Monday morning staff meetings at SROM are quickly turning into some of my favorite times! We come together as a staff to pray for our students, our alumni, our staff and directors, and anything that the Lord has been laying on our hearts throughout the week. We take the time to really dive into the devotions that we lead students in throughout our courses, and we discuss the different needs we see in the generations we're serving.
This week we talked about the general shift from the Church as an institution to the Church as a Family. We drew on the concept of tribes in the Old Testament (Abraham, Israel, 12 tribes) and translated it to our lives today as covenantal church families. Though we are not necessarily related to one another by DNA, we are related to one another by the blood of Christ. We are all part of His Body; we belong to His Body. For me, it hit home the point that I am not my own. Because I have committed to Christ and have embraced His commitment to me, I am now part of a spiritual family that is significantly affected by my life. I don't have the luxury of keeping the consequences of my actions to myself; my actions, choices, decisions, etc. affect my ability to contribute to the growth of my spiritual family, whether positively or negatively! The effects of sin are communal, but the effects of blessing are generational (Deuteronomy 5:9-10).
In our individualistic society, this is a tough concept to wrestle with. I would like nothing more than to believe that my sin and messiness can stay locked up inside me with no one ever needing to know! But the grace of relationship is that my sin and messiness comes to the Light and is redeemed. The only way that redemption happens is in community, as I share my story with those around me and hear their stories in return. We belong to the Body of Christ, and it is through our being with others in this Body that we are challenged, changed, and sanctified.
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