STAYING RIGHTEOUS AS A PERSON & AS A CHURCH

We are already fifteen years into the 21st century and shifting sociological values in Canada, and in British Columbia have redefined life to an extent that individual Christians and the Church must consider these changes when answering for themselves how they fit. What kind of responsible life decisions should the individual believer make in order to responsibly react to society? How should the church in a community meet people who are affected by cultural modifications to morality, sexuality, ethnicity, family and economy?

Right now, half of all children are spending a portion of their lives in a single-parent home. One out of three married couples with children, have a stepchild or an adopted child. Most children grow up with mothers at work outside the home. The most rapidly growing segment of homemakers is unmarried men who live alone or head families. Older people as well as young singles are seeking alternatives to traditional marriage. What were regarded once as 'non-families' have received legal recognition as families and these include unmarried heterosexual couples, gay and lesbian couples as well as friends who intentionally live together. Pressure is constant to redefine 'family' as a group of people who live and care for each other.

So here is my compendium of questions for the day. As an individual Christian and as a church, do you still champion the nuclear family as an ideal? If you are no longer attending an organized local church, how are you maintaining a lock on God's values for family, morality, society, and gospel? If you have been contemplating separating yourself from a local church, what blueprint do you have for preserving righteousness personally and in your family? If you lead a church or are a member of a local congregation, what roles do you want the church to have within the community? Do you provide family services that take into consideration the children and adults who are dealing with divorce, single parenting, remarriage and blended families? Do you feel that to be relevant, you must capitulate to societal values and abandon traditionally held moral values?