Family Matters represents our belief that the Lord gave us a church family to do life together and to sharpen one another. The name itself also symbolizes our willingness and determination to engage and discuss matters that are important to the Lord and his kingdom. As a family, we can lean in, listen, and learn as a way of allowing the Lord to graciously work on our hearts and help us become more like Jesus.
We want to be a church that enters into the cultures of others with curiosity and humility, never behaving or responding as if our learning is complete.
As we pursue understanding of contexts and cultures not our own, our aim should be that of humility rather than competency (Philippians 2:3-5). Even in an effort to better understand people and environments outside ours, we must actively resist the urge to feel and behave as if we have arrived at cultural understanding.
We must enter contexts having considered that our history is ripe with patterns of both systemic and individual sins against one another. These sins have left a legacy of pain, anger, distrust, guilt, and shame, particularly in the Church. It is impossible to predict all of the ways that these sins and pains have created barriers in the relationships we want to pursue.
Scripture convicts us that reconciliation with members in the body of Christ must be a priority, even before we seek to worship and participate in religious practices (Hosea 6:6; Matthew 5:21-25, 6:6, 12:7). Willingness to confess, admit wrong, and acknowledge hurt we have caused to both God and our fellow man is a priority to God (Proverbs 28:13; James 5:16). Reconciliation must also be sought with a posture of humility and a motivation of love rather than vengeance or obligation (Proverbs 10:12; Galatians 6:1-5; Ephesians 4:1-3, 25, 29-31).
Exposure to other cultures can be a means of God's grace in our lives, for as we interact with more of his image bearers we can better understand them, ourselves, and most important, the character of God himself.
