to assemble in church buildings. No more corporate worship, or conferences. No more sermons, altar calls, or prayer meetings.
How would the American church survive? How would it function without walls.
Today the American Church walks around oblivious to this genuine scenario looming just over the horizon. The American church has become comfortably lazy but at the same time extremely busy when it comes to living and functioning as family. The modern church would experience great difficulty fitting in with the first-century church at Ephesus, and the Ephesians Christians would have a bit of a problem with the way we do church as well. For the early Christians, family was the church. Family was the primary focus of group loyalty and solidarity for a Christian even before their own blood relatives.
Dr Joseph H. Hellerman professor of Social History of the early Christians at Talbot School of Theology in his book “When the church was Family” describes how the New Testament believer would have conceived of his/her relationship with his/her church family:
"What this means is, first of all, that person perceives himself or herself to be a member of a church and responsible to the church for his or her actions, destiny, career, development, and life in general …. The individual person is embedded in the church and is free to do what he or she feels right and necessary only if in accord with the church norm and only if the action is in the church’s best interest. The church has priority over the individual member."
How many of us would go to a church if church membership looked like that? The individual is “responsible to the church for his or her actions, destiny, career, development, and life in general”? Really? Yes. Really. The church family came first and was the foundation of the early church. It’s also why the American church has been stuck in mediocrity not seeing true revival for hundreds of years.
For the early Christians, the church was not an institutional organization with a mortgage payment. The church was a living organism with a family-first mission. The early church did not even own buildings. They knew each other intimately because their life was based and flowed around the people in their church family. When trials, tragedy, financial issues, and persecution struck an individual they tackled it together and walked alongside them as a family unit until the issue passed. Today when someone struggles in our church we just throw up the 🙏 emoji forget about them and go about our day. We may give a one time gift, or do a food train, or even lay hands on them and pray but in very few cases is the church there to walk with them throughout the entirety of their struggle. We do our good deed and move on. If it’s an extended situation the individual and their struggle is forgotten about and the corporate church machine steams on down the tracks without them.
Today the American church is so far away from the original practice of family first, that to even suggest this idea it would be called a cult. Because we are so centered around a building and self-promotion instead of being centered around the people and doing life with them outside the building. When I left my close-knit church family in Maine for a job down in Florida 22 years ago my family and I have yet to find a church that comes remotely close to the closeness, unity, and family that is taught and practiced within my home church family. Sadly it’s not the norm to find a church in America that has a family-first mission. Sadly most churches have become just another cookie-cutter corporate benevolent organization taking up space on an American street corner crying out for revival with no clue the family sacrifice it takes to have what they're asking God for. We do not see a true revival because we are not prepared to handle everything that comes along with Revival even if God gave it to us.
When my sister and I were growing up as Pastor kids we saw the raw and ugly side of Christianity, however, we also saw how a spiritual Father and Mother handled real and messy life within a church family. When I look back on my time growing up in Maine I find it so beautiful to watch how God’s power was intertwined within the sacrifice of a church family that had a family-first mission. Time and time again my sister and I saw the miraculous happen through the sacrifice of a family.
Deanna and I were raised with diverse Fathers and Mothers teaching and sharing from their history and experiences with God fostering a community that loved, cared, nurtured, and provided for each other. Those who were Fathers and Mothers would sacrifice and give more than they had in spite of their own needs and convenience in order to progress the betterment of those in their church family. This was not a forced requirement but a love that was humbly given. In return, the family loved, honored, and respected those Father and Mother figures, not from a place of fear or duty but from a heart of humility and love. The honor, respect, and loyalty that is returned is unwavering and genuine, not given only to gain some title or position.
When I go home to visit now 22 years later the core of the church family is still there. Many of those same fathers and mothers who taught my sister and me what church family looked like are still there teaching by example to this current generation. Not by fancy words or from a platform, school, or program but by their daily sacrifice for each other.
Church family first was instilled in me throughout my whole life growing up as I saw my Mom and Dad sacrifice and give to those in their church even when they did not have it. It was very common to hear mom and dad talking about postponing paying bills so that they could feed or give to a family in need. I grew up with them opening their homes to countless people who had no place to live. I am not talking about for a night or two but for months and years at a time. Single moms and their children who lost everything because of divorce or tragedy, homeless teens abandoned or orphaned, ex-convicts out on parole, and young adults struggling to make ends meet, would cram into my parents' small house and live with us for months. Dad and Mom would bring them in, feed them, and help them find work or daycare or whatever their needs were. These people became part of our family. At dinner there they were included as part of the family. At game nights, potlucks, picnics, holidays, and church meetings there they were part of my family. Mom and Dad knew how to do life and walk alongside those God placed in front of them. Every week it seemed like we were doing something with our church family outside the 4 walls of the church building. Movie nights, game nights, bible studies, work bees, worship nights, my sister and I were always with our church family. When there was a need there was no hesitation the church family was there walking in unity to meet the need. My mom and dad are now in their 80’s and they still have people living in their small 1040-square-foot house. They still postpone bills and go without giving financially to others. They still spend 90% of their time being a Father and Mother to their church family. Why? Because this is not a job or a cheap calling to a ministry so they can be seen on a stage or to gain likes on social media, it’s their family and family is their life above everything else. They deeply love and care for these people more than they care for themselves. To them, these people are not members on a church roster but they are family and are almost as close to their church family as their own flesh and blood. However, the coolest thing is that those who are a part of their church family reflect the example that my mom and dad have set. The core church family are some of the most selfless, loving, and giving people on this planet. Why? Because they have been taught and understand the power and beauty of sacrificial love from a Father and Mother of the faith who set the example by how they live and not just by what they say on a platform. Their times spent with God and each other are timely, intimate, deep, and precious. They are never in a rush to move on to the next thing because God is always in the right now and if you're in a hurry to get to the next thing you’ll miss what God wants to do in you and through you right now. They are not constantly chasing a prophetic word that has them going up and down mountains, opening and closing windows, walking in and out of doors, or constantly going in and out of seasons. They understand that God moves in his time so family relationships require long-term patience and perseverance, not an annual corporate church vision or fancy slogan. People are their vision every single year. So they embrace the importance of knowing how to linger. To linger in God’s presence but also how to linger with people.
What if our freedoms were all gone? How would we function as a church?
If your comfortable corporate church world vanished in 2024 what would your walk with God and others look like?
The current American Church corporate philosophy has been largely ineffective and God has been trying to revive His people back to a family-first mission but for far too long we have been stubbornly stuck in our broken corporate theology to understand it’s always been about people coming into partnership with God living together as a Kingdom Family. If the Church truly wants Revival a family-first mission must be the rule, not the exception.
Revival is not about hosting year-long church meetings. It’s not the emotions you feel during a church service, it's not about full altars, it’s not about baptism, it’s not about prayer rooms, it’s not about full buildings. Revival is real, messy, and dirty because revival is about people loving and sacrificing for other people. It will require total sacrifice in order to obtain and keep it. It’s about putting those God has placed in front of you first. Walking with them and providing for their needs first. Opening the home God blessed you with to those who have none. It’s about the sacrifice of our time, our money, and our comfort, for those in your church family. If you’re not willing for this type of sacrifice of your time, money and comfort then stop asking God for revival because you just want the benefits of Revival without putting in the work of obtaining and keeping it.
So many look at my dad and mom's church they pastor as an irrelevant quaint church way up in Ellsworth Maine. But God has poured out His Presence on these people so real and so thick I have not seen anywhere else in America. Every year they experience countless unexplainable miracles of healing, provision, and deliverance. They have been in true revival for years changing the lives of individuals through their sacrificial love of each other and of those in their community. They are oftentimes taken advantage of, but they don’t do it for recognition because they truly love and care for the people God has brought to them. They are a family that truly walks out the love and sacrifice it takes to be a Kingdom Family.
Can you imagine our America if every church on every single street corner operated and functioned with a family-first mission? If everyone loved their church family like my mom and dad and their church family do. Where family came first and life revolved around the people of that family. If the needs of others came before our own needs. We would not need prayer meetings and intercession asking God for the city or region. Because if every church lived and loved as a true Kingdom Family people would find in the church what they could never find in society. A people that loved, accepted, and cared for them no matter the situation, even at the cost of their own comfort. We would see God's power show up and manifest in ways not seen since the early church. Living and sacrificing for someone other than yourself. This is key to winning your city, to conquering your region.
The American church should not wait till we are forced to live as a people with no religious freedoms being stripped of our right to assemble. We should be living this way already. The church shouldn’t miss a beat when these freedoms are eventually taken. God has been calling us to make the changes in our own stubborn thinking to create a family-first culture living life knowing what it means to Love God with all our hearts and love your neighbor as yourself. Where we are willing to sacrifice to put the needs of our brothers and sisters before our own. What would it look like if the church operated without walls, and lived and functioned as family outside of the 4 walls of our corporate buildings?
God is calling our pastors and leadership to this. He is calling his people to this. God is calling a people who are willing to rip off the band-aid, break the mold of corporate church mediocrity and convenience to learn, and greater yet walk out a family-first mission and what it means to love sacrificially for others.
Are we willing to answer His call?
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