![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/family3-300x181.jpg\")
Family is love, laughter, acceptance, encouragement, and mutual strength. I love being with my family and just watching how they enjoy each other. What a great relationship! Little wonder, then, that God likens it to another great relationship: His church.<\/p>\n
Some folk complain about their church and how dysfunctional it seems. Well, of course, there are dysfunctional churches, just like our blood families; they’re made up of dysfunctional, fallible people! But at the core of every church is a nucleus of those who love the Lord, His people, and His cause. They provide a sense of belonging, and there is no sense of belonging like that of being in a family, no love like familial love. No wonder Scripture describes God’s people in such terms.<\/p>\n
“So then you are no longer foreigners and strangers but … members of God’s household<\/em>” (Ephesians 2:19).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
by Zeke Flores Family is one of the coolest ideas from the mind of God (and He has a lot of cool ideas!). Family is love, laughter, acceptance, encouragement, and mutual strength. I love being with my family and just watching how they enjoy each other. What a great relationship! Little wonder, then, that God…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27],"tags":[173],"class_list":["post-90620","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-family"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":40100,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/ruling-with-love\/","url_meta":{"origin":90620,"position":0},"title":"Ruling with Love","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 5, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"by Irven Lee via\u00a0Truth Magazine, January 1, 1981 An elder is to be \"one that ruleth well his own family, having his children in subjection with all gravity; for if a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God?\"\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12116,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/all-we-have-in-common-is-our-love-for-god-is-that-enough-to-get-married\/","url_meta":{"origin":90620,"position":1},"title":"All we have in common is our love for God. Is that enough to get married?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 5, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hello there, I\u2019m in a serious relationship. It took me a while to come to terms with it because we were friends initially. My boyfriend is an awesome guy, he loves and serves God and is caring to people around. He\u2019s passionate about work, his students, family, church, etc..\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":27390,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/can-i-be-a-christian-and-not-go-to-church\/","url_meta":{"origin":90620,"position":2},"title":"Can I be a Christian and not go to church?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 9, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Is it wrong to feel like as long as you keep God in your head, and you do right, and all you listen to is Christian music, and you talk to Him on a regular basis, to not go to church? It's just that church is a place I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":42749,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/no-past-no-future\/","url_meta":{"origin":90620,"position":3},"title":"No Past, No Future","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 24, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Partain The US Census Bureau has a new category called \"unrelated individuals\" to describe those who do not live in a \"family group.\" Such Americans have increased in huge numbers over the last forty years. Even among those who live in family groups, 25% feel lonely and have\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/lonely-300x225.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":43051,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/throw-away-relationships\/","url_meta":{"origin":90620,"position":4},"title":"Throw Away Relationships","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 28, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton We live in a world of throw-away things. If we don't want something anymore, we simply throw it away or trade it off for something new and different. Man has thrown away his responsibility to God, and then throws away anyone else that tries to stand\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/Trashcan.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":16909,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/dear-neighbor\/","url_meta":{"origin":90620,"position":5},"title":"Dear Neighbor","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 19, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Adapted from a flier sent out by the Church of Christ at Appleton, Wisconsin Are you looking for a more genuine relationship with Jesus? Do you long for a deeper sense of peace and hope in your life? Perhaps the Christians at Elm Grove can help. We don\u2019t claim to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90620","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=90620"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90620\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90620"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90620"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90620"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}