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  • HOME
  • ABOUT
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  • FAITH
    • All
    • Bible
    • Discipleship
    • Prayer
    • Sin
    • Spiritual Practice
    • Theology

    Don’t Let Fear Take the Steering Wheel

    The Case for Shared Leadership (Part 5)

    The Case for Shared Leadership (Part 4)

    The Case for Shared Leadership (Part 3)

    The Case for Shared Leadership (Part 2)

    The Case for Shared Leadership (Part 1)

    More of Him, Less of Me

    You’ve Got a Friend

    3 Important Things You Should Know About Discipleship

    Discipleship Lessons from Star Wars

    Home

    Episode 26: Election, Free Will, and Flowers

    God Is Calling YOU to Rest (Part 2)

    Is metaverse or VR church a real church?

    Should we still listen to Hillsong?

    Easter Origin: Bunnies & Eggs?

    Before Christ Rose

    Our Misconception of the Body

    Is metaverse or VR church a real church?

    Can Christians go to multiple churches?

    The Relationship Between Frugalism and Stewardship

    Is metaverse or VR church a real church?

    Is metaverse or VR church a real church?

    Rejoice (Part 3)

  • LIVING
    • All
    • Identity
    • Mental Health
    • Purpose
    • Work

    Home Is Where Your Heart Is

    Interview: Transformation from Pole Dancing

    The Power of Names

    In a Difficult Season in My Life, I Joined the Production Team

    Wisdom from a Baby

    LET THERE BE LOVE — on Christian Veganism (Part 5)

    There’s Nothing Wrong With You

    LET THERE BE LOVE — on Christian Veganism (Part 4)

    LET THERE BE LOVE — on Christian Veganism (Part 3)

    LET THERE BE LOVE — on Christian Veganism (Part 2)

    The Addiction You Didn’t Know You Had (Part 2)

    The Addiction You Didn’t Know You Had (Part 1)

    LET THERE BE LOVE — on Christian Veganism (Part 1)

    Home

    Episode 25: What’s up with the education system?

    Our Misconception of the Body

    The Relationship Between Frugalism and Stewardship

    Home

    Episode 23: Why I changed my career

    What Consumes Us (Part 2)

    What Consumes Us (Part 1)

    Jesus and Minimalism

  • RELATIONSHIPS
    • All
    • Church
    • Dating
    • Family
    • Marriage
    • Singleness

    Home Is Where Your Heart Is

    In a Difficult Season in My Life, I Joined the Production Team

    Wisdom from a Baby

    Dating for Jesus**

    A Short Letter to the Tired Single

    3 Important Things You Should Know About Discipleship

    Home

    Episode 27: How do you find the right person? Questions on singleness, boundaries and friend zones

    The Addiction You Didn’t Know You Had (Part 2)

    The Addiction You Didn’t Know You Had (Part 1)

    Is metaverse or VR church a real church?

    Can a Christian date a non-Christian, then convert him/her?

    Is metaverse or VR church a real church?

    Should we still listen to Hillsong?

    Home

    Episode 25: What’s up with the education system?

    Get Used to Different (Part 2)

    Is metaverse or VR church a real church?

    Is cohabitation a sin?

    Before Saying “I Will”

    Is metaverse or VR church a real church?

    Is metaverse or VR church a real church?

    Need for Companionship

    Local Man Discovers Gift of Singleness, Calls Off Marriage*

    Get Used to Different (Part 1)

    Talking with Family Members About Mental Health (Part 3)

  • CULTURE
    • All
    • Evangelism
    • Justice
    • Social issues
    Our Christmas Collection

    Our Christmas Collection

    You’ve Got a Friend

    Discipleship Lessons from Star Wars

    Ethical Consumerism

    Easter Origin: Bunnies & Eggs?

    Get Used to Different (Part 2)

    Home

    Episode 24: All about Crypto, NFTs, and the Church

    What Consumes Us (Part 2)

    Is metaverse or VR church a real church?

    Should Christians go to war?

    Home

    Episode 22: Enneagram Part Two

    What Consumes Us (Part 1)

    Jesus and Minimalism

    Home

    Episode 21: Enneagram Part One

    Get Used to Different (Part 1)

    Christian Cancel Culture: A Gospel for the Oppressors

    Christian Cancel Culture: A Gospel for the Oppressors

    Your Calling to Bring Shalom into a Deprived World

    Your Calling to Bring Shalom into a Deprived World

    Welcome to Shift Gear

    READY? SET… GO!

    READY? SET… GO!

    Home

    Episode 16: Cage homes and subdivided apartments, is this the reality of HK? // Ask Martin: Why does God elect some not to believe?

    Home

    Episode 14: How should we engage on social media? // Ask Martin: Would God’ve been more loving if He didn’t create anyone?

  • CREATIVE
    • All
    • Fiction
    • Inspiration
    • Poem
    • Satire

    12-STEP GRACE

    Interview: Transformation from Pole Dancing

    Our Christmas Collection

    Our Christmas Collection

    Dating for Jesus**

    Local Man Discovers Gift of Singleness, Calls Off Marriage*

    Why

    In The Whisper, pt2

    How Do I Get Inspired?

    Rejoice (Part 3)

    Rejoice (Part 2)

    Rejoice (Part 1)

    Loss

    Celebrating Creativity

    Baptism Numbers Skyrocket After Installation of Waterslide in Local Church*

    What God Says About Me

    In The Whisper

    Reppin’ Jesus on Social Media – How to Stay True in a World of Haters

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When the Church Adopts You, You Adopt the Church

Emily Kusunoki by Emily Kusunoki
2021/06/25
in Church
0

Take a minute and think about this: do you consider your current church as a group of friends, or as a family? Maybe it’s a question that hasn’t crossed your mind before, but it’s important to define the relationship you have with your church. Church is basically a bunch of multi-generational others with various opinions and backgrounds that are very different from each other. Yet, all take part in one mission – to grow in relationship with Christ and follow after him to the best of one’s ability. Many of us wander into church looking to connect with people we expect to care for us on a deep, individual and unconditional level; often the same expectations we have of our own family members.

We all came into this world both physically and emotionally vulnerable. We enjoy it when other people love us, but we need our caregivers to love us. Biological parents, –  adopted or fostered – or whoever it was that picked us up and made sure we survived, they matter to us for a lifetime. Whether we like it or not, our families create the context in which we view the world; we often shape our regard for others – even as adults – on what we experienced as kids. Arguably, it’s our first relationships that also determine how we relate to even God himself. 

But Jesus says something very controversial about family to his followers:

“If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’” (Luke 14.26-30)

 

Hate my siblings? Ok. Hate my parents? Not easy. Hate my husband too? Yikes.

Keep in mind though, Jesus is not demanding that you literally hate your family. He is using hyperbole to demonstrate the steep cost of following him. You lose everything you have, but gain everything Christ has, including one of our most basic needs: love. In following Jesus, we’re yanked out of our current family system and into a new one. We experience his love and new ways of being through the people he gathers into this new family.

The Church (not just locally, but globally) is Christ’s body, so how we take care of it reflects the strength of our commitment to him. Let me say that again:

your commitment to the Church reflects your commitment to Christ himself.

 

He adopted us into his family and is clear about what it may cost us in advance. To follow Jesus, we embrace what we need while also – and more importantly – embrace what others need.

If we truly want to count ourselves as a disciple of Christ, we work through the frustrations, the awkwardness, the miscommunication, and even the dislike in order to care for his sheep (see John 21 if you’re still not convinced). We treat our church like family. And the same way family shaped us, so will the church.

Emily Kusunoki

Emily Kusunoki

Emily found lots of comforts in the pages of various books while growing up. Within her passion for reading and writing, she likes to combine her professional knowledge of mental health with her faith and love of Jesus. // Favorite book: A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini

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