MARCH 2011
celloutlines | overview of theme
Family Lives If the Church is meant to be a family, then what can we learn about the Church, and what part do we play in making church life a happy family life? Well, ladies and gents, you can see from the title and subheading above, we are heading into interesting territory this month: exploring family life – perhaps one of the world’s taboo subjects. After all, you don’t criticise family – do you! Well, perhaps we need to start with the bigger questions. What is family? Is family important? Who says Church is meant to be a family at all? Presumably someone does, or we wouldn’t refer to each other as brothers and sisters in Christ, and Channel 4 wouldn’t have been able to make Father Ted (*miss that show!). Family life has changed significantly over the years. It may be that if you were to take a snapshot of families in years gone by, or pulled together a cross section for interview, you may have got very similar reports of what constitutes family. Today however, there is no obvious 2.4 children picture of mum, dad, and two kids. Now you could factor in single parents, single-sex couples, adopted and fostered kids. There are all manner of people coming together to be a family unit. Also, the way individual families are constructed has changed. No longer do sons necessarily follow their dads into the family business, or daughters learn to behave like their mums; youth culture is one of the factors that has changed all that – and the Church needs to be better at digesting what family is all about!
celloutlines
So when we start to picture Church as a family, we are immediately struck by the obvious fact that there are no set criteria for family now. TV families range from Family Guy and My Family to The Simpsons, Modern Family, Two and a Half Men, The Royle Family, all with their own ways of doing things and living and loving together etc. Perhaps we need to establish some core themes that signify what we mean when using the term, and then see if they can be applied to Church. But as we seek to do that, we get struck with the question ‘What is Church’? Let’s leave that question for another month; we have plenty to be getting on with. We only pause to note that when we talk about the Church, we could be picturing our local Salvation Army corps, or perhaps chatting about the entire Church including all denominations. Presumably we can say that both need to be a family, but they would have to be family in different ways. We will be mostly focusing on local church, and how to be family in this setting. The family is of massive importance. The Government understands this, or at least they should if they want to stay in power for long. Tiny babies understand this long before they can crawl, or even talk, as they know that above all else they are reliant on their parents to survive. It is obvious that family is something we need, and have to get right. Families are legally obliged to look out for one another. Parents who do not manage to provide adequate warmth, food and shelter to their children can get into a lot of trouble. Do we always approach Church in the same way? The Salvation Army is steeped in this great tradition, with our Founder famously pointing out that it was tough for people to listen to be saved when they were suffering miserable toothache and cold feet. You sort that out, and then you can share together. Perhaps this is the first step to becoming family: recognising that there are people out there who need love and support, and that we, the Church, continued over >>>
www.salvationarmy.org.uk/alove