Ohana: Discipleship and Family with God, pt. I
Sorry for the lack of blog updates in October! Ministry, grad school, and wedding planning have strained my schedule and I have not had as much time to think creatively for blog posts. This last weekend, however, we took a group of youth and adults down to my hometown in Oak Hill, WV for a "family" road trip/retreat. The weekend was tons of fun, and it inspired me to write some more about the role of family in spiritual growth. So for this month, I'll be blogging for a series I'll call Ohana: Discipleship and Family with God - borrowing from that awesome film Lilo & Stitch - because "Ohana means family and family means nobody gets left behind, or forgotten."
Family and Spiritual Growth
On our trip to WV we had the opportunity to laugh together, worship together, serve together, adventure together and just live life together. As we reflected along the way, we took some time to discuss how crucial our families are to our identity and spiritual growth. Often we think about our walk with Christ in very personal ways. It's all about my effort, my experience, my habits, my commitment. In reality however, our lives with God our first about God's initiative toward us (1 Jn 1:19). And second, our identity in Christ is formed by our place within the new Kingdom family that we identify with (1 Pet 2:10).
In the next few weeks, we'll look more in depth at what it means to serve together as family, to adventure together as family, and to worship together as family. In the meantime, here are a few questions to reflect on and discuss with your own families (including your church family!):
- What is unique about your family and church culture? How has that effected your walk with God?
- How has your family shaped your perspectives and assumptions about life?
- When has your family and church community shown God's love to you in tangible ways?