Every family has routines and values, and these are closely connected.  Take suburban family life as an example.  On the surface, we can see routines:  wake, eat, drop-off at daycare/school, commute to work, work, commute home, pickup kids, make and eat dinner, get everyone to bed, and repeat.

But we have to ask what values are behind that.  Why do families move to the suburbs?   There are choices, you could live in country, or the city.  Why here?

For some, it’s where they grew up.  Others want to be close to parents, or want their kids to have a yard of a certain size, or to be near nature.

Whatever the values, we chose the routine because of those values.

Yesterday, we saw Jesus shake up his family routine because he was pursuing a higher value.  He called it the will of his Father in heaven.  We have called these kingdom values, and it can be distilled down to loving God, and loving neighbour.

Jesus is challenging the extended family norms of his day, and replacing them with a new one.  A new kind of family.  With this new family will come new routines, all because of those founding values.

The other direction works, too.

We are trying to instill some routines in my family like saying a prayer before a meal (grace), asking our son the best and worst part of day, so we can say thanks to God in prayer, and ask for help or say sorry for the low parts of the day.  We also read a Bible story and say a prayer at bed.  We do this in hopes that our son will learn some values from those routines.

Let’s start simple, and look just at what it means to love God, and love neighbour.

Question: Based on the values of love God, love neighbour, what do you think Jesus’ family routines would be like?   What could your immediate family’s routines look like?

 

Ryan Sim - November 11, 2013

Monday - A New Idea - God in Worship

Becoming Like Family

We are a few weeks into a new series on “Becoming Like Family”. This is important as our online community begin to share the daily challenges with friends, and we begin to gather our larger community together as one church community. We won’t be bound together by a building, or institution, but rather by five commitments. Two weeks ago, we explored commitment to common learning goals. Last week, we explored a commitment to connectedness as a community of small and large groups. This week, our commitment is to God in worship. Worship is not a word everyone uses every day, and even if we do, we might not sure what it means. Does it mean to bow down and say I’m not worthy? Kids “just worship” their parents, older siblings, etc. is that what it means? Or if you have church experience, you might think worship is something you do at a weekly service, or even just the music part of that weekly service. Did you know the official way to address Rob Ford is “Your Worship”? As you can see, there is some confusion on what “worship” means. Question: What do you think of when you hear the word worship? Reminder: Earlier in this series, we saw the importance of reading the Bible together in sync, so our new daily bible readings start today in our mobile app and web site.

From Series: "Becoming Like Family"

This series looks at becoming “like family” with others learning to follow Jesus. We're exploring how the church is not a building, institution or event, but a community of people. It's important that explore what church means as we prepare to launch a new church in Ajax in 2014.

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