When God created the family He wanted an expression of Himself; He wanted His image to be reproduced in unity and harmony. God Himself is community, Father Son and Holy Spirit, relationally communing and flowing together. When God created Adam and Eve, He wanted a reflection of Himself. (Gen 2) Had they not sinned, Adam and Eve's family would have been the community with which God would have lived and felt at home.
As I see it, this was His foundational community, His creative DNA! That value on family is unchanging in the Word of God; it is a "qualification" for leadership in Timothy. (1 Tim 3: 4-5) Churches say they believe in family, they even call themselves family, yet have no place where family together is discipled to "Love God, love one another, and love those who are lost to Jesus." Family itself is an intergenerational word that we so often use in a peer setting! This desire for family to be experienced multi-generationally can be heard when married couples say that they want children.
When God set His people Israel in order, he placed each individual within a family, each family within a tribe, and each tribe within the nation. No generation was excluded, no child left out, no older person put aside. They did not create children's tribes … the child was with his parents! Within each tribe were the components of family: they were community. God's community!
In Psalm 68:6 we read that "He sets the lonely in families." Sometimes we have read that as meaning the whole church congregation is one family. This can scarcely ever be true, because a family should be small enough for you to feel special and loved. The small group/cell can provide that environment; it embraces 'the solitary'. Solitariness is isolation and isolation robs the individual of friendship and others of relationship with them. God is a relational God, we are His body, and we are relational people. He made us to be that way. There are too many lonely people in the body of Christ and they need community / family!
God is bringing that same order back to His people. As churches throughout the world move into small groups, His community is being restored as He originally ordained … Each family within a cell, each cell within a congregation. How exciting to be part of a move of God, where God Himself can feel at home!
Where families have been separated, a group provides a re-creation of family where everyone has their own unique place, yet all learn to live with Godly values together. Today many are isolated from their own family, and many have no family at all. If people are privileged to be in a situation where this is not so, then they have something precious to share with those who are not so fortunate. Whatever our situation, we need each other to give to and receive from.
Family life continues within the intergenerational group; everyone is involved, and the unity of the family is preserved. The interaction between members becomes a lifestyle which involves everyone, and the family can continue the interaction at home with shared vision, shared experiences, and shared community. Parents are able to see and encourage their children as they develop their gifts in the cell and in the home. Instead of fragmentation, there is an inclusive flow between cell and home.
Why are the elderly so often not included with the young? Why are children denied their heritage? (Psalm 145: 4) Some of the most mutually precious experiences are those of the interaction between the young and old. Here the stories of the wonders of God are being passed from generation to generation, wisdom and experience living with energy and innocence. No wonder the devil has kept our eyes veiled from seeing what he has stolen from society and how he has infiltrated wrong values into so many churches. We have generations in conflict and yet we avoid the resolution of that conflict. Intergenerational community is where conflict can be safely addressed, the curse broken, and the blessing even to "a thousand generations" released.
As we allow Him to recreate basic community, and as we receive by faith the gift of community among us, we can again live in the environment in which we were created to live.
This presents a challenge for change to every person, every generation and every family. When God gives us a vision, it is by the Spirit of God that we are taken step by step into it. Moving into an intergenerational community is moving against the kingdom of darkness. The Bible is a generational book, its culture is flowing from generation to generation. The enemy has taken ground by robbing us of this flow, almost without the church as a whole being aware of it. He will quietly hold on to this ground unless we, by the power of the Spirit of the living God, move against him. This is spiritual warfare!
We must wake up, take back the blessing of the generations together, no matter what the cost! No war is fought, no territory regained without it. Leaving the familiar, good or bad, is often hard, particularly when it requires changes in lifestyle and new paradigms—but Jesus is coming for His bride—an intergenerational bride, for a prepared people (families, young and old). He created us perfectly and we can do no better than return to His original community.
