I was very blessed during my visit to the North to see how the covenant community functioned as a family community. Marriage and family were at the focus in a very good way. The saving power of God is seen in the work he does in the families and with relatives and friends – the oikos – all over the work. Therefore I include some meditations on this subject!

The covenant community is a family community

The marriage covenant confirms a relationship to last for the entire life (Romans 7:2).

The family is a covenant relationship of greatest importance to any healthy community.

The family is the basic building block of the covenant community at large. If the families don’t function, the covenant community can’t function properly (1 Tim.3:4-5).

Fragmentation is the order of the secular society. Dysfunctional families seem to explode in numbers.

The family patterns are radically changing in society and changing society likewise.

The new covenant is constantly portrait in family terms:

There will be heard once more the sounds of joy and laughter. The joyful voices of bridegrooms and brides will be heard again, along with the joyous songs of people bringing thanksgiving offerings to the Lord. They will sing,

‘Give thanks to the Lord Almighty, for the Lord is good. His faithful love endures forever!’    Jeremiah 33:10-11

And now the Lord says: I am returning to

Mount

Zion

, and I will live in

Jerusalem

. Then

Jerusalem

will be called the

Faithful

City

; the mountain of the Lord Almighty will be called the

Holy

Mountain

. This is what the Lord Almighty says: Once again old men and women will walk

Jerusalem

’s streets with a cane and sit together in the city squares. And the streets of the city will be filled with boys and girls at play. Zechariah 8:3-5

No generational gap – Age-ism is banned

No gender gap – Sex-ism is banned

No leadership gap – Elite-ism is banned

No social gap – Cast-ism is banned

No ethnic gap – Racism is banned

(See Galatians 3:26; Colossians 3:11)

“But this is the new covenant I will make with the people of

Israel

on that day,” says the Lord. “I will put my laws in their minds, and I will write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.

And they will not need to teach their neighbors, nor will they need to teach their family, saying, ‘You should know the Lord.’ For everyone, from the least to the greatest, will already know me,” says the Lord.

“And I will forgive their wickedness and will never again remember their sins.” Jeremiah 31:33-34

Only family-friendly-churches have a future, for they only represent covenant community of God.

Family-friendly-churches with a

Kingdom

of

God

focus will constantly reproduce!