Why We Need Family
It’s no secret that we live in possibly the most individualistic society in human history. We by default see almost everything through the lens of “I, me, and my”. We ask questions such as, “What am I getting out of life?”, “Is this really benefiting me?”, or “Are my goals and dreams being fulfilled?” This starts early, children are constantly asked, “What are you going to do with your life?” I don’t recall ever being asked by adults as a child, “How are you going to serve and sacrifice for your family or community?” I’ve never heard anyone ask a kid, “How are you going to deny yourself and seek the good of others?” Children are early on given a hyper-individualistic script by which to live life. This is not to minimize our value as individuals created in the image of God, or to say that all individual hopes, dreams, and desires are selfish or bad. I’m simply saying that we are conditioned by our culture to cultivate the desire that already dwells in us due to sin to see everything in the world in reference to me and my desires.
This individualistic bent can creep into the Christian life very easily. We can leave a worship service or small group gathering immediately asking internally, “Did I get anything out of that?” without giving a bit of thought to if God was glorified or others were helped and encouraged. We can see prayer as simply an opportunity to give God our grocery list or engage in an ongoing vent session. While it’s encouraging to know that I can cast all my anxieties on my Father because He cares for me (1 Pet. 5:7), my anxieties are often revealing. It is possible to be anxious about many things, but all of them be about me! Paul culminated his list of sufferings endured as an Apostle by saying, “And, apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches (2 Cor. 11:28).” Paul’s anxiety here was driven by love for others. It made him anxious to think about whether his beloved brothers and sisters in Christ were persevering in the faith. Just reading that verse shined a light in my heart on how self-focused so many of my anxieties are.
If we are being honest, the endless focus on ourselves leads to misery. We take our eyes of Christ, we grow blind to His care and daily provision, we miss out on the gift of relationships, and ultimately lose sight of our Lord’s words that it is “more blessed to give than to receive (Acts 20:35).” Paul pointed the church of Philippi to the incarnation and sacrifice of Jesus to encourage them to take their eyes off their own interests and care for one another:
“4 Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. 5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” - Philippians 2:4-8
The answer to our individualism is not to compound the problem by living in isolation. We need family! Through faith in Jesus we are made children of the Father, which means that if we are in Christ, we are brothers and sisters. This isn’t something that we have to create, it’s a reality that we have the opportunity to participate in. It’s who we are in Christ!
At New City, we live as family primarily in our Missional Communities. MC’s are small gatherings of New City Church that meet regularly to share both the mission of Christ and the daily realities of gospel-centered living. It’s where we learn to help one another look outside of ourselves and learn to love in a way that points to Jesus’ perfect sacrificial love. “We love because He first loved us (1 Jn 4:19).”
Our Missional Communities are following the guidelines of our government leaders, slowly transitioning from online-only gatherings to various forms of social distancing gatherings. If you would like more information on how you can connect to a MC and experience family in Christ, visit our website for more info, https://www.newcitychurches.org/missional-communities.