Vision: The Purpose for My Life – Part 7
Let me remind you that our blog posts’ focus for this year is on creating a family plan-planning for your family.
One area of life that most people rarely plan for is their church involvement. They just do it and don’t do it. Have you ever considered outlining what your family is willing to do or set the boundaries for what you all will do as it relates to church participation? Let me jump right in and illustrate what our family does and give you an open door into our plan.
Plan for church attendance
We made the decision that church attendance in our household isn’t optional. We will attend services at our local church each Sunday and for us this doesn’t mean from the comforts of our home (online). The only time online service is an option for us is when we’re on vacation that may extend through the weekend.
Don’t misunderstand, church attendance isn’t a legalistic ritual for us, but rather our way of saying we place God first. We refuse to sleep in on God and get up for the companies we work for or the schools we attend. For our family, it’s just not happening.
What plans do you and your family have regarding church attendance? Maybe this is something you wish to outline now that your thoughts are on it.
Plan for messages from our pastors
Because our family is blended, by default we have to be open to having multiple pastors. You can read more about that in a previous post. We have several pastors and make it a priority to hear a message from each weekly, usually on Sunday. While most attend one church service, our family on a regular basis gets in 2-3 on a given Sunday. Why? We love it! We stopped going to church for church sake, but instead we attend so that we can get our takeaways for the week; things that will help make us the persons we were created to be. We believe those messages have exactly what we need for what we will face in the upcoming week.
Plan to be involved (prayer shield and monthly prayer service)
We believe being a member of a church also means we should be involved at our local church. We should give of our time. We do so as a part of the prayer team. We are a part of the prayer shield dedicated to praying for the Leadership team and the people who support them. That means everyday, we pray for that team, often calling them by name. We participate in 21 days of prayer including fasting. We’ve also committed ourselves to attending Saturday morning prayer service on the 1st Saturday of each month. Lastly, we receive regular prayer requests multiple times a week of people who request prayer. This is the least we can do to give back to what God has given us through our local church. What are you and your family doing in your local church? What’s the plan? It’s your plan that makes all the difference.
Plan for small groups
Our local church is a church of small groups. It’s at the core of what we do. However, our family had to alter how we’d participate since we have so many other activities in our life. We have what I like to call “closed” small groups. These are groups we’ve hand selected to help us and the participants do life together. We sort-of merged 2 church ideas together to create what works best for our family. At the end of the day, we have a plan for meeting in small groups. What’s your plan? Who are you meeting with and doing life with? Life is better in groups.
Plan to be generous
I saved giving to last. Giving, which I will address further in the fiscal and financial section of The Family Plan, is an important piece of what we do. We no longer have a plan for just giving a tithe (10%) of our earnings, but we plan to increase our giving percentage each year. What’s your strategy to be generous? What plans do you need to put in place to make certain you’re a “cheerful” giver?
You know what today is…
Today is Friday!
I hope these examples help you define the plans you need for your family. Usually when we provide real-life examples, our readers have many questions. We’d love to answer your questions. What will planning in the area of church involvement make happen in the lives of your family? Ask a question or leave us a comment. Click here.
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