My Inescapable Metaphor

Jon Strifler
Jul 20, 2017 · 3 min read

Metaphors and stories have a powerful impact on us. The closer they are to our daily experience, the greater their potential to change us. A good story changes us — reveals to us the parts of our soul and story we previously avoided or were unaware of.

As we think about the way in which we go about shaping and forming ourselves as the people of God, we need a framework, a way of thinking about the way coexist and connect with one another along this journey. We cannot do life alone. Though we may continue to couch our spirituality in terms and language of individual growth and achievement, we can not escape the scriptural call to community. This call is not just a call to show up and attend a gathering of like-minded people for an hour a week, this call is to involve ourselves in the care and encouragement of fellow travelers along the spiritual journey.

Jesus’ parable of the Good Samaritan (see Luke 10:25–37) changes our framework. For the Christian, no longer is the question “Who is my neighbor?” an appropriate filter for our interaction with the people we encounter. Our filter becomes “Will I be a neighbor to others?” in particular, will I be the kind of neighbor who extends compassion toward another as if they were part of my own family.

And so we come to the primary metaphor that I cannot seem to escape. Family. To be honest, there are dozens and dozens of other frameworks and metaphors for our common life that are much simpler and easier and much, much cleaner. To speak of Church as Family is a messy endeavor. For many of us it evokes some of the deepest pain we have experienced in life. Our world is littered with stories of brokenness and pain within the context of family and then to connect that story with God’s story and to tell people, “God is like this, Church is like family,” often elicits the same pain response.

But at the same time, for many of us family is the best place to find the love and support we need to grow, to change. And so our endeavor to connect Church and Family is an endeavor to reclaim the narrative surrounding “family.” It’s an endeavor to return to a healthy understanding of the God-given and God-desired place of family in our lives. The family is meant to be a place of healing, of welcoming, a place to come home. Family is place where we can confront the darkness and uncertainty both within ourselves and our present world with the hope and light, and transformation found in Jesus.

Many, many years ago, God initiated his patient work of redemption through a family. And in the centuries and ages that have followed, his methods have not changed. His family, the Church, still remains the primary means by which his redemption story moves forward.

And so our mission and focus as Christians in our communities becomes this:

To help as many people as possible experience the power of being a part of God’s Family.

Our job is no longer to decide who’s in and who’s not, but rather to *move people in. After all, it was Jesus himself who said, “There are many rooms in my Fathers house, and I’m going to prepare a place for you.” (John 14)

Let’s put down our sticks and stop chasing people away.

The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs — heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory. -Romans 8:16–18 NLT

Grab a box, join the celebration. We’re moving People in!

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Jon Strifler

Written by

Pastor & Writer & Husband & Storyteller \\ Small groups & healthy community @ #ThriveChurchMI \\ Can be found among trails & hipsters drinking coffee \\ Selah

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