Week 5: Faith, Family, and Fellowship

One of the main clues that legalistic teachings led to no good was looking around and observing the state of the family in those types of churches.

Families were filled with secrets, lies, addictions, pain, failure, and dysfunction.  Rather than addressing these issues and using faith to heal these problems, people just pretended nothing was wrong and listened to more pie in the sky by and by while avoiding the obvious tragedies unfolding in front of them within their families.


It always seemed odd to me that people showed up to church every Sunday and talked about God, but yet their personal lives were a mess of dysfunction with no type of action being taken place to address these issues.

One of the worst incidents was when there was a public family dispute during the service.  YIKES!

When I read Karen's book, I reflected on my own time in a legalistic church and don't recall ever going to anyone's home or feeling like I could go to someone else's home to get away from my own situation.  What a blessing Karen was for those young people!  They will never forget her kindness.

We did have a group that went on trips together and did fun things together so that was great but we didn't have functional families to go and spend time with to see that there is hope to have a functional family.

What I've started to reflect on in my adult years is how broken the people were and content to stay in their brokenness.  They were wallowing in the mire and they were comfortable there.  Twenty years later and the generational cycle continues.  More failure, dysfunction, addiction, broken homes and families for the next group.  Where does it stop?  

I know this much is true:  It doesn't bring Glory to God.  In fact, it just makes it look like religion is worthless and useless. It brings shame upon God's name and his word. This shouldn't be the story we want to tell.

We should have more stories like Karen fixing that extra special dinner for the young man who was going to college.

I found myself extremely inspired by the way Karen used her home and her family to love on others.  I hope that I can do similar one day for people.

Being Intentional about Family Time

One of the things I really want to do is be intentional about family time.

It's so sad to go out to eat and see the parents and young children on phones.  Nobody talks anymore. There's no true HUMAN interaction and communication. 

People wonder why everyone is so disconnected and feeling alone.  It starts there.  I want to be intentional about Family Time and really fellowship with them.  Get to know what's happening.

At this moment, I am not attached to a church family because I burned out.  I would think a really healthy church would encourage groups to get together to fellowship.  Organic fellowship and not fellowship to give family members leadership positions or for self interest purposes.

Karen has given me a great challenge and something to work toward!  Making sure my family is one who fellowships and invites others in!