Over the last year or so I have been a part of launching the Antioch Movement, a church planting movement in Ypsilanti, MI. It has been an amazing experience. One that I can't really put into words. It's been full of joy, pain, excitement, and anguish. I keep learning everyday about the depth of my own sin and the boundlessness of God's overwhelming grace.
There is one thing that I seem to be more acutely aware of than ever before and that is the reality that the people of God are family. In the institutional church we experienced tastes of this through small groups or through relationships with certain people with whom we had an affinity. It's different now.
The life of my natural family is completely and utterly intertwined with the life of my spiritual family. Our worlds are coming closer and closer together. We babysit for one another, we go out of our way to help one another, the rhythms of our lives are more naturally in tune because we are living together in community. Our kids have similar schedules. We frequent the same places. Our outside of the family friends crossover.
There have been many times in the last number of months that I have looked at people who used to be my friends with a new realization that we are now family. We are brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers, we are a family that God is knitting together for his glory.
The realization that we are family changes everything about how we interact. It allows us to fight and have disagreements because we're not worried whether someone will leave. We know that we're committed to one another as family. There is a bond that is more than a commitment to an institution. It's a bond that comes from our commitment to mission together. We are family.
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