I have traumatic childhood memories of Saturday-morning cleaning. It didn’t happen every week, but when Mom started playing Conway Twitty and Loretta Lynn records (far more traumatic than the actual tasks of cleaning house), we knew it was time to work together.
The church is a family, and family works together. It’s obvious that we need to work together to make sure that all the “church work” gets done: classes need teachers; food needs to be gathered, sorted, boxed, and distributed; etc. But that isn’t the extent of our responsibility to each other as the family of Christ.
The early church went beyond what we consider church work and took care of each other. They shared their possessions with each other and even sold their property, giving the money to the apostles to take care of others. Acts 4:34 tells us that not one person among them had any needs.
Paul tells us in Galatians 6:10, “As we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.” This family of believers has done amazing things to help take care of people outside of our family—as well we should—but Paul indicates that we ought to take special care when it comes to our brothers and sisters in Christ.
Our ministry programs have many needs where people can help, but our family also has needs. We have families with newborns and we have senior adults who might needs some extra help around the house. We have folks who are unable to shovel their walks. We have folks who need assistance getting to appointments. The thing is, I don’t plan to develop and maintain a list of such needs. Rather, I encourage everyone to get to know the members of our family so that we can identify and meet those needs on our own. As we continue to connect, grow, and serve together, let us not forget to take care of each other as well.