MOTTO : FAMILY EXCELLENCE

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE CHURCH AND FAMILY LIFE

I believe that there are 6 major pillars that form the foundation of any good church.  These 6 elements are responsible for Church Growth, or the growth of any form of ministry.  Each of these ingredients must form part of a good church service, church program, or ministerial activity. These are:

1. Worship
2. Discipleship
3. Evangelism
4. Fellowship
5. Ministry (Service)
6. Stewardship

To explain these, I will attempt to give examples for a typical church structure or church service:

1. Worship ---- The songs, music, dance, adoration, prayers, plus individual and corporate paying of homage to God Almighty during the service.
2. Discipleship ---- Bible study, Sunday School classes, and various forms of teaching (direct and indirect) including demonstration of examples that need to be emulated.
3. Evangelism ---- Preaching of God’s word and Biblical expositions to win lost souls, and altar calls for salvation.
4. Fellowship ---- Greeting one another, engaging in open-hearted chat at programs, praying for and encouraging one another, gathering together to partake of meals and mutual activities after church, telephone and web-based interactions, visits.
5. Ministry (Service) ---- Running errands, cleaning, taking care of facilities and their surroundings, purchasing, preparing programs, caring for the sick and needy, cooking, working in the kitchen or parking lot etc., babysitting, taking care of offerings and donations, and providing essential items to meet one another’s needs.
6. Stewardship ---- Partnership with God for good management of resources and facilities, accountability, keen oversight, taking good care of property and all provisions for the maintenance of infrastructure or yielding profit.

It appears to me that stewardship is a much neglected area of true worship. God defines our worship as our entire lifestyle (Romans 12:1, 2).
If, for example, there is a great move of God during a church service or event, and everyone feels so blessed, but the people leave the venue in disarray without sweeping, cleaning, and putting away (or storing) items properly, then that is poor or bad stewardship.   

THE HOME AS A LITTLE CHURCH

Every home or family is a little church (1 Timothy 5: 1, 2).  Family life in our homes enables us to know how to treat ourselves in church as:

1. Fathers ----- older men.  Treatment that sets the pace for responsibility, order, and respect.
2. Brothers ---- younger men.   Treatment for those being trained to succeed the fathers.
3. Mothers ----- older women.   If we learn how to properly treat men to be leaders, we can give the proper treatment, lover, and respect to women who nourish and keep the home (homemakers).
4. Sisters ----- younger women.   The extra spiritual ingredient of purity added to their treatment can be established only when men and older women are in line with God’s plan of proper divine-oriented treatment based on obedience to God’s Word which will produce the expected purity.

Father, Brother, Mother, and Sister are names from homes and families, pointing to specific way of organization and treatment that God designed as the best for mankind. 
The home and family then become the foundation of any church, because without learning how to respect and treat each other at home, we would not know how to treat each other in church, and cannot therefore.  As a miniature Church, the home must possess all the six pillars that must form the foundation of any church. 

The father of a home must be the worship leader in the family through Bible study and prayers.  He will then use the Word of God and obedience for evangelism and discipleship in the family, take time for the family members to interact in order to properly fellowship and minister to (serve) one another, and become good stewards (caretakers) of one another and of God’s resources.

Copyright February 2009   Rev. Dr. Samuel A. Kisseadoo  (Professor of Biology, Hampton University, Hampton, Virginia, USA) Founder and President, Fruitful Ministries International Inc., 6  Red Robin Turn, Hampton,  Virginia 23669,  USA.                  Ph 757-7289330  Fax 757-7289335                       kisseadoo@msn.com