This past Sunday the preacher said that while the family is the basic unit of society, the individual is the basic unit of the church. My immediate response (thankfully silent) was NO! As I pondered this, I speculated that the basic unit of the church is the congregation, but now that I've had more time, I don't think that is right either. I think the basic unit is somewhere in between. We share in a common life, evident in the common bread. Community is too common a feature of the assembly of the people of God (as seen in the many metaphors in the gospels) for the individual to be the basic unit.
Yikes, ouch. The family was created by God, how can it not be central to the church, a good family with it's close ties, intimacy and love is what the church should be. Thus the anology of the church as a family - crazy preachers.
ReplyDeleteFunny thing is, he is otherwise very biblical and insightful. I think this particular belief is a "modernist" infection...
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