Family Time – Intentional?
Christian Fellowship has been misunderstood and mistaught by the church for quite a while now. Churches have minimized the importance of fellowship in their congregations and made it a cheap time of cofee and donuts – usually called Fellowship Hour.
Christian fellowship is essential for our growth. The entire Bible is the story of God building a family who will love Him, honor Him, and reign with Him forever. So it might help to understand Christian fellowship as FAMILY TIME.
As His child, we need our family to help us grow. We need a mother to nurture us, a dad to show you how to ride your bike without falling down. As a believer, we need mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters in Christ, to teach us how to love as God loves. These family members may be older Christians who can teach you what it means to be a Christian, or they may be newcomers to the faith, who need a guiding hand from you. Or they may simply be your peers, sailors in the same boat, figuring out life together.
You find Family everywhere – work, school, restaurants, the mall, and even next door. From the very beginning, Christians knew they needed each other for survival. Why has the Church decided that worship times, teaching times, evangelistic times, etc. are more important that Family Times? I’m not saying these other times are not important, but shouldn’t they be done in the context of Family Times?
On that note, is Family Time intentional? Unfortunately yes. In my opinion, it is desperately sad to have to schedule a time with your brother, sister, child, spouse, or heavenly Father. Our daytimers and planners are dictating our agenda for the day, leaving no time to have genuine Family Time. Quite honestly, we do not know what to do with free time. We freak out if we have a 2 hour block of unschedule time. We have forgotten to create margins in our life to allow the Holy Spirit to lead and guide. Only in America is a busy schedule and little sleep considered cool. We have lost our earthly Family Times to long work weeks, and a host of activities every night and every weekend. No wonder we do not understand heavenly Family Times, and we have to schedule Christian fellowship.
So then this question. SHOULD Family Time be intentional? Sometimes yes. But mostly no. Shouldn’t it be free flowing Family Time to encourage and spur each other on to love and good deeds. (Hebrews 10:24-25) As a member of God’s family, we should long for Christian Fellowship.
If you want a sure fire want to ruin your life, just do life on your own and have scheduled times with God.
None of us can survive on our own. We all need and crave the advice of others. As a Christian you need the fellowship of other believers to complete your own understanding. It is in my opinion that Family Time is the most important component of a healthy Christian’s lifestyle.
Which raises the question, how many close family members can you have? But that’s a question for another time. Remember also, fellowship isn’t in the act of gathering, but what is done during the Family Time. This too is another topic for another time.