![\"\"](\"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,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","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_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":95334,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/visitor-or-member\/","url_meta":{"origin":90620,"position":3},"title":"Visitor or Member?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 30, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton Many congregations are made up of workers who pitch in to help the local church grow in edification and meaningful fellowship in the work and worship of God. They try to be involved in teaching classes, preparing communion, cleaning the building, hosting meals for other members,\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":37334,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/metaphors-of-the-church\/","url_meta":{"origin":90620,"position":4},"title":"Metaphors of the Church","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 23, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"by Dennis C. Abernathy via\u00a0Truth Magazine\u00a0- January 3, 1980 In our age when the church is thought of as some unimportant, outdated, or take-it-or-leave-it institution, it becomes very important for us to investigate what the Scriptures have to say pertaining to it. It is so important that we stress the\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":60057,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/can-a-good-man-be-saved-outside-the-church\/","url_meta":{"origin":90620,"position":5},"title":"Can a Good Man Be Saved Outside the Church?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 24, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"by N. B. Hardeman Excerpts from \"The Church- Its Unity,\" Hardeman's Tabernacle Sermons, Volume 2 I regret that there is such a teaching abroad as this - for instance, that a man does not have to become a member of the church in order to be saved; that there are\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":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_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}]}}