The church as family

“Spiritual formation occurs primarily in the context of community,” writes the Christian historian Joseph Hellerman. Since the start, Jesus’ invitation to follow him and be formed into his likeness has been an invitation to follow and be formed alongside others. The New Testament authors’ usage of metaphors like “brothers and sisters,” “children of God,” and “members of a household” to describe Christians is significant in ways that are easy to miss in a world increasingly organized around the individual. But to follow Jesus is to belong to a family, full stop. There is no customized, personalized, private version of the Christian life; there is God and his people, to whom we belong. In this new series, we’ll return to the original vision of the church as a people learning and living the way of Jesus together, a new family with a shared life, formed into the people of God, together.