Christmas is that time of year where family gets together and celebrities the holidays. For Christians, it is a time to come together and reflect on how Jesus coming into the world blesses us. Unfortunately, many of us are away from our families or don’t have much family to speak of. And some of us have contentious relationships with our families. At the heart of the Christmas story is a message of unity surrounding family. Jesus was adopted by Joseph and many in Jesus lineage have odd histories that complicate his family tree. Despite or brokenness, hard pasts, or tension-filled relationships, God still welcomes us into his family, bringing healing to those that need it and community to those that lack it. God is our eternal father, and his tender heart is on full display during Christmas.

Generosity isn’t simply a way to transfer wealth or possessions to others who have less than you. It turns out there is something inside you that instinctively wants to serve those who are in need. We are all people made in God’s image, and as a result, we want to do as our creator has done. Since our God is fundamentally a giver, we have a deep desire to give as well. God has given us his son Jesus to be the substitute for our sin. When we take Jesus as our Lord, we inherit a generous spirit, one that should desire to bless others. We may sometimes find ourselves not wanting to give our resources. Behind that mindset is a missed opportunity to live in sync with god’s created order for the world, which is rooted in radically, condition-less generosity.

Being the church requires doing what the church is created for. Nothing is more urgent than the mission Jesus gives the church to make disciples. We have been adopted in God’s wonderful family, and we should seek to extend that love to others so they too can join the family of the Father. Living out God’s mission slowly brings the Eternal Kingdom into fruition while granting us immeasurable purpose in the process.

Prayer is the life force of our spiritual lives that grows the church, individually and communally. When we pray we unleash the Holy Spirit to guide us through our daily lives and to move God’s will into existence. When we pray we get in touch with God’s overarching plans, and this brings us joy, peace, and contentment in our everyday lives. God is also capable of moving in powerful ways if we pray. But without prayer, we experience powerless lives, out of touch with our father and his love.

Community isn’t simply a fun addition to a great church that helps you find friends. Community is how the church solves our created instinct for love, affection, correction, and confidence in Jesus. When we miss out on the community a church provides we fill those needs in other ways or neglect them altogether. We need community, not because something is wrong with us, but because something is right with us. This also means that our neighbors and friends who don’t know Jesus need community as well, and the church can help them meet that deep, core need.

The church is a collection of people united for the common purpose of knowing Jesus ourselves and making Jesus known to the rest of the world. If that is our definition of Church then our church experience should be far different than what is common in the western world.

In years past it has been easy to take gathering together as the church for granted. In a Post-Covid world, many of us returned to gathering albeit in a modified way. However, for some, the importance of the gathering is lost on us as we have grown accustomed to Sundays alone, and for others, we’ve just gotten busy with life. The issue is Jesus called us to be church and to be church we have to be together. When we don’t gather we miss out on engaging God in the way he created to engage him: Together. We also miss the profound opportunity of experiencing the Holy Spirit move amongst us to convict us of sin, comfort us in hardship and confront the lost in love.

Jesus is the foundation on which we build our church. He is the highest authority in the church and he informs everything the church says and does. He himself claims that he is the WAY and the TRUTH. We are often very good at learning the truths of Jesus but are keen to forget the way of Jesus. We can’t fully know the truths of Jesus without knowing the way of life he calls us to. It is this important fact that helps us understand just what the church is created to be.