Your Home - Your Church

This past weekend I had the opportunity to visit an awesome church in Nampa, ID Family Life Church. Pastor Steve Meistrell (@stevemeistrell) had some incredible words that are worth recapping.

Your Home - Your Church

Take responsibility for the fact that if you have been born, you are a member of a physical family. If you have been born into the family of Christ you are a member of a spiritual family. You don't get to choose whether you are in the family or not, however whether you are a CONTRIBUTING member or not is up to you.

The key is this many people want to be fed and taken care of, but fail to realize this is there family and there church. Pastor Steve used the analogy that if you (as a husband) asked your wife to make you Meatballs for dinner and she said no you don't get angry and make an ultimatum, or leave the family. That is a dysfunctional family! In the same way, you don't get angry at the person watching your children while you worship because you have to walk all the way back to the room to get them rather than them bringing your child to you. That is a dysfunctional family.

It just really highlights the point that You (ME) are responsible for your family and your church. Not your wife (or husband if you are a woman), not your pastor and paid staff. You make it what it is.


A couple of specific notes he had:

Following are a few of Satan tactics that he will try to use to break down
unity between the home and the church.

LACK OF COMMUNICATION: There must be a constant
effort to understand what is really being said/ when
misunderstandings arise they must not be promoted, but they
should be resolved by communication between the local church
and parents.

DOUBLE VISION: Satan will try to bring confusion by giving
every member a different vision, making it double-minded and
rendering it ineffective. Parents should be careful to support the
corporate vision of the church in their families and help inspire the
faith of the next generation to do the same.

Defaming leadership: When parents “have pastors for dinner” and
are always challenging the vision of the church leadership in front
of their children, they are undermining the influence of the church in the lives of their children and are ultimately giving their children an
excuse to rebel later.

Watch out for negative attitudes that can develop around inconsequential
things:
The number of church services.
The number of church activities.
The length of church services.
The type of music that is played.
The decisions concerning the facilities.
The building programs \ decisions concerning finances.
The particular DNA of that local church.

How are you taking responsibility for the health of your family and your church?