East Orrington Congregational Church October / November 2025

Pen of Power

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The Importance of Family: Church

You know, family can be… interesting. Family is where we first learn how to share (or not), where we realize that “Dad’s chair” is actually holy ground, and where we find out that Aunt Martha will always bring that casserole no one else eats but everyone pretends to love. Families can be messy, loud, opinionated, and yes, sometimes they push every last button we have. But family is also where we can learn unconditional love, forgiveness, belonging, and loyalty.

The early church understood this. When they defined “church,” they didn’t think of  it as a building with pews, hymnals, and coffee hour (though, let’s be honest, the coffee hour is pretty close to sacred). For them, church meant the gathered family of believers—people breaking bread together, praying, bearing one  another’s burdens, and growing in Christ side by side. Acts 2:42 paints the picture: “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.” In other words, they weren’t just attending church, they were being church—family bound together by the Spirit.

And that spirit of family carried into early Congregationalism. Our forebears didn’t gather because they had to; they gathered because they believed God designed the church to be a covenant family—brothers and sisters promising to walk with each other, even when the path is rocky. They saw worship not as a performance to watch but as a family meal to share. They built their identity around the gathered body, where every voice mattered, every member was valued, and everyone had a place at the table.

So why is family so important in this beautiful church we serve? Because here, you don’t have to pretend. Here, you don’t have to be perfect. Here, we get to practice being the family of God—encouraging one another,  carrying one another, sometimes irritating one another (that’s family too), but always bound together by Christ’s love.

The truth is, none of us makes it on our own. Even the strongest among us needs someone to lean on, pray with, laugh with, cry with. The church is not optional family—it’s eternal family. And when the world outside is divided, lonely, and hurting, the church family becomes a living testimony that there is a place where loves runs deeper, grace is stronger, and hope is shared around the table like warm bread.

To today, let’s rejoice in this family God has given us. It’s not perfect, but neither are we. And that’s the beauty of it. We are the gathered body of Christ—past, present, and future—learning, loving, sometimes laughing at ourselves, but always pressing forward together. 

After All, God didn’t call us to be an audience. He called us to be a family. And in this church, we are just that.