Recipe for a Family Reunion
In one large venue, mix together Greats, Grands, Middle-Agers, Young Adults, Teens, Children, Toddlers, and Infants.
Sprinkle in a good portion of generational gaps (music preferences, fashion fads, dance trends, hairstyling techniques, and varying opinions on what makes for a great party) and mix until just combined.
Scramble a few cultural variations (different accents, ways of using words, meanings for non-verbal cues, food preferences, and perceptions of time) and stir into the above ingredients.
To enhance flavor, combine basic human differences (personalities, dispositions, preferences, ways of processing information, interests, problem-solving styles, methods of initiating and sustaining relationships, and understandings about how life works) and gently fold into the rest of the mixture.
At agreed upon times, layer above mixture with unifying experiences and activities of various kinds.
Smother with heaping dollops of grace, patience, light-hearted humor and top with a family reunion T-shirt.
Store leftover memories in your heart for a lifetime.
Family reunions are awesome! But anyone who has ever coordinated many "differences" into one big happy party knows they can also be a tricky endeavor.
So why attempt them?
There’s just something about blood…
Interestingly, a church is a lot like a family reunion. It isn’t like a typical gathering of friends who meet only because they enjoy each other and have a lot in common. People from all age groups who have different interests, personalities, life experiences, and personal preferences commit to coming together for only one reason. There’s just something about The Blood.
The reason for the existence of the church has always been to enable and nurture the fulfillment of humanity’s desperate need to both connect and identify with Jesus’ life-giving blood. This allows us to exchange our wounded and broken identities for God’s on-going work of healing and redemption in our lives and experientially discover His purposes for our existence. What flows through our veins is our common denominator. And because our encounter with this life source is such a huge, multi-faceted, life-altering, and miraculously unifying phenomenon, it trumps the need for participants to ever have anything else in common in order to experience a successful and unified gathering.
Fortunately, this kind of success is not dependent on human capabilities, reasoning, and methods. Just like a great family reunion coordinator skillfully crafts activities like ice-breakers, trust-building challenges, slide shows, conversation starters, story exchanges, photo ops, heirloom show-and-tells, and family secret recipe feasts to keep everyone’s focus on what they have in common (and off of harmless differences), the Creator and Coordinator of our own unique version of a family reunion we call The Church, has given us a lot of material to work with. The Bible is a huge recording of the many things we have in common (Sacred Blood being the most important) as well as tips and techniques for experiencing them together as God’s Family.
Further, church gatherings are covered by Jesus’ prayers. “I pray that they will all be one, just as you and I are one – as you are in me, Father, and I am in you. And may they be in us so that the world will believe you sent me. I have given them the glory you gave me, so they may be one as we are one. I am in them and you are in me. May they experience such perfect unity that the world will know that you sent me and that you love them as much as you love me.” John 17:21 NLT
God created human beings with a need for unity. Without it, we can feel lonely. But there are different types of loneliness. Spiritual loneliness is one of them. When we gather together at church and innocent but inevitable differences start making us feel lonely (or awkward), it’s very OK to risk a deep dive into the great material our Reunion Coordinator has given us – sharing and celebrating what He is doing in each other’s lives and encouraging one another to keep staying as close as possible to Him so His life-giving blood can keep flowing through us. (Hebrews 10:24-25)
"But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit. Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God's people and also members of his household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace." (Ephesians 2:13; 2:19-20 and 1:7)