‘BEEP’ — > $2.88
The price check confirmed, I was headed to the scan-and-go lane with seven toy soccer balls, one for each of the grandchildren my wife and I had with us for some afternoon fitness, fun, food and fellowship. Tax included, $25 later we were on the way to a local park.
So, I have two points to make with this article. Both of them in my opinion are quite obvious but based on the state of our culture and families they need to be stated and presented together with some perspective.
- Every family needs to give greater value to their family.
I don’t mean that in a selfish way. In fact to the contrary families that invest well in being others-minded get more of what God has for them. What I do mean to say is that the shift toward a physically and spiritually strong and healthy family begins with the parent and grandparent daily maintaining a humble and thankful mindset, “This family is the most precious gift God has given me to steward — today — now!”
Culture is so whacked that we believe what we’re told that our employees, co-workers, social media followers, circles of influence, potential customers/investors … you name it, anybody and everybody else is where you should focus your attention, effort, time and money. We’ve all got to get it right. YOU are the primary care provider (in every way) for your family. You are the CEO, the vision caster, the investor, the cheerleader, the pray-er, the example, the present one.
Who they become is significantly based upon how earnestly you pursue the role God has given you and the value you place on your family. That’s serious. So, before you read any further, don’t just wrap your brain around the concept, decide to live dangerously and do it.
- Every family needs to have other families.
So, if you thought giving greater value to your family is a tall order, this is even more challenging. I say that because the social constructs have and continue to take us further away from what works – what God has created.
I’ve been to amusement parks, sporting events, theaters, restaurants and I’ve taken plenty of vacations. I’m not preaching against those things at all. However they are all typically on the $$$$$ scale as compared to the $$$ or less scale. I’ve talked to a dad that spent $10,000 on a family cruise. I’ve watched a mom swipe her card at the cinema for $150+ family night at the movies. All the while church has been relegated to and defined as a one brief morning per week religious practice for those who have some unimaginable willpower to drag their butts out of bed and do it. — “Just let the kids watch Netflix or YouTube while eating some nuggets. I’ve got some urgent things to do before tomorrow morning.”
We need churches, church leaders, Christian entrepreneurs, Christian families and individuals to pursue God to create a real viable alternative that we can all do together regularly — CHURCH!
AND – we need to invest in it. I dropped $25 for some soccer ball fun with my grandchildren. I spent that much more with them at Chick-fil-A. This isn’t rocket science. When churches EVERYDAY of the week have families spending/giving that same $50, we’ll start to see a powerful shift toward families having other families. We can see church once again and in even greater ways be central to the life of a city.
BRINGING THESE TWO POINTS TOGETHER FOR GREATER PERSPECTIVE
To the extent parents need to be more accountable for their families, church leaders need to be more accountable to their communities drawing upon God for wisdom on how to meet the most obvious need — families coming together regularly. Instead of creating some pontificated financially-viable, socially-acceptable, organizationally-impressive but essentially useless place that only a few celebrate, they need to create in-demand gathering places that people just can’t keep from going to again and again.
I mentioned Chick-fil-A above because if you’ve been there you know they’ve done a good job of doing exactly that. The place is a zoo most of the time. They’ve elevated their business to the point that they are working to refine the craft of managing parking lot traffic.
Let’s quit playing church “safe”. It doesn’t work! Instead we need to have the faith to look at this restaurant’s obvious business success along with our story on Mark Cryderman’s Dinner Church initiative in Detroit and add to that solid faith-centered fitness programming. Go further by adding Messy Church thinking and initiatives and then round it all out with innovation that is responsive to local needs and opportunities. This is church.
Every church leader or Christian entrepreneur who has a family should be salivating to pursue God and figure out how they can create high traffic, impactful and reproducible church venues that deliver fitness, fun, food and fellowship. Every family that identifies as Christian needs to go there often and intentionally invite and invest in other families.
