Mustard and Ketchup?

There is an interesting group that has caught my eye, and my heart at present. This capture came about in a God designed whim when we attended a session at Catalyst 2009 that we were not planning on attending. The speaker at that session described the simplest of things which struck home with the magnitude of a lightning bolt.

He described how God had ordained two institutions in the scriptures - the church, and the family. Throughout the bible the Lord has a special place for these two groups. He repeatedly refers to them, declares His love for them and states His intention to rescue each of them. God loves families and God loves the church.

The simple question is, does the family love the church and the church love the family?

This seems like a simple question from the outset, however if we really consider what we do with these two institutions then we might be a little concerned over what we find. In church we are very pro-family. In fact, we are so pro-family that we have employed staff who's job it is to reach out to our children or our youth or our adults all with the purpose of connecting them to church. However, there is one missing link. We do a great job trying to reach and connect these three groups SEPARATELY, however we are not that intentional about reaching the whole family at the same time.

Is it even possible to do that? Is it possible to somehow do church together in such a way that we effectively reach the entire family at the same time - together? There are some great folks at a group called Orange - if the family were a color it would be red and the church would be yellow, mix those two and you get Orange - who believe that it is not only possible to blend the church and the family, it is essential. If we were somehow able to intentionally reach the whole family through church then we would have somehow been able to blend these two God ordained institutions. Wouldn't that be a good thing?

I think I will read some more of the Think Orange book and see what the Lord has to say. Why dont you check out the folks at Orange and see what God says to you. Post your comments and let me know if you get any insights.